Saturday, May 24

 No turtle nests today but some beautiful (and one creepy) photos, courtesy of our Saturday photographer extraordinare, Cherie. Also some mystery tracks - raccoon? canine? Whatever it was, it had some sharp nails!

 Thanks for sharing Cherie!

Always smiling on Saturday patrols

Raccoon?

Not raccoon?

A centipede, Hemiscolopendra marginata

Barb D.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marine Turtle Permit MT500.

Thursday, May 22nd - Nest #02R

Another day and another nest! This momma came straight up the beach and left the exact way...classic crawl.

 What an exciting morning.

The nest was laid near the jetty where there is little beach so we relocated this nest as you can see in picture above.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Text and Pictures by Melissa F

Wednesday, May 21st - Waties Island has it's first nest!

 So happy to report that the big mom-ma Loggerhead Sea Turtle who visited Waties Island yesterday returned last night, or early this morning and laid a nest!  She came in right about mid-island.  She left us a classic crawl, big body pit and her crawl width is 36 inches wide.  She hid her egg chamber well, with persistence we did find the egg chamber.  The egg chamber was about eight inches deep. An egg was sacrificed for the DNA study.

Incoming track 

           You can see that she is dragging something

    probably a barnacle that is located on her plastron.

She did not mess around, did not wander around, she got  to the task that need done.

She selected a good place for her nest.  Big body pit, lots of thrown sand.

 Nest - looking toward the ocean

 

 

 

 

We had very experienced Volunteers today - we have Nest #01 under our belts now!

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures and text by Leslie P

Tuesday, May 20th - We had some action today - False Crawl 01

 Yeah! I no longer have to say "maybe tomorrow" any longer.  The Tuesday volunteers and our guest  discovered a crawl just north of Marker 7.  She is a big mom-ma - her track was 35 to 36 inches wide.  She has most likely a barnacle on her plastron, very distinctive crawl pattern.  She crawled in during high tide crawled up on the slope of the dune.  I could not find any soft sand while propping where she may of dug the nest chamber. We speculated she left when she ran into some dune grass that impeded her digging.  You can see her shape in the sand, but no true crescent shape, there was some thrown sand, but not a lot.  After looking at her incoming and outgoing crawls, they were just about even.  We are hoping she is going to come back tomorrow.

Incoming crawl - a very distinguishing drag mark in her crawl.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Outgoing crawl

She crawled up to the slope of the dune

See her outline in the sand - we think the dune grass impeded her nesting

Her tracks - incoming and outgoing

 

 

 Many thanks to Steve and Barb who came out and cut the large black pipe item.  Today due to the low tide they were able to cut and load the item into the back of Steve's truck to be delivered to the recycle center.  It was a really smelly job.

A very happy group of volunteers!

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures and text by Leslie P

 

 

 

Sunday, May 18th No Sea Turtle action yet

 Sorry, to date we have no sea turtle false crawls or nests so far.  Hoping for some action this coming week.  Cross your fingers and toes for us!

Due to the storm earlier this week and the high winds this week the sargassum seaweed is on the beach along with  - Portuguese Man of Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o%27_war 

- smaller By-the-Wind Sailor also known as Blue Sails - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella

- some North Carolina beaches reported sightings of Blue Buttons washing up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita_porpita

Hoping for the best and some sea turtle action in the coming week.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures by Erin D and text by Leslie P

Wednesday, May 7th - A surprise this morning, Diamondback Terrapin nest

 A beautiful morning started our day, one of the best ways to begin a new day.

 

 We had a little excitement on the beach today.  On the Hog Inlet end, walking back, we discovered some interesting tracks.  These tracks were unknown to us, but very interesting.  They were small, but headed toward the dunes.  Sandy and I tracked the crawl up into the dune and wow - we had a very small body pit.  I made a lifeline phone call and we believed we had a Diamondback Terrapin nest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The body pit was about six inches across and the sand was very soft and I was scared to probe since it was so small.  I hand dug into the body pit, and found soft sand and yes, we had eggs!  The two eggs I discovered were oblong, a whitish-pink color and about 2 inches long.  The eggs were returned to the nest and buried again.

 

 

 Sandy and I returned to my vehicle.  Along with the rest of the Wednesday Volunteers we returned to the nest site.  Everyone got to see the tracks and the nest site.  We did mark the nest site with a SCDNR sign and poles so we can keep tabs on this area.  This little lady crawled a long way from the water along the dunes and back to the water.

 

There is always more to learn whenever you visit Waties Island.   These little ladies also lay multiple nests on the years they nest.  So there is a chance we could discover another nesting attempt.  Volunteers may need to keep a sharp eye in this area of the island.  This nest was reported to SCDNR.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures and text by Leslie P

 

May 1st - start of our WISTMP Nesting Season

 The Thursday Volunteers with our new LOA, Melissa F started the day with a glorious morning.  No turtle activity but lots, and lots of trash, especially balloons.  They did discover some large items.  These items included a long board with siding material and a crab cage.

The amount of trash could be due to the recent King Tide this area experienced over the weekend. Melissa also reported a number of jellies on the beach.

They did observe raccoon tracks at the entrance to the beach. 

Good Luck to our volunteers - Leslie

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures and text by Leslie P. from Melissa's notes