Friday, June 27 - Nest 05R

 Great news for our Friday volunteers who discovered their first crawl and nest of the season. The crawl was discovered soon after arriving on the beach near an area where a similar false crawl had been located earlier in the week. The crawl was identical in width - 33” - with a similar barnacle impression within the crawl. At first blush, we thought it might be the remains of that previous crawl, but upon further inspection, we determined it was, indeed, a new crawl from over night.

The short incoming crawl was barely visible then disappeared completely in the soft blown sand. The outgoing crawl was also obliterated at a not very promising looking body pit, but then became very clear and long going into the ocean. Based on these tracks and the movement of the tides last night, it would appear our mamma was on the beach for a very long time, and we may have just missed her returning to the ocean. Perhaps a new mamma?               

Faint incoming crawl entering the beach at high tide

              

          Long out going crawl at low tide

The disturbed area/possible body was about midway up the beach toward the dune just at or below the high spring tide line. Despite the rather disorganized look of the body pit, a nest was located rather quickly at about 20” deep. Because of it’s vulnerable location, the nest was relocated to a position high up toward the dune. 

              Win

Wind blown body pit. Could there be a nest in there?

                                       YES!

                      Excavating the eggs

          

                         Ready to go!

    

                             DNA sample collected

Our over-the-moon new volunteers (and just as excited seasoned veterans) helped move 120 eggs to their new home. One egg was used for DNA research. No one minded the hot and humid conditions on the beach this morning! A great morning indeed!

Happy Campers!! Great job by all!!

Text by Kim T. Pics by Kim P.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR MARINE Turtle Conservation Program under Permit MTP 500.

June 26th - Thursday walk, PN02

 We had a lovely morning to walk the island; light breeze, low humidity, and lower temps.

After last night's rain, we had downed limbs and huge puddles to navigate and the beach was pretty much erased of all overnight activity. One of our walkers noticed several areas of rain pounded depressions. Upon inspection we decided it was indeed a crawl.

After much probing we determined that this is a possible nest ... PN02.

We also came upon a deceased alligator, measured 44" long. it was positioned with nose to a ghost crab hole. Must have been a Godzilla of a ghost crab!

Text and pictures by Melissa

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Wednesday, June 26th - False Crawl #03 - Gator in the Surf

 It was a hot, hot morning on the beach this morning but we did have a little excitement.

Walking the short end, Sandy and I came across a False Crawl right at Hog Inlet point.  Lady Loggerhead crawled in and did a quick turn and returned to the inlet.  Her crawl was shaped like a Breast Cancer ribbon, quick in and out, she did not even attempt to nest.  She is dragging something on her plastron, probably a barnacle.

Along with this sea turtle excitement, we rescued a Royal Walnut Moth from the surf.  Beautiful big moth.  It was flopping in the surf, the tide was coming in so I scooped it up and we placed it on a washed up branch on the beach.

Per Google Lens, a Walnut Royal Moth

Or known as a Royal Moth

 

 

 

The volunteers who walked the upper or the long end of the island, discovered a deceased small juvenile alligator in the surf - poor thing.  He was about 2 to 3 feet.  We have had gators on the beach before, but this is the first that I have seen in the surf.  We wonder where he came from and what happened to him?

The beauty of Waties Island  . . . .

Sunrise

Seaoats

Text and pics by Leslie and Kathy

 

 Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Monday June 23rd - Stranded/Deceased adult Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle

 Along with a False Crawl this morning on Waties Island, Kim and myself were called out to the island to handle a deceased sea turtle.  The carcass was located between Markers 1 and 2 - very close to Marker 2, and the beach access road.  It was tricky to id the species of sea turtle since the carcass was missing all of its "outside the shell" body parts, no head, no flippers.  Checking our sea turtle diagram and matching up the scutes, it was determined to be a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle.  Poor thing, hoping it was not a nesting mother.  The carcass was of a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle who was missing its head, and all four flippers.  There was no evidence of a boat strike on its shell - both the carapace(top shell) nor its plastron(shell covering the belly).  

We gathered the necessary measurements and information required by SCDNR. 

Many thanks to the Monday Volunteers for their assistance in this unsavory 

If you are uncomfortable about looking at pictures of deceased animals, Stop - The pictures may be distressing to you.


Text and pictures by Leslie

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

 

Monday 6/23 False Crawl #02

Lovely warm walk on the beach today. As we were walking up the beach, Sherry called and said that there was a dead turtle stranded on the short end. Contacted Leslie to respond to the stranding. 

As we were heading past mid island, we observed a crawl. 

Beautiful textbook crawl right up the beach to the dunes and a body pit perfectly placed in the dune.

Since Sharon was out, Leslie was contacted regarding the crawl. When she arrived, the area was evaluated to determine if we had a nest. 

Some thought it was nest, and some thought a false crawl. After some closer examination, they noticed a divet in the center of the body pit. No evidence of any nest dug or sand thrown.

So it was called FC #02 because it looks like she started to dig and changed her mind. Also noticeable were many crab tracks around this body pit. She may have gotten fed up with the crabs and just left. Have our fingers crossed that she will return to our beach tomorrow. 

Waties Island performs research management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP 500

Text by Sharon pictures by Leslie and Jewel.

Monday, June 16th - Diamondback Terrapin found on the beach

 As anxious as we are to find a crawl on the beach, it is also exciting when we encounter new things.

We were having a lovely walk up the beach when Jean found a diamond back terrapin turtle between M 4 & 5. The ladies named it Terry (names covers either sex).  It was quite feisty and wanted to get out of that bucket

Not knowing what to do with him they called Leslie to see if he could go in the ocean.  The answer to that  is really no.  A DBT can tolerate the ocean but they cannot live or survive long in the ocean.  They also are not pond turtles.  DBT  are true brackish aquatic turtles.   Brackish water is a mix of fresh and saltwater, with salinity levels between the two.  So they live around marsh areas and crawl close to sand dunes to nest.  So as they were leaving Terry the Terrapin was released by Donna on the Hog Inlet side of Cherry Grove between the 2 gates, but pretty close to the causeway as directed by Leslie.  

Must have tired himself out, he was in no hurry to get out when he could!

Our first nest of this season was a DBT, which we are allowed to monitor and do an inventory on because they are considered a “Vulnerable” species.

Update on the other nests were as follows.

 Nest 2R - 2 crab holes at the back of the cage which they filled in.

Nest 03 huge crab hole at the reed and one smaller at the back of the cage.  Looked around but found no egg shells anywhere around the cage,  so filled in the holes.  

All other nests ok.

So even though there was  no sea turtle crawls today, it was quite exciting to have a great educational morning!  It is always good to be learning new things.

Text by Sharon , pictures by Jewel

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Thursday June 12th - Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol - Nest #04

 Oh what a beautiful morning ... oh, what a glorious day! Everything's coming up ... well, turtles!!  

We have Nest #04!

This Momma came up the beach and headed straight to the dunes. She thought about nesting but changed her mind and went a little further up towards the top of dune. Perfect!

Her crawl was 34" wide. she laid a shallow nest; only 5-6' deep. Nest was easily found on ocean side of crescent body pit. She left the beach not as quickly as she came, twisting and turning along her way to the surf.

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.

Text and pictures by Melissa F 
 

Thursday, June 5th our nest dry spell ended today, Nest #03

 The Thursday volunteers braved the rainy weather this morning, and were quite lucky to discover a nest, and a "PN" Possible Nest.  Our "dry spell" has broken.  Hoping for more sea turtle action in June.  The nest was laid toward the upper end of the island.  She came in crawled to the top of a dune, slid down a little, made a quick right turn and created her body pit.  Her track width was 36 inches wide and she is dragging a possible barnacle on her plastron.  It possibly could be our big mom-ma sea turtle who laid nest 01 - time will tell.

 

Incoming crawl

 

 

 Look in the background of the picture, you can see where she crawled up the face of the dune.

 

 

 

Outgoing crawl

 

Body Pit

   

Body Pit

Thursday Volunteers - Nest #03

We headed south on the beach where we earlier had spotted a crawl.  This crawl was a little more difficult to determine both the size of the turtle, due to the storms and rain last night and early this morning.  The tracks disappeared half way up the beach and reappeared close to the dunes.

 

You can see the crawl tracks coming in from the ocean, but than they disappear

 

Incoming track

Outgoing track

 

We were able to see her tracks again, close to the dunes.  It did look like she nested, but the body pit was not as defined as we normally see.  There was a crescent shape of sand, but not really thrown sand - or due to the rain it was not clearly apparent.

Body Pit

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did probe the area.  Where the high sand was located we continued to run into sea grass roots.  We marked the area as PN01 - Possible Nest 01.  This will allow our volunteers to continue to watch over this area.  Due to the way the sand was disturbed from the storm and rain, it was difficult to get a good measurement of her crawl - it was between 34 to 36 inches.  Her tracks also looked like she may of been dragging something on her plastron.  Could this be the same sea turtle who laid Nest 03?

Along with the excitement of some sea turtle action, the Pelicans were enjoying the breezy conditions and soaring around, and were nesting at the Hog Inlet end of the island.

Text and pictures Leslie P

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.