Tuesday, July 15th - a crawl, Possible Nest(PN) 03

 We started out to the island and were met by a beautiful view over the marsh, looking toward North Carolina.  Lots of clouds over the ocean today, some dropped rain out there, but did not reach the beach thank goodness.

 We have six nests so far this year, and the nesting season is on its downward slope.  We do take measures in protecting our nests from our number one predator, Ghost Crabs, those little pesky critters.  We use Ghost Crab traps.  Here's an example of one that we have set up by our Nest #06R.  It is a pvc pipe with one end capped.  We bury it in the sand close to the nest that is being harassed by those pesky critters.  They think they found a new home, go in and are unable to crawl out.  We take them elsewhere on the beach and release them - away from our nest.

 Got a call that we had a crawl on the upper end of the island, so excited for the Tuesday Volunteers since they have not had a nest o work this year.  A great crawl in, she is 32 inches wide.  Her incoming track was made at high time, and she left sometime later as the tide was receding.  It looks like she had plenty of time to do her thing.  However, she made a mess of the  area we think she nested.  The normal things we look for were present - torn up vegetation, thrown sand, and a pile of sand with a crescent shape.

The difficulty for us probing is there is a lot of new blown sand on the dunes, and the probe goes down and gives you a false sense of finding the nest chamber.  If the sand was not soft, it was as hard as cement. 

 We probed and dug several places - but did not find the nest chamber.  The time had flown by so I made the decision to call this a "Possible Nest" - PN for short.  Volunteers will check again tomorrow and see if we have evidence of a nest, or did she just not like the area and left without nesting - only she knows the answer to that question.

 Her incoming track - she exited the water sometime at high tide, crawled up to the face of the dune

 

 

Her body pit - she made a mess of the sand

 

Crawled along the wall of the dune, climbed a little and left

Outgoing crawl she left as the water was receding

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to the Tuesday Volunteers - not only were the working on this nesting issue, they picked up three huge bags of trash that washed in this morning - job well done.

 

 

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