Monday, August 25 inventory of N05R

 It was a lovely morning to be out on the beach after the hot days of July. Leslie took a truckload of volunteers to help with the inventory and met up with the walking members of the Monday team.

Additional volunteers join the Monday team at the nest to complete the inventory. 

Since everyone there had experience with inventories, Leslie didn’t have to explain the process. The nest had been laid on Friday so Kim, the lead that day, gave the specifics of the crawl.  It was found on 06/27 at the lower end in the middle of the beach. The crawl measured 33” and there barnacle drag in the middle of it. Because of the tide, it was decided to move the nest to higher ground. The nest chamber was 20” deep. They found 121 eggs, took one for DNA, and reburied 120.

On day 56 we thought we had a partial emergence. There was beautiful emergence hole but due to the wind, rain, and high tide from hurricane Erin, a limited number of tracks were observed. The Saturday team did not find any additional tracks, but did find one dead hatchling outside the nest. That made the emergence date Friday, 8/22 and  inventory scheduled three days later on 8/25.

After the diggers and sorters  were assigned, we got right to work. It was a very quick and successful inventory -  90 hatched eggs and 25 unhatched egg no hatchlings were found.  The hatch and emergent success was 74.3%.

Jo Ann and Jewel begin the excavation of the nest

Volunteers Claudia and Kathy sorting and counting with Donna and Kim looking on

Summary by Sharon

Pictures by Sharon and Kim

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

Friday, August 22nd Update on our Waties Island nests - Hurricane Erin moving on

 Now, that the worst of Hurricane Erin has passed our shores, I thought it would be informative to all to pass along what has been happening out on the island - our nests came through for the most part safe and sound.

On Wednesday, the wrack line was high but all nests and PN's were high and dry. 

 

The waves pushed the wrack behind the dunes

Wednesday High Tide mark

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest impact on Wednesday was at the Hog Inlet end of the island, more trees have come down,  two big gnarly trees have tumbled to join the others on the sand bank.

Treescape looks different

 

Another large tree down 

The fishing net we pulled out of the sand was still on the beach Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Volunteers reported that Nest 07 and PN02 had slight wash-overs.  Also for the last two days it seemed that the Ghost Crabs have left the beach.  We have not caught any, I wonder if they knew what was coming?

Nest 07 - Wash-over 

Nest 09 - High and Dry

 

 

PN02 -  Wash-over 

 

 

 

 Today, Friday had the most to report.  The higher tides did wash over the causeway road in a few places, passable but some big puddles on the road.  Last night's tide appeared to be very high on the short end and Kim reported that it was well behind the vegetation and dunes on the lower end.  Nest 08 still remains high and dry  Nest 06R had wrack piled up high on the front edge of the cage with water reaching just slightly inside the cage.  Nest 07 did not get over-washed again, however, both PN02 and PN 03 were both over washed.  

 

Nest 08 high and dry

Nest 06R

PN03 

Nest 06R - tide was close

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Nest 05R the tide came in within 8 to 10 inches.  There was signs of an emergence.  At this time, we are unsure if a full blown emergence of just a few hatchlings who left the nest.  This nest is on Day 56 so it is time for an emergence.  We have been watching this nest closely for the last several days.  Due to the high tide it was not totally clear how many hatchlings left the nest.  This nest had 120 eggs, and there did not appear there were that many tracks - but the high tide could of washed those away.  We are going to wait for Saturday before we call this nest emerged.  We already had one nest that we thought emerged, and when we went to do the inventory we found hatchlings right at the top of the nest and had to cover them up and wait another 3 days before performing the inventory, so we are going to wait to see what the Saturday volunteers report.

Nest 05R - Emergence hole

Hatchling Tracks - hopefully they caught the outgoing tide

Hatchling Tracks 

All of the volunteer teams who walked during Erin were walking either at high tide or close to an incoming or outgoing tide cycle.  In places there is not a lot of beach to walk on - kudos to those Leads and volunteers! 

 Pics by Leslie, Melissa, Kim T, and Kim P 

Summary by Leslie 

All sea turtle monitoring by WISTP is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under MTP500.

Thursday, August 14th - Nest 09 Undetected Nest

 

Beautiful morning. Low tide. Kathy's niece with us again.

Thomas and Dawn took the short end and only one of our nests had been harassed by ghost crabs. (N08) Poor crab is swimming for his life!

Kathy's niece is a runner so she made easy and quick work of covering the long end of the island. (The dot on the beach is our runner!)

 

Ariana and Kathy and I were covering the very wide, low tide beach. SURPRISE!

 As I surveyed the beach closest to the dunes it looked odd so I went to investigate. Saw multiple ghost crab holes ... and, sadly, a shell right outside a crab hole. As I probed each crab hole I realized they were all going down in the same direction. At that point, Arianna found another shell about 7 feet away. We have determined this to be an undetected nest and have marked it as N09.

 Once home, Leslie called and felt a cage was needed so I turned around and headed back to meet Leslie.  Out we went.  Installed cage and we now have N09.

All sea turtle monitoring by WISTP is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under MTP500.
 

Tuesday, August 5th - Another two inventory Day - Nest03 and Nest04

 It was a great morning to be out on the beach today - cool crisp temps, a nice breeze with bright sunshine.  

Along with the Tuesday volunteers, we had a small group of additional volunteers who came out to assist. Many thanks to Steve and Barb Demusz for transporting these helpers out.  

 Nest03 was the nest we attempted to inventory last Friday, and we ran into hatchlings sitting at the top of the nest cavity before we uncovered any eggshells.  We than had to recover these hatchlings to give them a little more time in the nest to rest before they made their break for the ocean and the long swim to the Sargassum Sea.  

 We did run into eggshells first today - Yeah.  Tom and guest, Jeffry were our diggers, and the Tuesday Volunteers took on the task of sorters.  Everyone else were helpers.

We have eggshells!!

Kim and Leslie supervising

Diggers - Tom, and guest Jeffry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nest 03 was laid on June 5th and was located on the upper end of the island.  The lady sea turtle who laid this nest was our 36 inch wide momma. This nest has been harassed unmercifully by Ghost Crabs- we have caught over 20 Ghost Crabs at this nest. The nest emerged on day 58 and there were 122 eggs in this nest.  The egg count was 109 hatched eggs, 12 unhatched eggs, no dead or live hatchlings in the nest.  The Hatch Success rate and the Emergence Success rate is 89.3% for both.

Tuesday Volunteers taking on the sorting - Karen, Sherrie and Irene

It takes a village

                                                                                                                   Nest Results

Melissa recording our nest outcome numbers

Nest chamber

Nest 04 was laid on June 12th not far from Nest03.  This nest emerged on day 51.  Ghost Crabs were also harassing this nest, but not as bad as Nest 03.  However, when we arrived at the site of the nest, lots of Ghost Crab holes with flies and ants - ugh!  This nest had a total of 120 eggs in the nest, 73 hatched eggs, 42 unhatched and within the unhatched count a number of pipped eggs.  We also found one dead and a very frisky and alert hatchling just waiting for us to rescue it so it can begin its journey to the ocean.  The Hatch Success for the nest is 60.8% and the Emergence Success was 59.1%.  This nest was very smelly.

Holes dug by Ghost Crabs - harassing the nest

Melissa and Kim are the diggers for this nest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nest results - a little sadder and smelly than Nest 03

We have an alert, frisky hatchling 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen gets ready to release the little one

First steps to the ocean

Love those little tracks

Good Luck little one!

 

 

 

Two more nests have been inventoried, and we have four more to go.

There were storms out over the water while we were there, but no rain for us today.

Pics by Kim T, Cherie, Melissa and Leslie Summary by Leslie 

All sea turtle monitoring by WISTP is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under MTP500.

 

Two Emergences Today!!

 And some other interesting "stuff" too.

 

First off, Nest 4 emerged overnight at Day 51 which is a pretty short incubation. Maybe all that super steamy weather recently helped them develop quickly. 

Coyote tracks on outside of cage.  They were really trying to get at the nest but we don't think they did.  One of the pictures shows a few paw prints inside the cage.  We didn't see hatchling tracks at the hole but we turned around towards the ocean and there they were.  Such a beautiful sight.  We looked around the nest and did not find any tracks behind the cage nor any more coyote tracks. 

 

 

 

 

Coyote tracks at Nest 4

Coyote prints near the emergence hole

Good thing we put cages over the nests! Keeps those predators out.

 

Nest 3 emerged too

When we arrived at Nest 3, we found that it had emerged overnight too. Because of the storms overnight we couldn't see tracks at the emergence hole but they were evident in the fan pattern in the damp sand below the nest. 
 

The water next to the jetty was extremely low and there were a few interesting things we saw in the standing water around the rocks. 

A pair of blue crabs in the rocks of the jetty

Not sure what sort of little fish they were

Pictures by Jackie

All sea turtle monitoring by WISTP is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under MTP500.