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.