It was a great “almost” fall morning on Waties- most likely our last Friday walk of the season with Nest 08 our only remaining incubating nest. We were looking forward to monitoring this last hold out nest, then heading up island to complete the inventory of Nest 07 which emerged on Tuesday, Sept. 16. No signs of of an emergence were present at N08, so we headed up the beach as some early morning fog rolled in softening the landscape and making for another great sunrise.
Nest 7 was discovered by our Sunday team on July 20. It appeared this laying momma had come up on the beach earlier during the night, but had turned around and returned to the ocean (False Crawl #4) only to return further up the beach and lay her nest at the base of the dune. The body pit was well defined and the nest cavity easily found. Because our momma chose a great location for her nest it was left in situ- in it’s natural position. The nest faced challenges from ghost crabs and one brief wash over due to Hurricane Erin, but there was no evidence of any egg loss during incubation. The nest emerged on day 58 with lots of hatchling tracks observed.
The Friday team was met at the nest site by Leslie and Barb and Steve with their trucks full of hopeful CCU students and additional patrol volunteers.
After some on site remarks and procedure review, the history of the nest and it’s incubation was reviewed with the participants.
Leslie provides background information regarding the nest and reviews procedures.
Assignments were made, all were engaged, and a quick and routine inventory was completed.
Luckily for the students, 2 live hatchlings were found in the nest.
After the nest contents were evacuated, sorted and counted, the much anticipated release of the hatchlings was completed to the delight of all.
One of the hatchlings had some difficulty getting himself into the water, so he had a little help from one of the students past the first row of waves.
Results of the inventory: 85 hatched, 23 unhatched, 0 dead, 2 live, 1 wash over. 77.9% hatch success rate, 76.1% emergence success rate.
A great job by all involved!
Pics by Kim P, Caroline, Leslie and Kim T. Summary by Kim T.
All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island sea turtle patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under Permit MTP500.
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