Ariana, Thomas, and I headed out to the island for our last patrol and inventory of Nest 08. We were not disappointed by a beautiful South Carolina sunrise.
Not surprised by the many bobcat, racoon, and deer tracks,
We were joined by Leslie, Kim T, and Kathy as well as 15 CCU students for our inventory. Here they come!
Nest 08 was laid 7/23 by our big girl; 36" lady. Nest was in situ. This Mama traversed the dunes, navigating around sea oats and grasses until she nested close to the base of a dune. All during the incubation period, this nest was terrorized by ghost crabs. We caught and removed 13 of those pesky critters.
Because this Mama nested so close to dune and grasses, some of the unhatched eggs had roots through them.
The students were all smiles once the work began. Leslie gave instruction and assigned tasks. Kim and Kathy taught and guided some students in the counting of eggs...
...while Leslie taught and guided other students in how to dig to the nest chamber and gather the eggs.
I was dubbed photographer for the morning.
This nest had 78 eggs hatched; 30 eggs unhatched. This Mamma's hatch success is 71.5% and emergence success also at 71.5%. One unhatched egg was opened and flipper used for the DNA paternity study.
Pictures and summary by Melissa
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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