Sunday July 20th, 2025- FC#4 & Nest 07

It was a hot morning with a team eager to have some activity. All the Sunday team had encountered was trash for the entire season. Erin and Tammy found a message in a bottle on the short end.  When they were looking at it,  Dani called Erin and said they found a crawl. 

After looking at the crawl, it was easy to tell it was just that - False crawl #4. It looked like mama turtle came up on the beach, got about half way to the dunes and may have gotten startled by something because she turned right around. Her tracks were 32 inches wide and very clear to see. 

    

                                                                                  

The team continued to walk the beach since this crawl was only about a third up the island. When Dani, Barb & Pam got further down the beach, Dani called Erin again. This crawl looked promising, so Erin told Dani to walk the rest of the beach and meet her and Tammy there after they worked the False Crawl. 

This crawl looked just like the false crawl, but there was a body pit and it was at the base of the dune. 32 inches wide also. The team thinks it may be the same mama, who was determined to lay her nest on Waites Island last night. 

 

                                                                                     

Of the 5 person team, only 2 of them had worked a nest before, so it was a learning experience for most. It was an easy process to probe, only taking 4 tries. The team dug and found the eggs, measuring the nest to be 15 inches deep. They took the one egg for DNA research and marked the nest with the SCDNR Pole. 

                                                                                        

It was an exciting and educational morning and the Sunday team is very excited to finally have a nest under their belt! 

Photos and writing by Erin D. 

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

Some Interesting Beach Finds Today

 While we were not fortunate enough to have any sea turtle action, we did find some special beach specimens. 

 A stiff pen shell (quite fragile)

A Tulip Shell egg case

Sections of a Florida Horse Conch egg casing

 In addition to these items we collected, we saw Redbeard sponges (bright red), hermit crabs, sea pork (pink and purple varieties), and all sorts of other animals.

This ghost crab doesn't look happy

 

Also, SO MUCH garbage which gets caught in the sargassum that has been washing up lately. Today's total sunglass count came in at 86 and goggles and face masks at 41. Best find of the day was a set of dentures! Unfortunately, no photo...

 

Half of the sunglasses and goggles

Some additional sunglasses and goggles

Feels good to get that trash out of our oceans :)

 Thanks to Kaela, Cherie and Barb for their photos.

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

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.

Friday July 11, Nest # 06R

 Great news for our Friday volunteers. Our “ short end” momma from two weeks ago returned last night right on schedule. The crawl, at 33” and the distinctive center drag mark, measured and looked identical to the previous crawl and was in almost the same location. 

Incoming crawl

Outgoing crawl. Love the little zig-zag on her way back to the sea

The crawl was found relatively quickly by Linda and Suzanne as we started our patrol. Knowing we had a crawl in our back pocket, the survey of the remainder of the beach was completed, and we were anxious to get back to see if had a new nest. A big thanks to Jingle for making the trek up island and back in record time!  And for hauling needed supplies to the nest location. 

Our momma crawled a bit further up the beach this time and smack into one of the newly developing, highly vegetated, dunes forming on the short end. Because we saw how the high tide associated with TS Chantal affected that area last weekend, we knew this nest would be in peril if we had another such event. So we agreed, if a nest was found, it would be moved. 

Looking from the body pit area back to the ocean

This lady worked hard and dug up a lot of vegetation while digging her nest. We could vaguely see her outline within the body pit, but had to probe and dig quite a bit to find the nest. Our probe kept dropping into soft sand where the roots of the sea oats were uprooted, giving us lots of false “drops.” Finally our stalwart veteran Linda and new this year walkers Caroline, Cherie and Suzanne located the chamber. 

The nest was 18” deep. 106 eggs were laid. One of three broken eggs found at the bottom of the nest was used as the DNA sample. Because of these developing dunes and vegetation springing up on the beach, and the potential for another overwash, a new nest was dug further up the beach. 103 eggs were relocated to their new home, and 6 happy Friday volunteers, hot and covered in sand, headed home. 

Finally found those elusive eggs!

Caroline collects the egg shell for DNA analysis 

Carefully transferring eggs to their new home

Suzanne and Caroline handling precious cargo

Pics by Caroline, Jingle and Kim T. Text by Kim T.

All sea turtle monitoring by the Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Permit MTP500

Wednesday, July 9th - Diamondback Terrapin Nest - Emerged?

 The morning started out with some beautiful cloud formations - sign of coming rain?

 

 

 

 

 

We have been watching the Diamondback Terrapin (DBT) Nest located close to Hog Inlet.  When we checked the area this morning, we found a Ghost Crab hole right where the nest chamber is located!  This nest was laid on June 9th, and when we uncovered the nest area, there were two small oblong, pinkish eggs and the nest chamber was quickly covered up.

Ghost Crab hole at the nest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy and I looked left of the SCDNR sign and another Ghost Crab hole and a eggshell, oh no.

Eggshell - emerged eggshell?

 

 

 

 

This is our first DBT nest, so we do not know if this shell was pulled out of the nest after the little one hatched and emerged from the nest or did the Ghost Crab capture the egg before these events.  I picked up the eggshells and thinking about our sea turtle processing placed the eggshells in one of our DNA vials.

 

As we looked around the area we found tracks, tiny little tracks.  So we are hoping one or more of the little ones got away.  Unfortunately, the tracks ended up in the weeds and undergrowth along the dune, so we are hoping for the best for the little one(s).  

 Currently, we are awaiting further instructions from SCDNR on what the process is about performing a nest inventory.

 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.

Sunday, July 7th - Waties Island survived TS Chantal

 Sunday Volunteers did go out to the island this afternoon after the worst of the storm had passed to check if access to the island was clear and did our nests make it through the storm.  Thankfully this storm did not have a really high storm surge.

As we drove through the bluff area, several downed branches were removed from the road, and that was the worst of it - yeah!

Erin and her guest walked the long end of the island, and Leslie and Kim walked the short end of the island.  All nests were fine, all high and dry, no overwashes.  The nests did get the rain, and lots of sand either blown on the nest or blown off.  

The ocean was pushed up to the dunes on the lower end

The sand was blown off the cage and nest #05R, but high and 

dry

 

The wind was wicked out there today - even the pelican's were having issues with the wind.

They landed and had issues trying to take off

Finally all got in the air and in formation

The lower end of the island, Hog Inlet, the dunes were high and dry, no impact

Picture from the lower end looking up toward the beach road - surf came up to the dunes, but the dunes held - thankfully no high storm surge.

 Text and pictures by Leslie P

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