Waties Island Nest Count

Monday, October 31, 2011

Beach Sweep on Saturday, October 29

A cold, windy start to the day -- but the afternoon cleared up and the sun came out.  Nineteen volunteers gathered at the cottage to tackle the cleanup project.  We had some first time volunteers from CCU and we were glad to have them join us.

Mary, the photographer from Inlet Point Plantation, was kind enough to take a picture of the group and more of the volunteers in action.  Thanks, Mary! (click on any photo to see it larger)

Waties Island Beach Sweep Volunteers
Steve and Debbie filling their bags

Paulette and Diane with one of the 4 tires

There was an amazing amount of stuff we collected - we estimated the weight to be in the neighborhood of 1000 pounds.


- 40 bags of miscellaneous trash - plastic bags, balloons, cans, bottles, food wrappers, clothing, shoes, sunglasses, fishing line, ropes, cigarette lighters, light bulbs, toys and other unidentifiable items
- 4 tires (one was a HUGE tire)
- 2 crab traps
- several oversize plastic bottles and buckets


Bryan took photos of the HUGE tire project at the upper end of the island - 

Chance, Brady and Brandy working on that tire

Digging...
and more digging...


Finally got it out
And last, but not least, the trip to the Solid Waste Authority to get rid of all that stuff --


Steve with the haul



Feels good to get it done!  Thanks, all, and see you in the spring,

Barb and Steve

Sunday, October 16, 2011

End of the Season Photos

Tracks at P2 today!  But not hatchling tracks; deer tracks.  No sign of any turtle type activity at the site so we will call it a false crawl.


Tracks at P2 nest site




















But deer tracks, not turtle tracks

There were two otters in the marsh this morning chasing schools of small fish around.  First time we've ever seen otters there.  Exciting!

Just a little head above the water

But an otter for sure
And another beautiful sunrise too -



















So our official monitoring season comes to a close with the removal of the last sign.  

P2 comes down
Farewell...

This has been a great season made possible by all you wonderful volunteers.  Hope to see you all back again next season,

Barb and Steve