Nest #3 and False Crawls #15, 16 & 17 - It was an Extraordinary day!

Today is exactly two weeks since the Thursday walkers discovered Nest #1. Nest #3 found today, by those same walkers, may even be the same turtle; the interval is about right.  This nest is between Marker 8 & 9 and well above the high tide line so it should be fine. In addition, we also found three additional false crawls, at least one of which was our special needs turtle, DeeDee. (She is still desperately determined!)  These additional crawls bring the number of false crawls to 17.

More exciting news for our area: North Myrtle Beach had their first nest of the season. Donna (our Monday walker) came upon the turtle still in the process of finishing up her nest near the swash at 48th Ave S.

It was a very productive day for all!
 (Barb and Steve)

 The day started out threatening rain, this rainbow showed us that we were in for a glorious day!

 The high tide made us walk a little faster to get around the bend before losing ground.

There are always beautiful things to photograph! 

We get the call that four crawls are discovered and quickly get to work.

 This one is empty.

 This is probably DeeDee

 Probing each one

 Found one promising to be a nest!

It is storming hard in Little River, but we remain dry!

 This Ghost crab was nestled in a turtle track, trying to be invisible!

 But not for long!

 This turtle had a very distinct "S" swirl in her crawl.

 Another false crawl

 Confirmed eggs in a nest!

 Carefully extracting one egg for DNA testing

 Unearthed by Elaine (r) and Sarah Glenn (l)

 Today was Sarah Glenn's first day with our group

 The yolk of the sacrificed egg.

 The egg shell packaged and ready to be submitted for DNA testing

 Final measurements

Waties Island Nest #3 - Documented!

(Photo journal by Regena)