Waties Island Nest Count

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Nest #4 Inventory, September 12, 2015

Nest # 4 Inventory  Saturday, September 12
The Saturday walkers were joined by student volunteers from CCU
to inventory Nest #4 which emerged on September 9 at day 54 of
incubation. Taylor Harris and the crew dug up the shells and sorted
and counted. 95 eggs were in the nest. One was used for research.
90 hatched and 4 unhatched eggs. One bright white egg was reburied.


Thanks for the pictures, Leslie
Posted by Paulette

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Nest #3 Inventory

This morning we inventoried the contents of Nest #3. This one emerged on Monday - see the crater where they came out?

An emergence overnight

Waiting three day, on Thursday morning, we started the inventory only to find lots of hatchlings just below the surface!

CCU Sea Turtle Club members helping to dig

That blur in the center is a fast moving hatchling

So we quickly recovered the nest, but released the two hatchlings who were already out on the beach.



Today, when we finally got to empty the nest cavity, we found 34 hatched eggshells, 6 unhatched eggs and 2 tiny spacer eggs, something we don't often see. No live or dead hatchlings.

Spacer eggs



The DNA results on this mother show that this is the first season she has been documented as nesting in NC, SC or GA. She is probably a new mother which might account for the smaller number of eggs in the nest. Earlier this season, she laid two nests on Ocean Isle Beach before coming to Waties.

Only one more nest to go!

Thanks to Leslie and Karen H. for sharing their photos,

Barb and Steve

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Nest #4 Emerged Overnight!

Nest #4 emerged overnight at Day 54. This is the nest that is just below the entrance to the beach. Last night, several CCU students working with Taylor Harris on her sea turtle lighting project were on had to witness the emergence around 3 a.m.  They reported that there were lots of ghost crabs on the beach when it happened.

The photos that Leslie shared do show lots of hatchling tracks though; looks like it was a good nest!

Two holes

Lots of tracks


Hatchling tracks along with ghost crab tracks in lower left corner
The students were also monitoring Nest #2 at the top end of this island, but nothing was going on there.

Thanks to Leslie for sharing her photos!

Barb and Steve

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Nest #6 Inventory Results - September 4, 2015

This morning, an inventory was done on Nest #6. The nest was almost three feet down and it seems amazing that those hatchlings could make their way up through all that sand. Nevertheless, we found 50 hatched eggshells and no unhatched eggs. We also found five dead hatchlings, but one live one! The tide was very low and the walk to the water very long, so we set the hatchling down a bit closer to the ocean. It had lots of support along the walk and successfully started it's journey out to sea.

Nest #2 is now 55 days old, Nest #3 is 53 days old and Nest #4 is 49 days old.  More inventories soon!

Barb



Digging and digging!



 It is a very deep hole!


Karsen, SCMSS master's student, brings the live hatchling closer to the water.


Watching the hatchling make its way to the ocean.





Tuesday, September 1, 2015

FC #6 is now NEST #6 !!!

We've been watching several false crawls over the last few weeks and this morning at Day 74! the Tuesday volunteers came upon an emerging nest. This FC, now a nest, was just above the entrance and buried by lots and lots of blown in sand.  That probably contributed to the extra long time before the hatchlings were able to make their way to the surface.

What a way to start the morning...

On the way



The walkers got to see several hatchlings just about in the water and more on their way.

Almost in the water...

One more hatchling on the way out
This is a great photo of what an emerged nest looks like.

Upper right is emergence; ghost crab hole below it

Now we are six...  Thanks to Karen H for providing her photos!

Barb 

Saturday, August 15, 2015

New Things on the Island

Sunrise was beautiful and the weather cool and pleasant --

New addition to the parking area at the beach: We will find out more about this huge beeping piece of scientific equipment once Karen is back in the office, but it apparently has something to do with measuring wind speeds. The tires were removed so it can't be moved; it is a very expensive piece of equipment.


Parked by the trash cans

And it seems we have a bob cat on the island too! These tracks were found along the dune line up around Marker 4 this morning. Cool!!





Posted by Barb D

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

On Wednesday, August 12, with SCDNR permission,
an inventory of Nest 5 was done. This nest was discovered
last Wednesday at False Crawl 4 pole. Numerous eggshells
and whole eggs had been found on the surface during the
ensuing week.
Today, we found 9 hatched and 23 unhatched eggs. 20 of
these unhatched eggs were moved to a new location at Marker
6. The other 3 eggs were flat and empty. We will watch the relocated
nest and inventory it at a later date for final results on this nest.
                                                     Inventory of Nest 5
                                                            Examining an egg
                                                                Unhatched eggs
                                                                         
                                                                  Results of Nest 5
                                                                Barb at Marker 6
                                                       Barb. Leslie, Sharon and Sandy

Posted by Paulette

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Wednesday, August 5
Nest #5 !!
False Crawl # 4 was found and marked on June 15.
Today, we discovered ghost crab holes and egg shells
at that location. So... now we watch Nest # 5 which is
at day 51 and is located at Marker 9



Posted by Paulette

Friday, July 17, 2015

We are still rolling on Waties!! July 17, 2015
Nest # 4 was found right below the entrance!!
Beautiful crawl and body pit!! Small turtle with well
defined and small body pit.
 Arlene is holding the egg.
Let's keep it going!!
Arlene, Keela, Linda, Dave,
Jingle and Valerie.
Friday walkers!!



Monday, July 13, 2015

New Nest - July is HOT !!

Nest #3 this morning - a great way to start the day. After such a long stretch of not much activity, now two nests in three days and hopefully more to come.

This was a smaller turtle - the track width was only 28 inches - but she's a climber. Up on top of the dunes between Marker 5 and 6 she laid her nest. Because of all the sea oats up there, it wasn't obvious where the nest was, but we found it after probing for a while.

Long crawl up the beach . . .

and than crawled up the dune

Her nest, in the sea oats

Bob and Sandy offering support
 
Probing is hard work

Looking, looking, looking 

Paulette finds soft sand and the egg cavity
High and dry - no washovers up there

Leslie, Bob, Sandy, and Paulette

Thanks too to the rest of the Monday team who weren't able to stay this morning - Sherry, Donna, Kim and Maddy. Great job everyone!  Barb





Saturday, July 11, 2015

FINALLY!! A New Nest

Beautiful morning, nice gentle breezes and a very welcome surprise: a crawl between Marker 8 and 9


She crawled up to the wall and turned right for a short distance before digging her nest.


Took a lot of probing though; the actual nest cavity was at the far edge of the circle - almost outside it. Not where we expected to find it.


This turtle isn't very big: her track width measured 30 to 32" wide and she seems to have a barnacle or growth on her plastron which makes the drag mark in the middle of her tracks.


A lot of digging and Jeanne was just able to reach the egg for the DNA sample. It was pretty deep!

Nest #2 DNA sample



This one won't hatch until mid-September

Steve, Jeanne and Pat - nice shirts!