A foggy start to the morning which made for an unusual sunrise - always something different out there!
This morning we conducted an inventory of Nest 6 which emerged last Friday. This nest was originally found by the Wednesday team back on June 27 and several members of the team were on hand this morning to see the outcome. Also with us this morning were several members of the CCU Sea Turtle Club and a videographer from Coastal to record the event, and some visitors from the North Myrtle Beach Sea Turtle Patrol.
The final outcome was very good: we found 103 hatched eggs and only 17 unhatched. Early on we did lose one egg for the DNA sample and four more to ghost crabs. This made for a total of 125 eggs in the nest which is just a bit above average. To the delight of the crowd, a lone but lively hatchling was recovered in the nest. It was carefully escorted down the beach and into the ocean.
The other exciting news this morning is that Nest 8 just below the entrance had hatchling tracks this morning. There has been a hole/depression for two days now but no tracks. But now we can call it "emerged" after seeing the tracks. An inventory will be conducted on Thursday morning.
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| CCU Sea Turtle Club members start the digging |
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| A lucky hatchling . . . |
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| Jewel and Phyllis working on the sorting of egg shells |
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| Finished the sorting |
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| Final results - 103 hatched |
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Assisted to the ocean
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The other exciting news this morning is that Nest 8 just below the entrance had hatchling tracks this morning. There has been a hole/depression for two days now but no tracks. But now we can call it "emerged" after seeing the tracks. An inventory will be conducted on Thursday morning.
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| Foggy Sunrise |
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| Nest #8 Emergence Hole |
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| Hatchling tracks |
Blog update - Leslie P, photos Linnea Knecht & Leslie P
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