This morning we had quite a large group attend these two inventories - lots of volunteers, Coastal Sea Turtle Club members, marine science grad students and several guests. Great turnout!
As we headed up the beach this morning, our first stop was at Nest 11 (55 days old) where we found lots and lots of hatchling tracks heading toward the ocean. It appears that they emerged near the high tide so their trek wasn't quite as long as it could have been. We'll inventory this last nest on the upper end of the island on Saturday morning.
Inventory Results
Nest 9 which was 59 days old when it emerged was the first one we came to. (Because the group was large enough, about half proceeded up to Nest 10 to conduct that inventory.) The final count for this nest was 70 hatched eggshells, 9 unhatched, 2 dead and no live hatchlings. This make for a total of 80 eggs laid by the mother when you include the one taken for the DNA sample.This nest had a 88% hatch success ratio which is about average.
Nest 10 which emerged at 55 days was a little different: It was a larger clutch with 121 eggs laid. One was removed for the DNA sample, 106 hatched and 14 were unhatched. The hatch success ratio here again was 88%. BUT this nest also had 5 live hatchlings trapped in the packed sand. These hatchlings were escorted by the group down to the ocean. Some excitement when the digging began, one of our diggers came across a large ghost crab, and she did not miss a beat, she just pitched the ghost crab up into the dunes.
 |
| Lots of hatchling tracks |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.