Friday, December 31 - Summary of our 2021 Nesting Season

 As we close the 2021 year, I thought it would be a nice touch to give a summary of our 2021 Nesting Season.

Here's our stats and than some notable highlights.

• On May 1st, the COVID virus was still a major issue for the Sea Turtle Monitoring Program, so only the Permit holder and LOAs (Letter of Authorization) were  allowed to walk, at first
  
• May 6th, was our first False Crawl and our FIRST NEST of the season - the earliest nest laid in 10+ years
• Our nest count
• Total of 12 nests
• One "Wild Nest", which was lost to Coyote depredation - it was found due to Coyotes digging up the nest before it emerged
• 2 Nests were relocated
• Nest #1 took  84 days to emerge, and an emergency inventory was done on this nest per SCDNR
• The average incubation time was 63 days
  
• Last nest laid on August 7th 
• Last nest inventory was on October 19th, marked the end of our surveys and our season
  
• False Crawls 
• 6 False crawls
  
• Last False crawl was on August 9th
• DNA Results
• At this time we have DNA results for 9 of the 12 nests, missing DNA for nests 10, 11, and 12 - will report on when this information is available
• At this time, we know we have 5 individual mothers who nested on Waties Island
  
• Volunteers were able to start walking on June 13th - only 4 volunteers were allowed to walk per day, along with a LOA
• Started caging all nests on day 45 to protect the nests from the Coyotes
• Started placing plastic netting over the nests to deter those pesky Ghost Crabs, some nest had both deterrents
  
• Saw evidence of both Coyotes and Bobcats patrolling the beach, the Sunday team was lucky to see a Bobcat and her kitten
• 4 King Tides
• 2 Hurricanes which were off the coast, but still caused higher than normal tides
• Return of the Coastal Carolina University Sea Turtle Club students for inventories
• September a small fire was reported, very exciting morning on Waties with the North Myrtle Beach Rescue services responding
• October a site visit by Michelle Pate, our SCDNR contact

I tried to cover items of interest.  If you have not done so, please enter your time and mileage into the Volunteer logging application  http://seaturtle.org/volunteer/  This information helps toward getting additional grant monies for the DNA study.

Again, many thanks to all, so hoping for a better 2022.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 Happy Holidays

 I was called out to Waties to help with a key and gate issue and with Jackie Boyce drove out to the island.  I was surprised to see how much beach erosion has occurred since my last visit to the island.  Just thought I would share my pictures.

Happy Holidays to all!

These are the trees that were on fire earlier this year

More of the big trees on the short end, are down

These trees cover the path that was cleared after the fire

Lots of erosion, trees down

This bank has gotten higher

The short end

Wrack line from December King Tide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 19th - latest visit to the island

 Hi All - it has been quiet for me this past month, no early text messages, no early drives to Waties Island.  I did kayak out to the island on Wednesday to see how the island fared from the last King Tide which was a remarkable 9 feet in our area.  The lower/west end continues to erode and more trees are down.  The path the bulldozer left from the fire earlier this year is completely blocked by downed trees.  The wrack line was high most of the way up the beach.  We only walked about half way up, and picked up a fair amount of trash which included a Garmin Fish Finder.  The sailboat is visible again.

Tuesday, October 19th - Inventory of Nest #10 - 2021 Season is over

 Finally, an inventory on Nest #10

 We had a good crowd on the beach;  Michelle Pate, SCDNR Coordinator for the Marine Turtle Program was doing a site visit, Dr Paul Gayes, eight members of the CCU Sea Turtle Club, most of our leads, and interested volunteers, Richard Green a videographer and Judy Johns, a photographer both from CCU.  We had three truck loads heading to the beach a little after 9:00 am this morning.

This nest was laid on August  7th, the mother's crawl was 32 inches wide, and it was a shallow nest, about 12 inches deep.  She wandered around a little before heading back to the ocean.  As suspected,  this nest did not produce any viable hatchlings.  We dug up 88 eggs that had not hatched, so no emergence.  There were a few broken pieces, unsure where they came from.  Earlier in the season, this nest was plagued by Ghost Crabs, we lost 2 eggs to these pesky Ghost Crabs, and one egg was used for DNA - 3 plus the 88 unhatched eggs = a total of 91 eggs in this clutch.  Both the Hatch and Emergence Success rate was zero.

We did open several of the discolored eggs, and many had developed hatchlings, they had the yolk sac attached.  At this time, I can not give a definitive answer on why they passed before hatching, but I would guess a possible over-wash, possibly the high wave action we had when Hurricane Larry passed the South Carolina coast.  From the comments I heard, I do not think the King Tide caused these deaths, I believe they perished before this event.  Sad, but Mother Nature is not always kind.

After the inventory, several of us participated in an on-line class discussion with Dr Gayes, several of our volunteers took a last walk up to the long end.  I gave Michelle and several students and volunteers a driving tour of the island.  We all got out by the jetty and looked across to North Carolina.  We picked up the walkers and headed back to the shed, we arrived back about 11:30.

The 2021 Nesting season is officially over.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with the transportation, talking to the students, assisting in the inventory, and helping to manage everything I missed.
Lots of people, like herding cats.

Let the digging begin . . . .

 

First egg uncovered

 

 

Nest results - 88 Unhatched Eggs

 

 

Exploring what is in the eggs

Michelle Pate, SCDNR

 Received more pictures, these are posted here - thanks to Melissa F

Along with the CCU Students we had Mr Richard Green and Ms Judy Johns photographing and videoing our inventory.

Ms Judy Johns

Mr Richard Green

Monday, October 18th - Nest #10 Day 72

 Hi All the Monday Team had a cool crisp 46 degrees this morning on our morning walk.  Another beautiful sunrise.  We walked the lower end where we found a sea star, saw lots of Bobcat tracks.  It was so chilly the birds were hunkered down together.  Nest #10 had no changes, and the suspense for this nest will hopefully be over tomorrow.

As we walked up toward the upper end, we spotted and enjoyed a large pod of dolphins playing in the ocean.

Here comes the sun

Sea Star

Birds were hunkered down together

Picture compliments of Leslie P

Thursday, October 14th - Nest #10 68 days old

 Beautiful morning on the island, nice temps, no wind, flat ocean and - no signs of hatching or emergence from Nest #10.  We did have Ibis' up in the tree when we came across the causeway.

The nest is the same as it has been the last few days, there were three small Ghost Crab holes around the nest, and lots of foot traffic around the caged area.

The Thursday team did get to walk up to the jetty today, nice peaceful walk, hardy any trash, just the normal empty water bottles, bait lids, and a lighter.  The view from the jetty over the Little River inlet is really awesome - low tide.

Sunrise from the causeway

Ibis roasting in the tree

Good  Morning!!

Nest #10 is still with us - Day 68

Nest #10

Small Ghost Crab holes on the side of the cage

Looking across Little River Inlet

Ibis birds in the trees

Pampas Grass

Pictures compliments of Leslie  and Kim