Wednesday 8/24/22 Busy Day

 First thing upon entering the beach we checked the lower end.  Both of these nests were good, but we did notice a lot of Ghost Crab and coyote tracks.  We headed up the beach, again noticing lots of tracks.  We split the beach up between the dunes and the high tide line.  PN #8, located on the wrack line had two very large Ghost Crab Holes just to the right and not far from the sign.  We decided to investigate.  The second hole showed us where the nest was.  We marked the nest site with a reed and filled in the holes.

 

Eggs 

We finished our walk, picked up the secondary poles and cage on our way back and finished marking and caging what is now Nest #23 which is 24 days old today.

On our way up the beach, checking all the nests and possible nest sites, past MM 6, and just above where nest 9R had been inventoried, we noticed a hole dug by a coyote. Investigating, we found a few very small egg shell pieces.  We had to check it out.  We dug very far down, but found nothing.  We closed up the hole.

Phyllis showing the distance between 9R and the hole dug by the coyote.

When we got to Nest 8R it had emerged.

Nest 8R is 63 days old today.

Nest 8R from the dune side.  Lots of Ghost Crab tracks.  We looked around the area to see if any of the Ghost Crabs had gotten any of the hatchlings, or if any had strayed in the wrong direction.  None found.

Our walk up the beach showed a lot activity by the deer, coyotes and Ghost Crabs but all other nests were undisturbed.