Wednesday 8/3/22 Inventory of Nest 2R

Morning was warm, muggy and buggy. 

In 2011 this turtle laid NMB's 1st nest and Waties 1st nest and then 4 more on Waties

2013 - All 5 nests on Waties

2016 - All 6 nests on Waties

2018 - All 6 nests on Waties

2020 - All 4 nests on Waties

2022 - She laid our second nest of this year. #2R below

She crawled high up on the dune, came back below the high tide line and nested.

This nest has been plagued by Ghost Crabs.  It was originally a shallow nest, but due to lots of blowing sand, we had to do some digging to get to the egg shells.

Theresa and Jeannie opened up the nest under Sharon's supervision. While Leslie Y. stood ready to receive the contents of the nest.

Phyllis and Ayana sorted out the egg shells from pieces and put them in groups of 10.  Unhatched eggs are counted separate as are any dead and live hatchlings. 

Getting to the bottom of the nest to make sure there are no more egg shells left.

Finishing up the nest, we sorted thru the sand to make sure we got all the egg shells.

 Because this nest was relocated, we knew that this turtle had laid a total of 103 eggs.  When a nest is first found, always take one egg for the DNA study.  During the incubation period we also check and record any eggs lost due to predators. Sometimes we never see a lost egg shell because they have been carried off, buried in the blowing sand, etc.

Inventory Results:

- Hatched: 87

- Unhatched: 4

-Eggs lost before inventory: 1 due to DNA Study and 3 to Ghost Crabs. 

- 1 dead Hatchling

-0 Live Hatchlings

Hatch Success: 84.4%

Emergence Success: 83.4%

Thank You to everyone for taking the time to come out to help make this a good day.