Wednesday, August 23rd - Inventory of Nest #3, Nest with a View

What a stellar morning - cool 74 degrees, cloudy and a light breeze, hardly any bugs, just a few biting flies.  The sun coming up was like a blazing ball of red, but hid behind clouds while we were on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a number of volunteers and guests who joined us for the inventory of Nest #3.  We had several of the Saturday Volunteers with us, Nest #3 was a nest they discovered. This nest was laid on June 24th.  She had crawled under a fallen tree that was laying on the beach and proceed to climb to the top of a small dune.

This nest emerged on Sunday, August 20th on day 57.  The nest results are the following: 84 hatched, 40 unhatched, and 2 dead, 1 for DNA total of 125 eggs.  Nest percentages are Hatch Success 67.2%, and Emergence Success 65.6%.  There were some pipped eggs in the unhatched count.  One of the two dead hatchlings still had its yolk sack on the bottom of its shell.

 Many thanks to the volunteers and guests who helped with the nest inventory.  Since the nest was on top of the dune, and there is limited space, we used a "brigade" scenario to get the eggs down for sorting and counting.  It took a village to complete this task today.

Chris removes the protective cage

Volunteers and Guests getting ready

Mario, a Sunday volunteer who discovered the hatchling tracks

 is ready to dig

Our "brigade" on handing down the eggs to be sorted

Waiting to hear results from the sorting

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to express my thanks to all of the daily Volunteer groups who were diligent in watching over this nest; give yourself a pat on the back.  All assisted in the remedial efforts we did to help with giving these eggs the best chance.  Last year we had a number of nests on top of the dunes and with the hot summer and high winds we get on Waties Island, many of the eggs actually were "cooked".  The wind had blown the sand off of the nests, so this year we checked on the level of the sand and surrounded the nest with drift wood to help catch the blowing sand, a great success and now we know how to handle these nests laid on top of the dunes successfully.

Sorting efforts

Warning: Our two deceased hatchlings the one has its egg yolk sac still attached

Volunteers and Guests

 

Many thanks to Cherie's for her pics

Narrative by Leslie, Pics Cherie' and Leslie

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number: MTP500