Nest #6

Thursday was another great morning!  Chris and Bruce discovered the crawl on the lower end of the beach and Keela and Jingle, who walked all last season without finding anything, were rewarded with their first nest on Waties.

Today's find brings the total number of nests on Waties to six and it's only June 16.  This newest addition is only a few feet from Nest #3.  We could see that she had been on the beach for a while, even though some of the tracks had started to wash away with the incoming tide.

Jingle's first crawl

Bruce, Jingle and Chris locating the egg chamber

Karen Fuss pointed out an interesting coincidence:  in 2007, the year we had 17 nests, the sixth nest of the season was found on June 16, same as our Nest #6 today.  We can only hope for as busy a season as 2007.  That year, the last nest was discovered on July 27, so we have at least 6 to 7 more weeks of prime nesting days left.

Here's the one for the DNA study

Into the vial it goes

A big thank you to Chris, Keela, Jingle and Bruce for a job well done!

Barb and Steve

Ghost Crab!!

There was a large ghost crab hole in Nest #5 this morning.  This is the most recent nest up by Marker 8.  We know crabs have to eat too, but not turtle eggs, thank you.  Hopefully it will get trapped in the bleach bottle tomorrow morning and it can be moved to a new location.

Before and after (you can click on the photos to see more detail).







Barb and Steve

Another nest today!

Late Sunday afternoon, our fifth nest of the season was found up in front of Marker 8.  There was a group of visitors picnicking there only a few feet from the crawl.  Several of them helped us find the eggs.

The crawl before the incoming tide erased the tracks

 These visitors (sorry we didn't get their names) were being very careful when they were digging.

Steve is pointing where to dig

And there it is!

The tide was coming in quickly and there wasn't much beach to drive on, so we quickly caged the nest, put up the signs and headed back home for a cool shower.  Didn't even have a chance to get a photo of the cage and sign - maybe tomorrow.

Barb and Steve

Fourth Nest of the 2011 Season

But, first, ghost crabs galore on Nest #2 -

We are trying a new type of trap, a large plastic jug with a handle buried flush with the sand on the route the crab seems to take.  We're hoping it will fall in and not be able to get out again so we can move it far far away.

 This new nest was only about 20 feet from Nest 2 (the one with the ghost crabs).  A short crawl up to the dune line and a perfect nesting site.

A little probing and some digging and there are the eggs

We welcome 3 new people to their 1st nest, Seth, Ashley and Amanda.

A 3 inch visitor was returned to the ocean

Steve and Barb

Waties and NMB volunteers June 9

North Myrtle Beach volunteers look across at Waties Island volunteer, Bruce and friend, in the distance.

Bill & Flossie Chapman

Nest #3 June 7, 2011

                                                     Bruce at his third crawl but first nest

                                                                  Flossie's first nest!

                                                             Digging for that first egg

                                                                  The chosen egg!

                                  Teacher Steve showing Paige how to carry the egg to the ocean.

                                              Bill setting up the cage with Julia and Steve's help.

                                  The first turtle nest for all. Shirley, our NMB visitor, is delighted!

                                                                            Submitted by Bill & Flossie Chapman

NEST #2-WOOHOO!

 Just past Mile Marker 4 we spotted a set of tracks and a nest. We looked for the other tracks and saw nothing. Upon closer inspection, we realized that Ms. Turtle went out the same way she came in... can turtles have Type A personalities?

 We all took a turn at probing- it was a couple of our first times so what could have been a menial job turned out to be quite exciting....the anticipation was powerful! Valerie said that there had to be eggs because of all the ghost crab holes in the mound.  She said that's a dead give away; the crabs just love the turtle eggs!!!

We dug and dug-the sand was so packed we didn't think we were going to find anything, but Barb probed again and said, "Keep going!"

Barbara took one egg out for the DNA testing.  Did you know that the yolk is tossed?  Only the shell and egg white go into a large test tube. The yolk has DNA from both parents, but the test is only interested in tracking how many nests the female will lay.
Did you know that we wear gloves while we dig so that if an egg breaks we don't contract salmonella?

We measured the width of the turtle's track, which was difficult since we had incoming over outgoing.  We then measured the length from the middle of the nest to the primary sign and the length from the middle of the nest to the secondary sign. This is in case there is an unusual high tide that washes away the nest cage and primary marker.

Did I say this was my first nest and I was excited?
Chris

pictures by Valerie Way