June 8 - More False Crawls

June 8, 2014 Two more False Crawls

Two more crawls were discovered this morning, both just above the entrance and only a few yards east of yesterday's crawl. We marked the most recent one as FC #10. It appears that she came up once earlier in the evening, returned without nesting, but came up a second time close by.  The tracks from the first crawl were a little wind blown while those of the second crawl were still sharp.  

No photos taken today.

(As reported by Barb and Steve)

We're Going to Miss Her When She's Gone

But she's not gone quite yet - another false crawl this morning just above the entrance. Not even too much of a nesting attempt, only a little digging. But it would have been a great location if she had succeeded.

The incoming crawl with FC marker in the dunes

Closer look at these tracks we've seen too often this week

In the past, this turtle has given up after five to seven nesting attempts only to return about two weeks later to try again. So it may be that we won't see her again for a while, but tomorrow will tell.

A whole pen shell

And even the animal inside (not alive though)

Another Attempt by our Special Turtle

Friday, June 6 brings another attempt by our
special turtle.
One attempt to nest and
then back in the ocean.
The storm brought down
our sign for Nest #1!!

Two False Crawls!

Thursday, 6/5/14  Two false crawls! First one was almost at the jetty. Crawled up to the "sand wall", and turned around. Second, was between M M 7 and 8. Definitely Dee Dee. After a lot of probing, found two shallow attempts.

June 4, 2014 False Crawl

 Beautiful morning!

Good Morning Turtle Walkers!

 Our only turtle sighting today.

 Wednesday Walkers on the North End

 Our Special Needs Turtle is Desperately Determined! She does deserve a name! I vote for DeeDee.

 Wish we could help her...

 Nature's Bounty!

Not the kind of crawl we like to see!


Regena Heilmann

SHE WAS BACK AGAIN THIS MORNING

As soon as we got to the beach,  we saw a crawl.  Our SN turtle (who needs a name) was back again last night.  She tried about four times to nest as she headed toward mm #2.   

 She sure is trying hard!

We thought that possibly this time she was finally able to nest.  But we came up empty.  No eggs.  She would have been in a good spot had she been able to dig her nest.

Valerie

June 1 - Another Crawl on the Beach

This morning we discovered another crawl around Marker 3, but unlike Thursday and Saturday, we were unable to find a nest. There was evidence that the turtle attempted to dig a nest chamber but didn't complete it.

We've seen this before, most recently in 2012 when we had a record of 32 false crawls. Of this number, 23 and possibly more could be attributed to what came to be known as our "special needs" turtle. That season, with the permission of SC DNR, a small group of volunteers went out to the island to observe that turtle at night only to discover that she was missing her right rear flipper which accounted for the uneven tracks.

Her tracks are different from a normal loggerhead in that the right flipper track is deeply grooved while the left track is much smoother. We also saw this turtle back in 2009; that year she did lay one nest, the the total false crawls for the season was 22 - an unusually high number.

Today's outgoing tracks (looking toward the dunes)

 

Outgoing tracks - see the deep grooves on her right side?

Crawl from 2012 with distinctive pattern

2012 incoming tracks - deep groves on right side

If history repeats itself, we may be in for a busy season...

Barb and Steve