WEDNESDAY 7/14/21

 We got a very early start this morning.  Mosquitoes were bad at the beach parking.  The weather was warm, the sun came out, but then the clouds and the slight breeze made walking much cooler.  Very few canine/deer tracks on the beach and trash was light.  No canine tracks around any of the nests.

PN#2 had a Ghost Crab hole parallel to the DNR Sign. On our way back from our walk, after calling Leslie, we checked the Ghost Crab hole, but found no eggs.  Dug a good 18" till we got to the end of the soft sand.

Nest #5 had lots of Ghost Crab tracks running over the net with one attempt at digging

Nest #1 is now 69 days and had a large Ghost Crab hole.  There was no sign of a depression.

We checked the hole for a crab and finding none, we filled it in.  We checked the area and found two very tiny egg shell bits (They were soft and pliable).

These were probably from another time, as there were no other signs that a crab had gotten into the nest.  No drag marks, no sign of hatchling tracks.

Windy Uneventful morning on the beach

 No Sea Turtle Action today, just sharing pictures from the morning nest check.  We are hoping our Nest #1 will be emerging soon.  The wind has been blowing strongly and creates some of natures best art work.

Squadron of  Pelicans

Poor Puffer Fish

Sand Sculptures

Nest #1 - Ghost Crab 

Happy Fourth of July on the beach!

The  Sunday team was happy to find a crawl right past MM5, which is now Nest #7.   It was a picture perfect crawl and body pit. 

High up on dune -didn't take long to find eggs.

  

When we started temperature was only 64, great for working a nest.

Our new Sunday team member ready to get DNA sample.

                                                            A Happy Sunday team!!

Thursday, July 1 - PN#2

 Can you believe it is July 1st already and the 4th is this weekend!

The Thursday Team walked passed Marker 4 and there was a crawl, we could see the incoming track.  The tracks started in the wet sand, and just disappeared.  Looking toward the dunes there were no tracks, but we could see a disturbed area in the raised area close to the base of the dune.   Walking to that area, and from that vantage point, you could see her outgoing track.  This track also disappeared in the middle of the beach area and reappeared when you got close to the high tide zone.  It really was not a normal body pit, and no thrown sand was around.  I did probe and the sand was for the most part hard, but we did hit really soft sand, my probe went all the way to the handle.  I did dig around, but no eggs.  We are thinking it is a ghost crab tunnel - no egg chamber.  The crawl was small - 31 inches across, she is also dragging something on her Plastron.  Just south of Nest #5.  We labeled it PN #2. Location between M4 and M5, closer to M5.  After looking at previous pictures, it may be our lady who laid Nest #4, on June 17th, her crawl with the drag mark look very similar.  Nest #4 was laid 14 days ago.

Hoping she comes back and the Friday Team get lucky.

We did get a nice surprise driving back to the shed, there were 3 Roseate Spoonbills in the marsh.  You could see them clearly with  their pink feathers. 

Good Morning 

This is the first sign of the crawl,
just this, the rest was blown away.
The other marks in the sand are horse tracks

This is the disturbance in the sand we saw -
not a clear body pit

Sherry walking the outgoing track
You can see it disappears in the sand
and than reappears

Check out her crawl
She is dragging something

Track in wet sand

PN #2

Back side of tree.  Sherry and I cut
and untangled rope and fishing line
from the branches 

Three Roseate Spoonbills 

 

Nest #6!

 The nesting season on Waties Island has been a little slow this summer but it could be that things are changing: we found a nest this morning up at the jetty and the top of the island. The crawl started right next to the rocks and her first nest attempt was on top of rocks. That didn't work, so down the beach she went to try again.  Again no luck there so a little further down the beach and she finally found a spot she liked.

Not the best spot for a nest

 

But there was a better spot just down the beach

 

 

Looks like there is something on her plastron - see the drag mark?

 

The master prober and student

Nest 6 !!

WEDNESDAY 6/23/21 NEST #5

 Luckily we had a cool morning because we had a very busy morning.  Meg and Linnea took the short end, while Phyllis, Christine and I started up the beach. Past MM4 we spotted a crawl about 500 feet before Nest #3R.  We called Meg and Linnea  and asked them to meet us at the crawl and to pick up the DNR sign and poles and we would meet them at the sight after we finished our walk.

Nest #3R was buried in sand.  The screen was no where in site.  We could tell by the markings at the back of the DNR pole that the sand was 4 to 12 inches deep.  Phyllis, and later Meg and Linnea, dug out the screen while Christine and I continued our walk.  They pulled as much of the sand away as they could, but there was no way to flatten out the sand to keep it from blowing back in. 

Nest #5 was Christine and Meg's first nest.  The crawl was 32" with drag marks.

The nest site was text book.  She came in, nested at the base of the dune and went right back out.

The nest was very shallow, only about 4" down.

But I did break an egg that we used for the DNA sample.

While Phyllis was smoothing the thrown sand she found an egg.  We checked further to make sure there were no more eggs.  I opened the nest and inserted the egg and closed the nest back up.  Because the nest is so shallow, I am concerned about critters getting into it.

Picture showing the placement of the DNR sign, reed and secondary pols.

This was Christine and Meg's (on the right) first nest.