First Crawl of the Season

The Tuesday team of Valerie, Dave, Bruce and Rita reported the first crawl of the 2011 season this morning.  This crawl was on the western (lower) end of the island, about 100 feet below Marker #1.  It certainly looks like a loggerhead turtle - track width was 3' 2" with alternating flipper strokes.

To see more detail, click on the photos.

The probing

After evaluating the crawl and doing some probing, it was declared a false crawl.  The turtle wasn't on the beach long and there was no evidence of a nest site.  She did however make her way along the dunes apparently looking for the "perfect" spot.  Not finding it, she may return again tonight.

Rita and Bruce celebrating

Is it here???

Checking the track width

A fair sized turtle; we'll keep a lookout
for turtle with similar track widths

This is the earliest crawl we have documented on Waties since we started surveys six years ago.  South Carolina currently has 17 nests and North Carolina has 1 so far this season.  We're off to a very good start!

Thanks to Valerie for sharing her photos.

Barb and Steve