Saturday, August 22nd - Inventory of Nest #5

 Today, Barb and Steve did the inventory on our Nest #5.  This nest was laid on June 13, and was located at Marker 6.  Her track width 33-34 inches.  She was one of our "rambling" turtles, she crawled up the face of the dune, looped around and went down the beach about 20 feet, and laid her nest on the flat part of the beach.  This nest was one of three of our nests that were vulnerable with the coming of Hurricane Isaias due to their location on the beach. 

Unfortunately, we have a canine friend, coyote?, who enjoys digging up our nests.  This nest was declared emerged on 8/19/2020 when hatched eggshells were found on the beach.  Matching GPS, it was determined to be our nest #5.  After we found the hatched eggshells, this canine has been making a royal mess of the nest, digging it up nightly, and we have been finding eggshells all over the beach.  We found 29 hatched eggshells on Friday, and one unhatched egg.

Barbs words from this morning "Bad, bad, bad! There were 11 hatched eggshells on the surface where he/she dug them out, along with smaller pieces. We dug into the cavity down to almost 2 feet but found no additional eggshells. Sand was hard packed. We did find one dead hatchling down there in what appeared to be a ghost crab tunnel. You can see the hole in the top view of the dug up nest. I'm not exactly sure we were digging in the right spot, so we left the nest marker in place. Maybe we will get some more activity there". 

This really messes up with our percentage rates, but we are following DNR guidelines - 23.9% Hatched Success and 21.9% Emergence Success.  I believe I will be calling DNR tomorrow to confirm

This is how we have found this nest in the last few days, before the inventory.  We have been picking up hatched eggshells, and little bits of shells for the last several days.  Its a nest that keeps on giving, and not in a good way.