WEDNESDAY 6/10/21 NEST # R3

 It was raining lightly when we arrived at the shed, but by the time we hit the beach, the rain had stopped.  Today we split the walk, I took the short end and Leslie took the long end.  Leslie called to tell me she found a nice crawl after marker 4 and before the "totem" pole and before marker 5.  Leslie continued up the beach to the jetty while I made my way to the crawl.  Nest #1 was good. No sign of the Ghost Crabs we have been seeing the past couple of days.  Nest #2 had a small Ghost Crab hole within the screen which Leslie filled in.

Leslie and I had both worked Nest #2 just 15 days ago and from the looks of this site, in our humble opinion, we believe it is the same turtle who laid nest #2.  The crawl is the same at 32", and you can see the same drag marks in the crawl. 

 Again a shallow nest and even the body pit had a number of similarities, our turtle entering in and curving to the right before making the turn to lay her eggs.  

There were three Ghost Crab holes in the nest site.  We found the eggs just to the left.

The nest was located in the rack area from the last King Tide, so we discussed and moved the nest to a higher area along the dune.  It is close to the original nest, but to the left due to the build up of sand below the dune that was directly behind the original nest.

 

We decided to use the white marker in the dune to help line up the new nest site just in case we had to remove the poles sometime in the future due to a hurricane.

Line-up of white marker in the V of the dune, reed and DNR sign.

Secondary poles, white marker, and DNR sign.

131 eggs laid, 1 taken for DNA study, 130 relocated.

Leslie and Valerie