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.