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