Monday, August 30th - Inventory of Nest #7 - Hosted the CCU Sea Turtle Club

The day started out with a beautiful sunrise and two trucks full of excited students on their first visit to Waties Island.  The Waties Island Sea Turtle Monitoring Program hosted members of the CCU Sea Turtle Club for the inventory of Nest #7.  Nest #7 was the 4th of July nest! It emerged on August 27th - Day 54.  This lady laid her nest high on the dune.  It was a shallow nest only 6 inches deep.  The nest did have a metal cage around it to deter the coyotes and a plastic net over the egg chamber to deter those pesky Ghost Crabs.  This nest lost three eggs to Ghost Crabs.  

Beautiful morning

 

 

Everyone is here, ready for the hike up the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After assigning roles to groups, a veteran volunteer with each group of students, we began the inventory.  Many got to assist with the digging, helping, sorting, and watching over the 3 hatchlings found in the nest.

 

 

The inventory results were 96 hatched eggs, 24 unhatched, no dead hatchlings, and 3 live hatchlings - giving this nest a 77.4% Hatch Success, and 75% Emergence Success.  The nest chamber was 22 inches deep after the contents of the nest were removed.

The thrill of the day was releasing the 3 live hatchlings.  There was one who struggled walking to the water, but after placing it in the water, the little one swam strongly away.

 

 

 

Three little ones

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off to a new beginning

 

 

 

Job Well Done

Many thanks to Valerie, Erin, Janice, and Sandy for assisting with the students.  It was a pleasure to work with these students, and gives us a chance to share our knowledge and experience.  Special thanks to Valerie for helping getting the students out to the island and taking the pictures.

Friday, August 27 Inventory of Nest 6

Nest 6 was laid on Tuesday, June 29 at the top of the island at the jetty. The  nesting turtle laid the nest close to the dune so it did not have to be moved and never got wet as the high tides rolled in.

On Saturday, August 21, day 53 of incubation, an emergence hole was found, and three dead hatchlings had been dragged away from the nest. Inventory was held on Tuesday, August 24, but was stopped when live hatchlings were found just under the sand.  After another wait period, the nest was dug up today. We found 105 hatched eggshells and 10 unhatched eggs. Also found were 3 dead hatchlings and one barely moving live hatchling.  After a few minutes to adjust to being in the world, the hatchling headed for the ocean and the start of a long journey.  Our nest had 116 eggs total laid and a 90.5% hatching success. Another good nest on Waties

A deep nest

Sorting the shells

The egg count

Ready to start a long journey

 

Inventory of Nest 5, Sunday 8/22

 Spitting rain when we left shed, then turned into a beautiful morning.  Very little trash.  

Nest #5 was above MM 4.  This nest was laid on Wednesday, June 23 on nice spot, so it did not have to be relocated.  It emerged on day 57. A small piece of egg shell was found in caged area when we arrived. 

  We found 113 hatched egg shells, two unhatched eggs, a pile of pieces, and two live hatchlings.  This was a great inventory - Hatch success 91.8% and Emergence success 90.2%.

 Hole was 18" deep.

  

 

     This two were sluggish at first, but after a minute or two went right to water.

                            

Sunday team

Thursday, August 19th - Hatchling tracks Nest #5 Emerged, Inventory Nest #4

 It was a dark gray day on the beach today, hot and very humid.  Walking up the beach we saw hatchling tracks coming from Nest #5 which was laid on June 23rd.  Today we saw evidence of hatchling tracks from the nest to the ocean, so we have another emerged nest.  Along with the hatchling tracks, there were Coyote tracks, not sure if they got any hatchlings.  Hopefully, they were just smelling and checking out the hatchling tracks.  There was an eggshell on the surface, probably got there by a Ghost Crab.

The white thing is the eggshell we found on the surface

Lots of tracks, looking toward the ocean

Looking at the nest
from the ocean

Along with hatchling tracks
Coyote tracks

Pesky Ghost Crabs

The Thursday Team along with walking the beach were tasked with the inventory of Nest #4, which emerged on Monday, August 16th.  The metal cage was removed and we found the nest chamber very easy.  It was a really shallow nest, one of the smallest I have dug up.  This nest emerged on day 60, and had great results - there were 78 hatched eggs, 7 unhatched, no live or dead hatchlings were found.  This nest was also washed over 5 times in the past.  The Hatch success was 90.6%, same as the Emergence Success.  She was a small lady only 31 inches wide, but she did a good job!  Sorry, no pictures of the inventory.

Pic of the eggshells we buried
close to the beach access road

WEDNESDAY 8/18/21 NEST 3R INVENTORY

 Got a late start this morning.  Didn't want to chance doing an inventory in the rain.  Saw what  I thought would be a large enough break in the rain and emailed everyone.  Called Leslie.  She met us at the shed and we headed out to the beach.  Very little trash.  

Nest #3R first emerged at 66 days. Our turtle laid 131 eggs.  We knew this ahead of time because we had to relocate (R) this nest. We took 1 egg for research, and lost 2 due to Ghost Crabs, 102 hatched, 26 unhatched.  We had no dead or live hatchlings.  We did have a pile of small pieces (less than 50%) as shown above. 

At Nest #5 we found another egg on the surface. 

Nest #4 emerged at 60 days and will also be inventoried this week.  Due to the wind and rain, this nest showed no signs of having already emerged.  We would never have known that it had emerged by the way it looked today.

Nest #7 is 45 days today.  We brought the cage from Nest 3R, which we had finished inventorying, over to Nest #7. We have been caging our nests at 45 days due to the canine predators digging up our nest.   

We just made it off the beach when it started to pour!

Monday, August 16 Nest #4 Emerged

 Beautiful morning on the beach today.  This is the way to start your day.

Sunrise over the Marsh

Beautiful cloud formations this morning

Here comes the sun.  This is
behind the dunes, lots
of animal tracks

Love this driftwood picture

We normally we do not see large holes or digging by humans on the island.  This large structure was left and the deep trenches were not covered up.   I am sure, the people who left this, did not think about the wildlife on the island, including the horses and sea turtles that could be tripped, trapped or hurt when they fall into these trenches. 

Nest #4 Emerged - lots of tracks heading to the ocean.  It looks like they emerged during high tide, so they did not have the long walk to the water.

Looking from the
dunes toward the
ocean, lots of tracks

Lots of hatchling tracks

Looking from the ocean to the nest

The other interesting item for the Monday Team was the carcass of a Black-tip Shark on the beach. It was about a 4 1/2 to 5 foot shark.  We did not see a hook or visible injury, but we did not move or touch it.  Hoping the Ghost Crabs and Coyotes enjoy this and leave our nests alone.