Monday, Update on Nest #1 and Nest #2

 After discussion with SCDNR today it was decided to use the picture of the Emergence Hole taken on 7/29 as the Emergence Date, even though no hatchling tracks were seen or reported.  This means the nest emerged on day 84.  An Emergency Inventory was done this afternoon by Barb, Steve,  and Leslie.  The nest chamber was uncovered and we recovered the eggshells and eggs found.  Here's our findings - 76 eggs hatched, 35 Unhatched, 1 dead hatchling.  Nest #1 had a Hatch Success of 66.5% and an Emergence Success 65.7%.  Not bad for a nest that sat this long.  

Nest #1 was laid on May 6th - the earliest nest ever laid on Waties Island.  It was a classic crawl, she came in on high tide, crawled to the base of the dune, changed her mind, crawled around did a loop-d-loop and finally nested.  Her crawl width was 34 inches and her nest was 13 inches deep. She laid her nest right passed Marker 6.

 The Monday Team discovered an Emergence Hole at Nest #2 today.  Again, no hatchling tracks, but with the wind we had on Sunday afternoon and the storms last night not surprising we did not see anything.  The inventory of this nest will be done by the Thursday Team.

So happy that Nest #1 hatched and emerged - many of us had a great concern for this nest.  Since this inventory was done really fast, just a couple of pictures.

The inventory outcome

Leslie double-checking counts,
Barb recording