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