HI All - No news about Nest #10, but it was so beautiful out there this morning, both Bill and Leslie took pictures, so we are just sharing these with everyone. Bill did find a ladies black bathing suit top up by the jetty. He also took an awesome series of pictures of an Osprey. Enjoy!
Pictures compliments of Bill and Leslie - are in no order
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| Find of the day, did not find the bottoms |
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| Osprey taking off |
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Today with the Thursday Team we had 13 CCU Sea Turtle Club members to do the inventory on Nest #9R - the "R" denotes this nest was relocated from where the mother had originally laid the nest. The nest was moved since it was laid by Hog Inlet where the beach is subject to erosion. This nest was laid on July 24th, 82 eggs were laid, one egg was sacrificed for the DNA study. The eggs were moved to a place between Marker 2 and Marker 3, close to the beach access road. On September 12th a depression was reported and finally on September 19th hatchling tracks were reported.
The nest outcome was 68 hatched, 11 unhatched, 0 for both dead and live hatchlings. 82.9% for both Hatched and Emergence Success. Valerie did open one of the eggs and showed the students a deceased hatchling and how it was curled up with the egg yolk sac - they were very interested in this information.
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| Gloves handed out |
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| Ready to go |
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| The Diggers and Helpers |
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| The Helpers and Sorters |
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| Valerie showing a deceased hatchling |
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| Inventory Results |
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| CCU Sea Turtle Club members |
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| Large Bird - possible young Eagle, had large wing span |
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| Pesky Ghost Crab |
The students observed these white "tubes" on the beach - in the surf zone. At first they looked like sea urchin spines, but they were soft, not hard. Val looked this up when she got home - they are Limp Soda Straw Worm Tubes. Information shared with the Sea Turtle Club Board.
We have one nest left. Pictures compliments of Bill C and Leslie P
Great news today, Nest 9R emerged, finally. A depression was reported on 9/12 but no activity since that date. Yes, the reed was leaning over, and the depression bigger, but no signs of hatchlings. From their tracks, many made it out, hopefully close to high tide. This nest was one of our "relocated" nests. It was laid on July 24th, at Hog Inlet, but it was in an area of the beach that is an erosion zone. Her track was 33 inches wide. The nest was moved after Marker 2, left of the beach access road - a nice high dry area of the beach. She laid 82 eggs, and one was used for our DNA sample. An inventory date will be announced.
There were also 2 hatched eggs found on the surface, and Jewel saw a movement in the sand, right where our hatchlings come out. Looking closer, it was a Ghost Crab, Leslie removed the cage, confiscated the two eggshells, and quickly grabbed the Ghost Crab and flung him from the nest. Before flinging, the volunteers were given a "watch out" warning.
Very nice morning to walk and enjoy the sun rise. It will soon be over, we have one more nest to go.
Today we had both volunteers and members of the CCU Sea Turtle Club who participated in the 2021 Sea Grant Beach Sweep. We tried to cover areas that our volunteers normally do not address when we do our morning walks; behind the dunes, the area of the new swash, and the jetty.
At the end of our allotted time, the teams tallied up their trash collecting results, these results will be reported back to the SC Sea Grant Consortium.. Many thanks to Barb Demusz who organized and managed this event and to all who took some of their Saturday time to assist in this effort.
