Tuesday, July 19th - Nest 18 and 19

 The Tuesday volunteers had a "2 Nest Day".  The first crawl we saw was between Marker 3 and Marker 4, closer to Marker 4.  We continued with our walk and discovered the second crawl of the day between Marker 4 and Marker 5, close to Marker 5.  We walked a little further and split up, Rachel finished walking the long end, and Sherrie and Leslie headed back to Nest 19 site.

Nest #19 - The only part of the crawl visible was in the wet sand, the rest of the track was blown over.  This was the same for both crawls, thus no really clear pictures of the entire crawl.  She crawled up to this ledge on the side of the dune.  The egg chamber was a piece of cake to find using the two ghost crab holes, found the egg chamber on the second probe.  The egg chamber was shallow.  Sherrie did the DNA vial and Rachel was back to help us with the poles.  This nest will need to be watched for Ghost Crab depredation.  There were several  Ghost Crab holes around this body pit, including ones on the side of the dune.

Crawl in the dry sand just disappeared

Tracks in the wet sand

Ghost Crab Holes

Nested on the side of the dune - nice and high and dry

Sherrie doing the DNA vial

Nest #19 - job well done

Nest #18 - as mentioned above the crawl tracks were gone from the "dry" sand due to the wind. The normal things that we use to help identify where the nest chamber is located, thrown sand, crescent shape in the sand, disturbed vegetation were not present due to the heavy rains and wind we have been getting.  This egg chamber was not easy to find.. The sand was hard and we could hear the crunching of plant roots while probing.  We did find a place where the sand was soft, but digging did not produce any eggs.  At this time, it was 9:00 and the volunteers had other commitments so I drove them back to the shed.

I went back out and with some help we found the nest chamber.  We were so close the first time around, but the nest was found.  This nest chamber was deep about a foot in depth.  I did the DNA vial, posts were put up and we were done.  

The crawl we spotted

Rachel spotted the body pit

Leslie gets to do the DNA vial

Nest #18

The other items of interest on Waties Island is the number of soaring Pelicans we saw today and our Nest #01 has a small crack on top of the nest - it is 55 days old today.  Exciting times are coming!

Soaring Pelicans

Nest #1 has a small crack by the reed