Wednesday 8/31/22 Inventory & Emergence

 Lots of very large mosquitoes at beach parking and in the dunes where we did the inventory.  We had a good showing of walkers, two of which were fairly new to inventories.  The  weather was cloudy and warm.  We were fortunate that Nest 11R was at the entrance to the beach.

Starting the inventory on Nest 11R

We had a windy summer and lots of sand accumulation on the nests.  It took awhile for those digging to get to the egg shells.

Because this nest was located at the entrance to the beach it had to be relocated into the dune.  Half way down into the nest, during the process of relocating the eggs, they found 5 eggs that were broken.  They took one of these for the DNA study and recorded the loss.

Including the 5 broken eggs, this turtle laid a total of 92 eggs so they transferred 87 eggs into the new nest.  When we opened the nest we had:

Unhatched eggs: 12

Hatched egg shells >50%: 74

Dead Hatchlings: 3

Live Hatchlings: 0

Lots of pieces which could account for the missing one.

Nest #11R had an 80.4% Hatching Success & 77.1% Emergence Success

While we did the inventory, Leslie and Kim walked up the beach to check on the other nests.  The rest of us followed after completing the inventory.  We could see in the distance that Leslie and Kim were checking something out up in the dune.  As we got closer, sure enough, we saw the Hatchling tracks.

Nest #14 had emerged at day 55.  

All-in-all it was a very productive morning and our new walkers were able to see what a Hatchling track looks like vs a Ghost Crab track.

Thanks to Leslie P. and Barb D. for the pictures.