Hi All - Kim, Valerie and I were able to drive out to the beach today. Thankfully, the Stable and Dallas on the heavy equipment cleared the trees off of the CCU beach access road, and smoothed the road over the dunes to the beach. From the beach access road toward the horse entrance, the first dune line is gone. There are places where the tidal surge went around the dunes, lots of wrack left behind the dunes in this area. The PVC pipes that held our numbered Marker Post - we have the posts for #1, #2, #3, and the last one we found was #4 - all others are gone. In this area of the beach there are large trees on the beach and lots of wrack.
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| Beach Parking area |
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| Beach Access Road |
Kim and I attempted to find Nest #23 using GPS, and she found a hatched eggshell on the beach. Attempting to view pictures and using GPS we marked this area to look at it again on Saturday. She has placed the hatched egg in a glove for safe keeping. We found no others. I am going to print out pictures to use on Saturday, it's too hard to try to do via your cell, especially in the bright sun and the glare.
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| Our best guess where Nest #23 is located |
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| On our walk back to the truck, we marked the area with the white poles we took with us |
Valerie walked on to check the rest of the beach and ended up at Nest #20 - which she found. Kudo's to Valerie for finding this nest. The cage was located behind the dune, and the PVC pipe was gone, but she spotted the area, including the reed that marks the nest. We replaced the cage over the nest, and secured it with white poles that we had walked out with. We will inventory on Saturday.
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| Valerie showing us where she found the cage that was protecting Nest 20 |
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| Caged again, and the reed is still visible |
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| Nest is secured again. Another foot of dune loss and this nest would of been gone |
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| Nest 20 - we will be back on Saturday |
At the long end of the island, where the larger dunes are located, they are sliced off like someone used a butter knife on them. The same area that breached during Hurricane Isaias breached this time also. This area is still draining fresh water back into the ocean. However, this area is walk able and drive able - it is not deep like it was after Hurricane Isaias. In this area - between Marker 7 and Marker 8 there were several places that the ocean breached behind the dune. These areas are not draining any fresh water.
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| Fresh water draining into the ocean |
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| Kim following the water stream |
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| The water is brown due to the fresh water tannin |
Narrative by Leslie, pics by Valerie, Kim and Leslie
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