Friday , September 1, post Idalia and Inventory of Nest 4

 Here at the beach, after a display of her mighty power, Mother Nature often rewards us with beautiful sunrises, brilliant skies, crystal blue seas, and cool refreshing temperatures. Such has been the case since Tropical Storm Idalia sped by our coast this past week. 

 Team leads hit the island Thursday soon after the skies cleared to assess the condition of the dunes and our remaining 6 nests following the triple threat we had this week - full moon/king tides, hurricane Franklin churning out in the Atlantic, and TS Idalia passing right over us.

To our delight, we found the high encroaching tides did little damage to the causeway or the dunes. We were able to locate all 6 remaining nests thanks to the red wooden stakes put in place after removing the normal poles, DNR signs, screens and cages in preparation for the storm. There was lots of wrack on the beach indicating the reach of the high tides. Only two nests showed evidence of being over washed. 

We reinstalled the normal markers and placed cages on those nests close to hatching/emergence. 

Today, with the storm in our rear view mirror, we were charged with the task of inventorying Nest 4. This nest was laid on Thursday, July 6, during a storm with heavy rain which precluded an early morning survey of the beach. Leslie and Bill went out later that morning and were surprised to see faint tracks from a determined mamma undeterred by the storm. 

After lots of probing, the nest cavity was discovered at the base of the dune and declared Nest 4. 

On August 28th, day 53, Monday volunteers noted a depression of the nest cavity with just a few tracks heading toward the ocean and deemed it a partial emergence. A few days later, 2 more hatching tracks were discovered. With the king tides, wind, and worsening conditions, it could be that a larger emergence had occurred or would occur shortly. After our inspection of the nest yesterday, it was decided to conduct the inventory today. 

It was fitting that Thursday volunteers Kim P. and Ayana got to dig into the nest since they missed the opportunity to discover the nest previously due to the storm. And dig they did! The egg chamber proved difficult to find, and they moved a mountain of sand before finally locating it. 

                                It was all hands on deck, digging, transferring, sorting and counting. 

After all the uncertainty surrounding it’s emergence, we were quite pleased with the outcome- 105 hatched eggs, 24 unhatched eggs, 0 dead or live hatchlings. 80.7% hatched and emergence rate. 

One hundred and five sons and daughters bracketed by two storms are on their way! Let’s hope it’s all clear skies and smooth sailing from here😊

Photos by Ayana, Bill, Melissa, Leslie and Kim. Text by Kim

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500

F