June 4, 2014 False Crawl

 Beautiful morning!

Good Morning Turtle Walkers!

 Our only turtle sighting today.

 Wednesday Walkers on the North End

 Our Special Needs Turtle is Desperately Determined! She does deserve a name! I vote for DeeDee.

 Wish we could help her...

 Nature's Bounty!

Not the kind of crawl we like to see!


Regena Heilmann

SHE WAS BACK AGAIN THIS MORNING

As soon as we got to the beach,  we saw a crawl.  Our SN turtle (who needs a name) was back again last night.  She tried about four times to nest as she headed toward mm #2.   

 She sure is trying hard!

We thought that possibly this time she was finally able to nest.  But we came up empty.  No eggs.  She would have been in a good spot had she been able to dig her nest.

Valerie

June 1 - Another Crawl on the Beach

This morning we discovered another crawl around Marker 3, but unlike Thursday and Saturday, we were unable to find a nest. There was evidence that the turtle attempted to dig a nest chamber but didn't complete it.

We've seen this before, most recently in 2012 when we had a record of 32 false crawls. Of this number, 23 and possibly more could be attributed to what came to be known as our "special needs" turtle. That season, with the permission of SC DNR, a small group of volunteers went out to the island to observe that turtle at night only to discover that she was missing her right rear flipper which accounted for the uneven tracks.

Her tracks are different from a normal loggerhead in that the right flipper track is deeply grooved while the left track is much smoother. We also saw this turtle back in 2009; that year she did lay one nest, the the total false crawls for the season was 22 - an unusually high number.

Today's outgoing tracks (looking toward the dunes)

 

Outgoing tracks - see the deep grooves on her right side?

Crawl from 2012 with distinctive pattern

2012 incoming tracks - deep groves on right side

If history repeats itself, we may be in for a busy season...

Barb and Steve

Nest Number Two...5/31/2014

The Saturday Team is all smiles after finding nest number 2!!

On the left our loggerhead was very determined...
on the right so tired as she returned to the sea!

New volunteers dig the nest.

Eggs found!!

They're the size of a ping-pong ball.

 Tracye & TJ retrieve an egg for DNA testing.

Egg shell off to the lab.

The jetty nest is just barely above the tide line...we will remain hopeful.
We're off to a good start this season!

View from the nest.

Turtle crawl prints and ours.

 First Nest On Waties, 5/29/14            

                                                  Just another beautiful sunrise!

Gorgeous!

                                               

And they're off

Flossie starting to document

Deep discussion!

Jim Collins starting to probe

Steve, "I think I found it!

Regena, got one for DNA testing

The Nesting site 

The ghost crab had already been exploring...

Flossie and Elaine taking measurements

First sample of the season

Nest #1 May 29, 2014

Turtle Sighting!!!

A turtle sighting this morning ---









on our way back from the beach. A diamondback terrapin was crossing the causeway, so we stopped to check it out. It's right front leg seemed to be deformed which may be why it was a little slow, but other than that, it seemed fine. Beautiful pattern on the carapace.

Sea turtles are next !!

Thursday, 5/22/14

No crawls, but just another beautiful morning on Waties!