A beautiful morning on Waties
On Friday, October 3, we walked for what might be our last time this year.
We found two egg shells near the pole marking the spot where some possibly
viable eggs were buried after last Friday's inventory of nest 7, between markers
3 and 4. Is that a depression near the pole?
We had a little trash fun with the Mom and Dad Coke cans that Jingle picked up.
A beautiful morning with much laughter and joy.

NEST #7's INVENTORY

 CCU Turtle Club members joined us for the inventory of nest #7 this morning.  Before getting to nest 7 we found a dead hatchling on the beach.  The result of one of the many dangers these hatchlings face as they make their way to the Sargassum sea weed some 40 miles off our coast.    

Here Karen explains what we will be doing.

Three of the Turtle Club members put on their gloves before opening up the nest as Karen Fuss, of CCU, and Sean Miller, of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, looks on.

A smaller than usual egg is found.  Barb Demusz explains to the students that Leatherback Turtles will often lay small eggs, called spacer eggs when laying their nests.  This is unusual for our Loggerhead Turtle nests.

Looking on as the eggs are counted are Linda, Steve D., Paulette, Sean Miller of SCDNR, and Karen Fuss of CCU.

As the turtle club members pull out the eggs, Barb D. and Jingle sort and count the hatched and unhatched eggs. 

One barely alive hatchling is pulled from the nest.   He made it to the waters edge, but  for as long as we watched him, he was never able to make it beyond the surf.

Barb and Jingle give us the final count:  93 hatched, 20 unhatched + 1 for the DNR study for a total of 114 eggs.  One live hatchling.

 

Could We Have Another Nest? Time Will Tell.

We had a wonderful sunrise this morning as we made our way to check on Nest 7 and Nest 8.  There was nothing new with either nest.      

 As we walked back to the entrance, Dave suggested, since it was such a beautiful morning, that we check the false crawl that was below mm 2.
This is what we saw when we got there...just to the front and to the left of the pole we saw what just may be a depression. 

This false crawl was found on July 19th, 63 days ago.  Which would be right, if in fact we actually have a nest. 



Time will tell.

Inventory of our Wild Nest

This nest was first discovered on the lower end of the island when shells were spotted on the sand at the edge of a dune along with a hatchling partially in its shell in the clutches of a Ghost Crab.  Because the nest would be definitely and heavily  washed over due to the expected high tide and its location, it was decided to relocate it.                                  

While Steve H. and Flossy dug up the nest, they found some of the shells in a hole that continued to the right.  Probably a Ghost Crab.

The relocated nest had 67 viable eggs in it.  Only 2 unhatched eggs were found at inventory today.  65 hatched!! These totals were added to the numbers collected over the past 11 days since we first discovered the nest to make up the totals below.

These totals were submitted to SCDNR today: 

106 eggs were laid in the original nest.

91 hatched and 15 were unhatched, for 80% success rate!!

We teased Dave that he was personally responsible for 65 of these turtles making it to the water!!

 

In addition to the new gate where the horses turn off to the left, we have another sign and two poles with a line stretching across the entrance to the beach.

Donna Lewis, from the Coastal Educational Foundation, met us at the shed this morning and joined Steve H., Flossy and Bill, Paulette, Karen (a new walker), Dave and I on the beach for the inventory.




Valerie

CCU Family Weekend on Waties Island on Saturday

Many thanks to Barb, Steve, Valerie, Flossie, Bill, Lyndsey and Kristin for helping with Family Weekend visitors on Waties Island yesterday. Despite the heat and unsettled weather, they did a great job teaching families about the Waties Island sea turtle monitoring program! Bill also showed his tremendous driving skills by getting the last van of the afternoon unstuck from the sand!

CCU students and volunteer monitors, Lyndsey and Kristin, share their knowledge with visiting families.

Flossie explaining to the group about nest #9 emerging again on Friday night and showing them the hatchling tracks.

About 11 a.m. a lone hatchling from Nest #9 decided to make a run for the ocean - such a treat to see for the visitors and us!

Almost everyone had phones out taking photos of this hatchling making a grand escape to the water!

Thursday Morn. Great to be Back

Not a good day for Nest #9! Lot's of Ghost Crab holes/tracks, empty shells

Great Sunrise on the causeway

Even better on the beach

 

Love being........

BACK!

'The Girls' going out

A Mollusk by any other name

:-)

See Ya!

 

Bill Chapman

1 of 3 Nest Inventories on Sunday

Nest #6 had the following inventory results: 110 hatched, 6 unhatched, 1 dead and 3 live hatchlings



Inventory being conducted on Nest #6

Tara and David pulling egg shells out of Nest #6

1 hatchling is swimming away while 2 others make their way to the water.



2 hatchlings moving toward the water