Sunday and two inventories

Finally!! We were able to have a day without rain! The skies were heavy as we entered the beach but we had no rain just as the weatherman promised.
Nest 9 was laid on Tuesday, June 11 just below marker 7. It emerged on Tuesday, August 13, day 63 of incubation. Many hatchling tracks were seen heading to the ocean. Today we found 103 hatched eggs and 21 unhatched eggs (one of these was pipped). We also found 4 live hatchlings  in this 3 foot deep nest!! They were lively and ready to go!! With the DNA egg, the total egg count was 125. Hatch success 82%. The DNA on this turtle tells us that she laid four nests in 2014-one on South Litchfield, two on Pawley's Island and one on Debidue Beach. In 2017,  she laid 4 nests on Pawley's and one on Hobcaw. And, now in 2019 she has laid two nests on Waties!!

Nest 10 was laid on  Monday, June 17 between marker 4 and 5 and emerged on Thursday, August 15, day 59. The egg shells were found with difficulty deep  in wet compacted sand. There were 91 hatched eggs and 39 unhatched eggs. 8 live hatchlings were discovered as well as 12 dead ones. 69% hatch success. There were 130 eggs in the nest (counting the one taken for DNA sample). Another  mother trying Waties for the first time after laying on other beaches!! She laid two nests in 2016-at Oak Island and Cedar Island (NC beaches) and this year she has laid a nest on Ocean Isle, Oak Island and Waties!!
Pictures by Leslie, Barb and Paulette
Post by Paulette

Mario and Sarah dug forever at Nest 9

And then they sorted the eggs!!

Each of the four hatchlings was found in the wall of
the deep nest

Egg count

Sharon and Karen worked on Nest 10

A beautiful sight!!

Egg count for nest 10

And Barb found this abandoned tent on the lower end.

Rain Again!

Two days in a row and the third time this week, our patrols have been thwarted by weather. Thunder and lightning prevented scheduled inventories. Hoping for a break tomorrow!

The ride out to the island - dark and stormy

Some slippery mud at the gate

Shelf cloud over Waties

 Thank you Leslie and Val for sharing your pictures today :)

Barb and Steve

Thursday Inventory #12

As we did our walk before the inventory there were some items of interest.  #8 nest which we suspect may have emerged already had a shell on the surface.  The days after a depression was seen there was rain and we have never seen hatchling tracks as evidence of an emergence.

Number 10 also had a depression earlier in the week.  There is a large hole at the reed but the consensus was that it was a ghost crab hole.  Because of the heavy rain yesterday there was no evidence of hatchling tracks.

Our team had found this nest so we were very interested to see what it contained. It is the nest that is up on a ledge. Roger and Jane Ellen who had never dug before went at it with the help of Kinsey.  The nest contained many roots. We found 2 eggs on the surface before we began to dig (considered hatched since after emergence), 97 hatched eggs in the nest,  5 pipped eggs, and 17 unhatched eggs. With the egg taken for research the total came to 122 eggs.

It was a hot, windy day.  The eggshells kept wanting to blow away. Yet as always the beauty of Waties shone through.

WATIES DOWNPOUR

Yep...Those are people you see in the back of the truck!  We gathered at the shed as usual.  Heard thunder in the distance, but wasn't sure what direction it was coming from.  My app only showed lightning, but not what direction it was headed in.  We all checked our apps to see if any of us had an app that would tell us whether it was coming or going.  Someone said, "Rain in 3 minutes."  Sure enough...it rained in 4.  We waited 25 minutes until the rain stopped.  Checked our apps again and everyone agreed, no sign of lightning and just spotted rain in the area.  We headed out to check from the beach.  Didn't quite make it!!!  

                              Turned around and headed back to the shed.  Never got to check the nests.

 

The old car chassis on the lower end of the island - more showing

Tuesday, August 13, Inventory of Nest #11 and emergence of Nest #9

Another beautiful morning on Waties Island and getting busy. The inventory for Nest #11, which emerged on day 52 went well. This is one on our Special Needs Turtle (SNT) nest.  The nest was actually a lot deeper than we thought, we thought we would find a shallow nest.  This is the nest we found with an egg sitting on top of a pile of sand, and we could see eggs at the top of the egg chamber.  The inventory results were 110 eggs hatched, 16 unhatched eggs, and no live hatchlings. Sadly, we had 6 dead hatchlings. This comes to a hatching success rate  of 85.2%, and an emergence success rate of 80.6%. This nest lost 4 eggs, 1 for the DNA study, and three to Ghost Crabs.

Another beautiful morning

This nest is deeper than we thought

Keep digging

Sorting the egg shells

The Tuesday Walkers also found that Nest #9 had emerged on day 63.  This was our "nest in the ditch".  This inventory will be scheduled and set up for later this week.  Many thanks to Kinsey for her pictures!

Those pesky Ghost Crabs.  We did catch a large Ghost Crab in the trap we set yesterday.  Hoping he enjoyed the scenic flight over the dune.  All Ghost Crab holes were filled and soundly packed.  Nothing new was reported for Nest #8 on the lower end.

A whole eggshell was found at the top of
 these Ghost Crab Holes,
 they are about 3 feet , and left of the DNR sign

Those pesky Ghost Crabs

Monday, August 12 another emergence Nest 12

The day started with a beautiful sunrise, nice breeze and good company.  We had an exciting morning.

Nest #12 Emerged on day 53.  Due to the weather yesterday, we did not see any tracks.  However, when we checked the emergence hole, we could see a hatchling at the top of the nest chamber.  It was alive, no action taken, so hopefully, it will be well rested and head to the ocean when it is cooler.

If you look closely, you can see
 the outline of a hatchling

 
We have two other nests which have depressions, #9, and #10.

 Nest 10

Nest 9

Unfortunately, we also saw ATV tracks on the upper end of the beach. which was disturbing.  They attempted to go up into the dunes, rode in the back of the dunes, did donuts in front of  nest #18 making a mess with deep tire tracks.  They even went up into the dunes by our PN nest by the jetty.  Most of the destructive tracks are above M8 to M9.  They did get on the beach from the old ATV entrance, around M5. 

EMERGED: Nest 11, the SNT

At least we're pretty sure this nest was laid by our "special needs turtle". This one is up at the jetty and the walkers today did see lots of tracks. Today is day 52 for this nest.

Several other nests are about the same age and should show activity soon.

Nest 11

Hatchlings!

Today there was a bit more trash than we have been seeing lately; the tides bring up strange things... A pair of rusted yard clippers! How do things like that float?

 

Barb and Steve