Monday, August 14- Inventory of Nest 2R

                              ***WARNING: CUTENESS OVERLOAD AHEAD…

 Nest 2R has provided volunteers and guests with repeated good feels from it’s inception to today’s wrap up activities. 

A hot and humid, but beautiful and breezy morning as our Monday volunteers completed their survey of the beach checking our incubating nests. All looked good, undisturbed, and peacefully doing their thing.

On the return trip, they were met by additional volunteers to complete the inventory of Nest 2R. This nest was laid on June 16th, and our Friday volunteers had the privilege of  observing mamma finishing up covering the nest and heading back to the ocean. They watched in awe as she made her return to the water. She was big, and she was beautiful.  Very rare treat indeed!

Because the newly laid nest was just at the high tide line, it was relocated further up toward the dune. The clutch contained 150 eggs! With three found broken within the nest, 147 eggs were re-homed.

The nest had some ghost crab issues early on, but their activity was minimized through installation of a screen. It was caged at 45 days. 

On Friday, August 11, at 56 days, volunteers observed a textbook emergence- a clear exit hole from the nest chamber with lots of nicely spread out hatchling tracks heading into the sea. Today, three days following the emergence, we got to dig into the chamber to monitor he success of the nest.

Leslie provided volunteers and guests with a brief history of the nest and reminds us of the procedures involved in completing the inventory. The various tasks are assigned, giving everyone an opportunity to participate.

The chamber was quickly located and eggs, both hatched and unhatched, were excavated and passed on to those assigned to sorting and counting. 

                                                               A total team effort!

We had not been digging long when movement and a tiny flipper was observed within the cavity. All were thrilled to see this sweet hatchling, full of life, rescued from the nest. 

Then there was another….and another.. and …

Before the nest was emptied, 23 robust hatchlings, eager to continue their journey, were lifted from the chamber.

Nest results were as follows: 115 eggs hatched, 28 unhatched, 0 dead hatchlings, 23 live -and vigorous - hatchlings. Hatch success 76.6%. Emergence success 61.3%. 

Finally, it was time to take these babies closer to the water for their release. Lots of photo opps on the way.

And off they go! They are placed close to, but not at the water’s edge to provide them with the opportunity to get those flippers fully operational and to provide for their geomagnetic imprinting which will allow mammas to return to their natal beach when they reach maturity. 

While getting out of the nest is usually a cooperative effort, crawling to the sea is a race -it’s every turtle for himself herself. 

                                                                 Bye- see y’all later!

God’s speed little ones. What a grand adventure awaits. See you in 25 years❤️

Photos: group effort, narrative by Kim **Note, many of you took great photos and videos today not displayed here. I couldn’t get any video over 5 seconds to post. As Leslie has noted, per DNR, you are permitted to post your pics to social media to share this great experience with others as long as the below permit wording is included in your post🔽

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

Sunday August 13th- False Crawl #6 Turns into Nest #10

 It was a very hot and humid morning, so the Sunday Volunteers wanted to make it a quick one to avoid the heat. Apparently, the universe had other plans. Erin walked the short end of the beach, leaving Dani and Mario to walk the longer end. 

One thing that we all quickly noticed was the amount of trash that was out on the beach this morning. Most of it was small pieces of plastic and wrappers but we each collected between 10 and 15 lbs of trash in our bags. Made for very heavy bags to carry back at the end of our walk. All of the nests looked great and the breeze really helped with the heat. Mario and Dani were a little ahead of Erin but not far. She was getting caught up to them when Mario called and told her there were about 60 hatchling tracks scattered all over the beach, almost to the very end of the beach.

Erin rushed to them and called Leslie to tell her. There have been many false crawls near the jetty this season and after taking GPS readings and looking at photos, it has been decided that False Crawl #6 is now Nest #10! The nest was marked accordingly, and all the information was recorded. There was a good amount of hatchling tracks so my hopes for this inventory are high!

Narrative by Erin. Photos by Erin & Mario

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

Friday, August 11 - Emergence of Nest 2R

 With nesting season winding down, our sunrise walks on the beach become even more precious, and we set our sights on locating those sweet tiny hatchling tracks vs the monster mamma tracks from earlier in the season.

                           Melissa and daughter Cherith head up the beach into a beautiful sunrise

Happily, as we approached Nest 2R, we observed a textbook emergence- clear exit hole from the nest chamber with lots of nicely spread out hatchlings tracks heading into the sea. 

This nest was laid on June 16, and our Friday volunteers were able to observe mamma finishing up covering the nest and heading back to the ocean🔽 The nest was relocated due to its being laid right at the high tide line. Emergence was at 56 days.

Lots of ghost crab tracks and a coyote taking an up-close interest in Nest 3 on top of the dune. May be indicative of some perceived movement within the nest?

Lots of beautiful shorebirds taking advantage of the ebbing tide along the causeway as we returned to the mainland. A fitting end to a great morning on the Island.

                                                          Pictures by Melissa and Kim

Waite’s Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500. 

Wednesday, August 9th - Inventory of Nest #1 - Finally

Wednesday, August 9th - Inventory of Nest #1 

Another beautiful morning on Waties.

The morning was better than I thought and expected.  The Wednesday Volunteers along with Barb and Steve Demusz, and guest Connor completed our first nest inventory for Nest #1.  This nest was laid on May 24th and was well located, out of the wrack line and high enough so it would not over-wash.  It was found by the Wednesday Volunteers. We did not see any of the normal signs of hatching or emergence from this nest.  We had one hatchling track on Sunday, and this little one exited via a small ghost crab hole.  This was day 77 so after discussing with SCDNR we dug into the nest chamber this morning.  The sand was very hard and compressed, and after moving our digging over about five inches we finally found the egg chamber and eggs.  We were pleasantly surprised to find 66 hatched, 55 unhatched eggs which included 1 pipped egg. This poor little one was right at the bottom of the nest chamber.  Total egg count was 121 for the clutch.  The nest results for both Hatched and Emergence was 54.5%.  Not our best result, but those little ones had to escape via the crab hole, since that sand was like concrete and they were unable to dig themselves out.  All hatchlings from the hatched eggs got out, we did not find any deceased hatchlings.

Removing the cage, and waiting for the Volunteers.

Volunteers and Connor working as a team - it takes a village

 

 

 

 

 

 

The common question this morning was "how did all of these hatchling get out without "us" seeing tracks". I guess the wind or rain wiped out the tracks, and on Waties we have had a number of rainy mornings and days, nightly storms and the wind, which we get alot of strong winds which would cover up or just blow these tracks away.

All other nests are good.  Nest #2 is 54 days old today, so this nest may soon be emerging.

We did not see the Woodstorks this morning, but sharing yesterday's picture of these beautiful birds thanks to Barbara.

Thanks to all!

Text by Leslie, Pictures by Leslie, Barbara and Valerie

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

Monday, August 7, 2023

 At the causeway this morning we had two beautiful sites.  About two dozen wood storks feeding in the marsh and the start of another spectacular sunrise!

Nest #01 did not emerge, just a small crab hole right inside the cage that one hatchling used to exit the nest.  Since this nest is now 75 days old we can inventory, but since a hatching came out yesterday we are going to wait and see if we have a large emergence, when all hatchlings make it out. 

Leslie joined our group this morning and we discussed doming the nest to make it easier for the hatchlings.  

Doming.    During incubation, it is possible for the sand to harden over the nest creating a hard encrusted layer, that may prevent hatchlings from emerging.  If a nest is older than 40 days, we can loosen the surface sand down to about 6”. From digging out the cage, the sand was like cement, very hard and compacted. When we loosened the sand close to the nest, the sand texture was the same, very hard and compacted.  Hopefully, loosening the sand will help these hatchlings.

So the first step is removing the cage.  Jewel and Leslie digging deep into the hard as cement sand to remove cage.

Being very careful, we worked at loosening sand about 6” from around the nest.  The reed did get broken off, so Leslie replaced very carefully.  Then we had to replace cage and smooth out the sand from digging out the cage.

All done, and hoping Tuesday crew sees some tracks!

The island never disappoints on cool thing we find on our walks - today a living bi-valve cockle.  Cockles usually burrow their foot in the sand.  Donna went to pick it up and take it closer to water but it had its foot buried in the sand, so we just left it.

Pictures by Leslie & Sharon

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

Sunday, August 6th - Nest #1 has a little action

The Sunday Volunteers reported that we had one hatchling that emerged using a Ghost Crab hole to exit the nest chamber.  This one little one made it to the ocean.  Hopefully, tomorrow we will see many other hatchling tracks.  This nest will be 75 days old tomorrow.

Good morning

Nest #1

The Ghost Crab hole is inside of the cage, see the tracks

Hatchling tracks made it to the ocean

Beach Find - Sea Star