Night Walk on Thursday & Nest 5 Emergence

These photos were taken last night without a flash and only a small red light was shining on the hole. Hatchlings climbing out of the nest.

This little one is making its way out of the nest.

Out of the nest and heading for the ocean.

Full moon made for a great night for a walk last night on Waties Island!

Amazing Night

Last night 11 sea turtle monitors, CCU students and a few friends took part in a Night Walk with Karen on Waties Island. What an awesome night - we got to see nest 5 emerge and ~80 loggerhead hatchlings make their way to the ocean! Since Nest 5 was relocated, we know that there were 125 eggs - so, maybe more hatchlings emerged after we left or maybe they'll come out tonight? The mosquitoes and no-see-ums were relentless, but it was definitely worth all the bites to see such a sight!

WET BUT FUN

There was no thunder and lightning, but the Doppler showed rain so we were prepared.  As we got to the beach and headed up towards the inlet, the sky was completely grey except for this little slit of sun peeking through the clouds. 

As we walked we checked and questioned.

We noted a new set of tracks just a few yards in from where we park.  The sand was wet and clear of any tracks but these going diagonally across the entrance to the beach.

We laughed and had a good time in the rain and enjoyed our morning on Waties.

Nest #9 Inventoried on Saturday

More hatchling tracks spotted at False Crawl #26 on Saturday morning

Lisa Scarano, former Waties Island monitor & CCU intern, from SCDNR uses her checklist.

Brianna & Haley begin the inventory on Nest #9 (formerly False Crawl #26).

Girls get help with digging from CCU students

Lisa is willing & ready to help!

Few more photos from Saturday

Steve helping our younger volunteers

Inventory on Nest #4 begins

A live hatchling turns out to be a GREAT surprise!

Two Surprises

 Our Saturday inventory led to some very pleasant surprises. While digging up nest four, we came across this little hatchling. It was very weak, but we gave it a little head start in its long journey ahead.

Here again is the little fellow making its way to the ocean.

 After digging up the nest, we discovered 100 eggs. 91 had hatched, while 9 remained unhatched.

 Say hello to nest number nine, our wild nest near marker seven. The nest was very deep, and we came across two dead turtles before discovering a very lively hatchling just raring to go.

 This is the video of the first hatchling from nest number four making its way to the ocean.

 This one depicts the start of the journey for our second little hatchling.

Our inventory of the wild nest came to 114 eggs. 70 hatched, 44 unhatched.