Monday, July 17th, False Crawl #16

 We started out with a beautiful sunrise, but it was already very hot.  Not breeze at all.

Midway up the island Donna and Jewel spotted a picture book crawl.  In coming tracks shorter than outgoing and definite a loggerhead markings.  

She almost made it to top of dune, but she just stopped .  Notice the imprint of her head and flippers in picture below. Pretty cool!

She must have slid down the dune a little before turning to go out.  No evidence of thrown sand or body pit.  So this became F.C. #16 to our disappointment.  Jewel says I know this doesn’t make sense but the walk up in the heat is only 2 miles, but the walk back seems like 6 miles.”  Very hot with no breeze and gnats were a slight bother.

Monday team

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

Sunday July 16, 2023

It started as a cloudy morning with a lot of wind, which kept Leslie, Erin, Allie and Mario cool during patrol. Leslie walked the short end of the island while everyone else walked the long end. At the jetty, Mario found a half-eaten stingray along the beach and said he could see the shark he thinks ate it in the water when he looked out. 

After talking with Saturday's team of volunteers, the Sunday team decided to take a turn at trying to find the eggs from what could be nest #7. Leslie met the rest of the team at the nest site with her truck once everyone finished walking. Due to all of the wind the sand was very soft, and it was difficult to find where the possible nest was located. The tracks were gone but we could see the outline of the body pit. However, we could not see where the Saturday team had probed or dug due to the windblown sand. Leslie and Erin first started to probe and take a guess at where the nest could be. Soon after, Mario and Allie took over.

After probing the entire body pit area, Leslie suggested trying where the outgoing tracks would have been if we could see them. After a few probes, Mario sunk into the sand, which means they found a spot to dig!

Unfortunately, the diffing did not last long and the nest has still not been found. It was tedious work put in by the Sunday team but we will continue to keep an eye on the area. Leslie drove everyone back to the shed and it was a successful walk. We were very thankful for the wind to keep us cool along the way. 

Photos and Dialogue done by Erin Dean

 

Saturday, July 15 - More Turtle Action

Guess this warm weather agrees with those nesting turtles - this morning we were lucky to have not just one, but two crawls.

Sunrise stroll

Those are some big tracks!

Where are those eggs?

This one was a very big turtle; her tracks were 40 inches wide! Sure looked like a nest but after a half an hour of probing and more probing, we couldn't find an egg chamber :(  We did decide to mark the location and have the Sunday team take another look.

Luckily that wasn't the only crawl and the second one proved easy to find. Unfortunately it was laid below the high tide line and we needed to move it higher on the beach.

Smaller turtle

This nest was pretty easy to find

 

There they are and now to get them a little higher up on the beach above the tide line.

Safely housed in a new chamber.

Great Job Team!!

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP 500.

Friday, July 14 - Nest # 05R

 Hot and humid morning on the Island. Thankfully a beautiful partially cloudy sky and a good breeze helped make it more pleasurable and kept the bugs at bay.

As we approached the upper end of the Island, we discovered a large crawl (37-38”) against this amazing  backdrop. Long crawl out of the wet sand and up the face of the dune. (Beautiful pic Melissa!)

Exploring further, we located a potential body pit on top of the dune, noted that momma slid down the back of the dune - a steep drop off, then crawled her way back up about 25 feet along the backside of the dune, crested the dune, back down the front and out to the ocean. 

                                   Potential body pit within the incoming crawl at the top of the dune

                             View from the top of the dune of the outgoing crawl. (Incoming on the left)

We probed for a bit in the area that looked most likely, but it became evident this was not going to be quick find- if at all. The remainder of the beach was covered, then we returned, determined to find a nest. We probed extensively, but the nest chamber eluded us. Difficult to locate due the contour of the top of the dune and the presence of a lot of dune grasses.

As our energy and enthusiasm for continued probing was waning, we did some digging. Encouraged by an area of soft sand, we reprobed an area previously covered, and this time, found the nest chamber. Yay Linda!! 

The nest was deep. Persistence pays off😊

The decision was made to relocate the nest due to its precarious position on the dune (afraid we’d have a slew of hatchlings falling off the back of the dune); due to the abundance of grasses which appeared likely to inundate the nest; and due, in part, to our not so great results with dune-top nests last year.

139 eggs laid, two broken. Relocated 137 eggs to the base of the dune right next to the incoming crawl

Relocating to their new home

Nest 5R - Time to head back - hot, tired, but happy

Pictures by Melissa and Kim

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP 500. 

Thursday, July 13th - Our Little Lady came back, False Crawl #14

 The morning started out warm, humid and thankfully a nice breeze.  Early morning sunrise did not disappoint.

Kim and Sandy heading to the jetty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here comes the sun

 

Leslie walked the short end and Kim and Sandy took the long end to the jetty.  Kim called and we have another crawl right at the jetty.  When I arrived, Sandy informed me the crawl was small.  When you first see the crawl it does not look like a Loggerhead, and due to it's small size, 27 to 28  inches shell width (depending on where you measure), is it  possibly a Loggerhead with a physical issue or a Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle?  Is this the same sea turtle who visited us last Friday? (False Crawl #13)

We will need to have SCDNR help us with species confirmation. 

Looking from the ocean toward the jetty

Loggerheads typically have a "V" shape in their crawl

Her incoming to outgoing tracks are about even

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She worked hard while she was on land.  Crawled over the rocks, started an area, moved on, made another more defined body pit, and crawled back over the rocks, slid down the bank and left.  Her incoming and outgoing tracks were about the same.  We did probe both areas, but ran into rocks and vegetation - you could hear the vegetation  crunching when probing.  Sorry to say we did not find any egg chamber.

This is the most promising, her second area

 

Her first stop, after crawling over the rocks

Picture taken from above, her second stop, body pit?

Probed the second area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She crawled to edge of rocks and slid down

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Woodstorks bid us goodbye

Pictures by Leslie & Kim, Text by Leslie

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

Friday, July 7th - Possible Nest #01 and False Crawl #13

 Beautiful lightning show on our way to the beach this morning. Thankfully, not nearby and not raining. Low tide, wide beach with another photo worthy sunrise. 

As we headed up the beach, we came upon a Loggerhead crawl from the high tide line to the base of the dune. It was pretty wind blown making it difficult to distinguish between the incoming and outgoing crawls. Two possible body pits were present at the base of the dune with a short crawl in between. Both looked promising with what looked like thrown sand and crescent shape. We probed extensively in both areas and dug in the area we thought was most likely- softer sand and ants present- but no nest cavity was located.

                   Because of the presence of a discernible body cavity, we have marked it PN #01.

We continued up the beach, and, at the far end of the island, well into the area of the jetties rocks, another crawl was located. A small crawl at 27 inches in the wet, hard packed sand up to the rocks, along the face of the rocks for a short distance then back out. No evidence of any attempt to nest. 

This crawl has us puzzled. It is smaller with more of a “J” or apostrophe shaped alternating flipper mark than the size and distinct “V” of the Loggerhead. Because of its smaller size and more curved appearance, we wondered if we have a different sea turtle on our beach - maybe a rare Kemp’s Ridley? Acknowledging that tracks can look different in wet, hard packed sand, do we have a small Loggerhead or do we have a very rare nesting Kemp’s Ridley who often nest during the day rather than at night? 

 

A review of SCDNR’s Marine Turtle Conservation Program web site indicates the Kemp’s Ridley is the world’s smallest sea turtle, designated in 1970 as endangered. It nests primarily in Mexico and on the  Texas Gulf coast. On rare occasions, this species will lay nests in South Carolina: usually no more than one per year. North Myrtle Beach has had a Kemp’s nest in 2020 and 2022. Small juveniles do occur along the SC coast during the summer. They represent the second most common turtle to strand on our coast. Recent increases in stranding could be due to an increasing population. 

Per SCDNR, Hilton Head has a Kemp’s Ridley nest this year that was initially identified as a Loggerhead, but reclassified as a Kemp’s Ridley based on completed DNA results. Perhaps this lady has traveled up the coast? We have sent our pictures to SCDNR for help in identifying the crawl tracks. They have advised they do not have good pictures of Kemp’s Ridley crawls and are working on obtaining some. We will patiently await the outcome of their review. 

Pictures by Keela, Jingle and Kim

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