In addition to its many activities dedicated to preserving sea turtles, the Seabrook Island Turtle Patrol is also an effective ambassador for Seabrook Island. Many visitors attend nest inventories and often have questions for Patrol Members on the beach. The following letter is just one example of this.
Ms. Fansler,
Just a big thank you to your Turtle Patrol for a great family experience this past week! We were guests of John Guilterri on Seabrook and we went out and “patrolled” with two groups. Both times we found a nest with Miss Linda (Nelson). She and the other volunteers were so friendly and answered all of our questions. My daughter, who loves turtles and has spent 10 days in Costa Rica with Eco Teach, loved the hands on experience you all had to offer as much as her time in Costa Rica! Helping move a nest and label it was an experience she and the rest of our family will never forget!
Please keep up the hard work! You are all greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
Patti Smeland
Now to the Weekly Summary.
Monday, July 18 – All zones had news to report with Zone 2 winning the prize.
Veronica L’Allier, Ginger Seabrook and Bob Mason started their walk with a mess behind Nelsons’ house. No crawl but egg shells all over the beach. Bill Nelson responded and estimated more than a dozen shells on the beach and a nest that been predated by an animal. Unhatched eggs were also encountered. Nest 53 is considered a wild nest with no idea when it was laid. Since it was below the high tide line the remaining 60 eggs were moved back to higher ground but Bill estimates the nest to be a couple weeks old and washed over twice a day since laid so unlikely to ever have live babies but it will be watched. 5 eggs were broken in the nest so with the shells it is estimated the mama laid 85 eggs.
On Zone 1, Nest 6 had a hole but no new tracks. This is being inventoried at 3:00pm Tuesday.
Zone 3 had a 100 yard long meandering false
crawl in and out of the myrtles probably 6 times. Bill Nelson confirmed the walkers’ assessment.
Zone 4 reported holes in Nests 3 and 4 but no tracks.
Tuesday, July 19 – Zone 1 had a strange crawl which ended up being a crusted sand castle with a run to the water to fill the moat
Zone 2 nest # 7 looked the same. # 9 got it’s sand softened and # 23 had deer tracks walking over it.
Zone 3 sent a beautiful photo of the sunrise- no turtle activity
Zone 4 got one hatchling out of the hole in # 8.It took off to the water There were red ants everywhere. We will Andro around the back of the nest. Lori could feel the other hatchlings moving in the nest. It should boil tonight. # 4 had two tracks out. One made it to the water. The other was dragged by a crab. Those darn crabs!
Wednesday, July 20 –
Inventory results for nests # 6 and # 2
Nest #6 was laid on 5/25 and found by Lucy and Ray Hoover. It hatched in 52 days and there were 168 eggs in the nest. Shells 157 Hatch success 92.8%
Unhatched eggs 11 Emergence success 78.1%
Dead hatchlings 15
Live hatchlings 10
Total live 142
Nest #2 was laid on 5/17 and found by Vicky and Bob Becker. it hatched in 60 days and there were 104 eggs in the nest. Shells 95 Hatch success 90.4% Unhatched eggs 9 Emergence success 89.5%
Dead hatchlings 1
Live hatchlings 0
Total live 94
7/20 report
Zone 1 no activity on # 11, few crab tracks in # 10, # 24 is ok, the date on # 44 should be 7/7/16. Will tomorrow’s walkers make that change. Filled crab holes on # 41 and small indent on # 12 but no tracks
Zone 2 nest # 7 is the same. # 13 and # 18 have indents
Zone 3 had 3 false crawls around walk # 3 all in the myrtles, 2 were in and outs by two moms. Third was south of walk 3 the mom came in and went into the myrtles and played a while, the in and out tracks were very different in length but no nest was found.
Zone 4 Nest # 4 and # 8 boiled last night, Lori watched them go at 9 and 11 nest # 3 had 5 tracks and nest # 48 had crab holes. And there is a beached sailboat at the second dog sign
A busy morning. We will let you know when the inventories will be later.
Stay cool.
Thursday, July 21 – The calls came EARLY. The first call was actually Wednesday night when the PHAT team saw Nest #5 boil then a Mama come in and lay a nest 100 yards south of Boardwalk 1. Anne Snelgrove was able to capture the nesting picture in the fading light.The other photos were taken by Sabrina Kim.
Thursday morning Anne with Gayle Evans and Melanie Jerome called with a crawl on Zone 1 at the end of the Pelican Watches. Judy Morr responded but the mama must not have liked all the grass as she left us no nest.
Zone 2 – There was an in & out false crawl in front of the Pelican Watch Villas. Nest #7 had an indentation but no tracks. Nest #13 had a large hole with the sand dug out. Nest #18 had a slight indentation.
Zone 3 substitute walkers Marsha Papanak, with Joyce and Tom Pinckney were greeted with the previously mentioned crawl. Bill Middleton responded and found Nest #54 with its 119 eggs. It was moved to just south of the vehicle entrance. They also reported a big indentation on Nest #14. After moving Nest #54, the Middletons checked on Nest #14 and saw 3 tracks plus a baby struggling to get out of the huge indentation. They helped that baby to the sea. There were ants at the nest so the PHAT team will spread some Amdro behind the nest tonight.
Zone 4 reported no activity other than some activity around the
sailboat that is still stranded on the sand bar.
Friday, July 22 – We have two more nests!
Zone 1 reported a slight indentation on Nest #12 but no other activity.
Zone 2 had all the fun! Friday walkers Judy Morr and Pat Backstrom were joined by Bob Mason and the Aldrich grandchildren. Nest #13 had boiled with lots of baby tracks going all the way to the water. The children already had a successful walk. Heading back at the high tide line, shells were encountered at the escarpment in front of Nelson’s house. Bob knew all the shells were removed from Monday’s wild nest so Judy became first responder and dug in and found more shells and an unhatched but unviable egg. The Aldrich family decided to stay with Judy who would inventory Nest #55. Bob and Pat continued the walk of Zone 2. They called with a crawl just south of Boardwalk 8. Bill Greubel 
responded and found Nest #56. Pat and Bob helped move the 118 eggs in front of Nelson’s house (just behind where wild nest #55 was found).
Meanwhile, Zone 3 walkers Anne Snelgrove and Kathy Chamberlain went to assist as needed in the new nest #56 while Melanie Jerome stayed at Nest #55 and assisted in the inventory. The results of the Nest 56 inventory are:
– Shells: 107
– Unhatched eggs: 41 (one used for DNA sample)
– Dead babies (none although some of unhatched were pipped, complete with maggots)
– Live babies: 1
Yes, there was a live baby that was helped to the water. What a fun morning!
Zone 3 in addition to assisting on Zone 2 reported Nest #14 had a crab hole in the middle with 2 more baby tracks exiting the nest. The Andro seems to be working. Nest #19 had a large crab hole nearby that was filled in. Nest #5 had more baby tracks after the Wednesday night boil.
Zone 4 reported no new crawls but Nest #3 had boiled with several
tracks seen. Nests #4 and #8 had huge holes with more baby tracks.
Nest #15 had a large indentation. A crab hole was filled in at Nest #48.
Saturday, July 23 – We had a busy morning on the beach will lots of hatchling tracks and two mama tracks.
Zone 1 – Jen and Harvey Gibson found that nest # 12 had boiled. No other activity.
Zone 2 – kept Midge Fleming jumping and taking photos..Indentations on #’s 7, 16, 18,29 and 33 but there were no tracks out of any of them.
Zone 3 Bill Greubel saw lots of tracks out of nest #14 and a big hole in #5.
Zone 4 Kathy Maher, Kathy Rigtrup and Lisa Hillman got the mama tracks. The first track became nest # 57. The two Kathy’s moved the nest of 126 eggs closer to boardwalk #1 at the blue flags. The second crawl was at the bird area. Mama was there a long time with 7 areas of interest but most were open holes with two areas where Terry Fansler and Sandy MacCoss probed but came up empty. Nest # 15 hatched with lots of hatchlings tracks.
See you on zone 4 this afternoon at 3:30 for the inventories of # 4 and # 8 at the second dog sign.
Hope to see hatchlings.
Sunday, July 24 – Zone 1 – had nothing to report
Zone 2 -had indentations on #9 and #16 and the pelican we saw yesterday at boardwalk #8 is dead.
Zone 3 – more hatchlings got out of # 14, # 5 had a big hole and # 50 had a crab hole
Zone 4 – had another crawl from yesterdays mama. They named her Goldilocks. This area is to hard, this one had ants, this one had to much grass, this one is to soft. Plenty of body pits but no eggs. This crawl was past the crawl we had yesterday. Nest # 15 had 4 tracks leaving the nest.
Submitted by Gary Fansler, Beautsie Zahrn and Judy Morr