Monday, July 30th – Nests 29 & 30
Kim Neath called in first with a crawl about 100 yards north of Boardwalk 1. Bill and Linda Nelson responded and found nest number 29 with 60 eggs. The nest was close to the water and therefore was moved about 100 yards up the beach to a safer location. Kim, Linda and Gary Holtz handled the nest move.
Catherine Scully, Rob Jerome, Mike Vinson and Gary Holtz then called with a crawl 200 yards south of Boardwalk 2, into the myrtles. After probing and re-probing all the likely spots including several excavations, Bill finally located nest 30 with 92 eggs. The nest was relocated to about 15 yards south of Boardwalk 1. Rob Jerome and Gary Holtz handled the relocation of the eggs and buttoned up the new nest site.
Wednesday, August 1st – Inventory Results – Nest 11
Nest 11 was found by Chris Czander, Sue Glover & Sarah Quinn. It hatched in 56 days.
Shells 32
Unhatched eggs 70
Dead hatchlings 10
Live hatchlings 5
Total live 22
Hatch success 31.0%
Emergence success 18.5%
Saturday -August 4th – We had a very unique inventory last evening. The inventory of nest 13 began with breaking through a very hard sand crust created by the recent rains. Once the crust was broken the hatchlings also broke loose as the nest immediately reached a full boil. As it turns out, the reported hatching from 3 days earlier were just the first few hatchlings that made it out before the rest were trapped by the hard sand. In total, 86 very lively hatchlings made their way to the ocean to the delight of the onlookers who made the long trek to the far end of the beach.
Here are the results of the inventory.
Inventory Results – Nest 13
Nest 13 was found by Beverly Stribling & Joleen Ardaiolo. It hatched in 51 days.
Shells 95
Unhatched eggs 10
Dead hatchlings 1
Live hatchlings 86
Total live 94
Hatch success 87.9 %
Emergence success 7.4%
Ray Hoover provided a great summary of last night’s events in a note to Patrol Leader, Terry Fansler…
Terry,
All inventories are fun – but last evening’s was particularly heart-warming.
This one inventory was uniquely special – not only because of the long walk to reach the remote nest, nor the beautifully dazzling sunset, nor the special spirit of community camaraderie, nor even the large number of little ones we helped to the water – It was the touching response of all those visitors who ventured to that distant nest and who personally experienced that inventory.
Their enthusiasm and excitement were inspiring. One women who approached me on the walkway was so touched to witness so many tiny hatchlings racing to the surf that she was emotionally moved to tears – actually uncontrollably weeping. She said she has never experienced anything like that before – and neither have I.
Can’t think of a better reason to explain why we do what we do with our Seabrook Island Turtle Patrol.
Ray