Barriers Behind Nest 2

Nest #2 is 45 days old today, and while most loggerhead nests emerge between 55 and 65 days, there have been some that have emerged as early as 44 days (a little unusual) and several nests on NMB have emerged this year at 53 days. So, it will be soon!

This morning, a barrier of plywood boards was placed behind this nest which should prevent any hatchlings from accidentally making their way down the back side of the sand dune where the nest was laid.






Weekend traffic on the beach is almost as heavy as Hwy 17 - the dune buggies were out in force.

We also "domed" the nest this morning (loosened the hard packed sand below the surface). This hard layer, which is caused by heavy rains compacting the sand, can make it much harder for hatchlings to make their way to the surface.

There is a black line on the barrier boards which indicates the level of the sand this morning. When checking the nest, if you notice significant accumulations of sand, please try to remove it to bring it back to the original level.


Barb and Steve

Nest #1 Inventory

Last night, about 20 volunteers, visitors and Jenna from SCDNR met to conduct the inventory on Nest #1. This nest emerged on Day 56 and four live hatchlings were found and released on Day 60 when the cage was removed.

Last night in very, very windy conditions, Valerie, Nolan and Steve dug up the contents of the nest and found 61 hatched eggs, 44 unhatched eggs and one dead hatchling. When we add in the one egg taken by a ghost crab last week plus the one taken for the genetics study, it makes for a total clutch of 107 eggs. The emergence hatch ratio was 57%.

We had a turtle visitor (a tortoise actually) on the beach too!

Thanks to all who came out last night to witness the event.

Barb and Steve

Thursday Visitors

On Thursday morning, we had visitors from Epiphany Lutheran Church in Richmond, VA on turtle patrol. The kids discovered a "Ryan" crab (named after the discoverer yesterday) which turned out to be a stone crab minus the large front claws. They also had fun with the ghost crabs.



It was wonderful to have them visit and hope they'll come back again!

Inventory results from Nest #1 will be posted soon,

Barb and Steve

Monday Morning Picture

Yesterday, Nest 1 had a large sunken hole in the center of the nest and a ghost crab hole to the right. This nest may have emerged as early as last Monday evening (a dead hatchling was found on the beach last Tuesday morning).

When we checked the nest the morning, we found one dead hatchling in the ghost crab pile and also what sure looked like some new hatchling tracks: only a few inches of tracks here and there, surrounded by lots of ghost crab tracks.

One thing is for sure - every nest is different!