Another busy morning for patrol! 2 nests and 2 obvious false crawls. Nest #15 had to be relocated from the East Point. The crawl had a beautiful tail drag line down the middle. THERE WERE 153 EGGS! Large nests such as this don’t always have a good hatch % rate. We shall see! Nest #16 was laid in a safe location, thankfully! Great job, Morning Patrol!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
Our dry spell is over! The Morning Patrol had a fun time this morning (3.5 hours worth) with 3 nests and 1 false crawl! We have nests #12 & #13, both laid in very safe locations! Nest #14 was a little trickier to find and needed to be relocated from the high tideline up towards the dunes. Thanks Morning Patrol for all of your hard work today!!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
WOW! We have Nest #10. Deep Point Marina in Southport called about a turtle crawl on the beach by the Marina. If the tide had been high, this nest might not have been found! Teresa and Susan went to check it out and BINGO, our Southport laying Mama is back! She visits us every 3 years or so. She had a couple of elongated eggs. We find them from time to time. The nest is being relocated to Caswell Beach. What an exciting day!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
WOW! We have a Leatherback nest!!!! The Nest is #9.
She had a 78 inch crawl width (198cm)! Her location was just at the high tideline, so the nest was relocated. The Morning Patrol was able to locate the nest cavity fairly easily! Yay, Team!!! There were 75 large yolked eggs and 35 small yolkless eggs. This is typical of a Leatherback nest.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
We have Nest #8 at another good location! This nest cavity was a little easier to find than the last two!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
Our Patrol found what first appeared to be a False Crawl this morning. After a second check of the crawl area a nest was found!!!! We have Nest #7! After yesterday’s double check and today’s double check we will be double checking all of our false crawls.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
It’s Quadruplets! It was a busy morning on Morning Patrol! We had 4 nests today and 3 False Crawls! The nests were all placed by smart Mama’s in very safe locations.
This brings us to 6 Nests and 1 Nesting Site.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
Our 8 Pit Turtle was back again today and again. No egg chamber, so False Crawl. Our friends at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center said that she may be missing a back flipper, which would cause her difficulty in digging a chamber. When compared, her right flipper prints are different from her left flipper prints.
The next False Crawl had the same Crawl Width (93cm/36″) as 8 Pit. It was a very quick in and out with no body pits.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
It’s been another busy day! This morning we had a crawl we believed to be a nest, but we were not able to find the eggs. Mama had a small crawl width, 71 cm or 28 inches wide. Her incoming tracks and outgoing tracks had a large gap that meant she was there for a good while. At this point, it is documented as a false crawl, but we marked the area as a Nesting Site (NS). We will watch the area closely in 55-65 days for signs of activity!
This afternoon we were called by Turtle Ambassadors to the front of the Oak Island Villas today They called us about a juvenile green turtle that was stranded in the surf, injured and very sick. We transported her/him to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Beach. She had been sedentary for quite some time after her injury (cut carapace) and was covered in vegetation and barnacles. The wonderful team at KBSTRRC was taking great care of her! They are naming turtles after Crayola Crayon colors. We named the turtle “Gritty Green” because of all the encrusted sand on her carapace.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
Today was a confusing day. We found one very strange false crawl. Mama dug body pits 8 times without digging any actual chambers for a nest.!!! She must have been worn out by the time she got closer to the dune because she turned back around and crawled straight back to the water.
Then, later today I got an email about a false crawl where the tide had started receding. Short path in and back out again. She may have come in and out after we had passed by on patrol or we may have somehow missed it. I am in the process of getting more information on the folks who took the pictures.
Hopefully these Mamas will try again tomorrow!!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).
