Author: Caswell Turtle Watch

No new nests to report, but we did have a stranded turtle during our Morning Patrol.  Thanks to Kathleen Bowman and Barbara Waite for assisting! Here is the Facebook post.
Meet Aqua Pearl Amanda. She is a Kemp’s Ridley ‘Hybrid’ that was stranded on Caswell Beach this morning. She suffered a boat strike but was also malnourished. Special thanks to our Ambassador, Amanda, who called in for the rescue! We transported her to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. Her injuries are severe. We are thankful for their care and know they will do everything in their power to help her! The KBSTRRC are naming stranded turtles after Crayola Crayon colors at this time, so we chose Aqua Pearl.The KBSTRRC team mentioned Hybrid because she has Kemp’s and Green Turtle characteristics.

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).

Good Morning!  (It really is!)Our season has truly begun, we have NEST #1!

We will be sending out a Morning Report on the mornings we find nests or activity.  Can’t wait to see what the season brings in!

This is what the Morning Patrol does to see if it is a nest or a False Crawl.  One egg is sacrificed for DNA research.

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).

Happy First Day of Sea Turtle Season!

Our Morning Patrol was out at sunrise to see what they could see!  We don’t expect any crawls for a couple of weeks, but we do know the turtles have been off shore.  The Leatherbacks have been active off the Ocean Crest Pier this week!  We will not send a daily morning report until we actually have some turtle activity.

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).

• Crawls
  • 87 Nests (85 Loggerhead, 2 Kemp’s Ridley)
  • 38 False Crawls
• Average Crawl Widths
  • Loggerhead – 35.5”
    • Range:  26-44”
  • Kemp’s – 24 inches
    • Range:  22-26”
• Nests
  • 21 Relocated Nests – 21.1%
    • (19 Loggerhead, 2 Kemp’s Ridley)
  • 1 Wild Nest (never located)
  • 66 In Situ Nests
  • 2 Nesting Sites (later determined to be False Crawls
    • Averaged 111.5 eggs per nest, ranged 54-166 per nest
• Nests Loss Due to Rain
  • #17 – 9 Hatched/71 Unhatched
  • #27 – 24 Hatched/36 Unhatched
  • #46 – 0 Hatched/113 Unhatched
• Nests Loss Due to Tides
  • #58 – 0 Hatched/91 Unhatched
  • #76 – 45 Dead/65 Unhatched
• #80 – 7 Hatched/106 Unhatched
• 9590 Eggs
  • Relocated Nests
    • 2322 Eggs (Average 110.6 per nest)
    • 1800 Hatchlings
    • 78%  % Hatch Rate
  • In Situ Nests
    • 7268 Eggs  (Average 110.1 per nest)
    • 6048 Hatchlings
    • 83 % Hatch Rate
  • 7848 Hatched Eggs
  • 7494 Hatchlings
  • 81.3 % Overall Hatch Rate
• Incubation Days
  • Average 57.6 Days
  • Range 49 – 71 Days
• Volunteers
  • 102 Volunteers on our list
  • Time and Travel Reported
    • 8,175.6 Hours reported
    • 31,164.15 Miles Driven

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

THAT’S A WRAP!

The last nest of the season was inventoried last night!  Nest #83 was way above the high tide line near the dune grass in front of the 100 Villa.  Even though it was not over-washed by the tide, it appears there was possibly some rain inundation at some point. Many of the unhatched eggs had a light orange tint. 

• Nest #83 Inventory
  • Live Hatchlings-0
  • Dead Hatchlings-0
  • Pipped Eggs-1
  • Unhatched Eggs-31
  • Hatched Egg Shells-41

Wednesday Morning:The last of the green, signs and poles were picked up this morning on our last Morning Patrol ride of 2021!

All in all we had a very successful season!! Thank you for your hard work and dedication! 

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

Sunday night and Monday morning gave nothing to report but a beautiful and quiet beach.

  Teresa called Matthew to ask about excavating Nest #80 earlier than 80 days since the washovers continued even over the weekend.  He agreed.
There was no further activity at Nest #83 overnight.
We are also officially changing Nesting Site #2 to a False Crawl.

• Nest #80 Inventory
  • Live Hatchlings-0
  • Dead Hatchlings-3
  • Pipped Eggs-44
  • Unhatched Eggs-62
  • Hatched Egg Shells-7 
  • So, 4 hatchlings made it out of the nest at some point!!!  1 (or all) of those could be the 1 in 1000!!

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

Nest #83 had one more hatchling emerge last night at about 7:00. This one knew where he was supposed to go, straight to the water, and didn’t look back!

Unfortunately, thanks to Hurricane Sam’s extra high tides, Nest #80 was over washed again. Special thanks to the caller yesterday who retrieved some of the green that was being washed away!

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

Friday Night:

Oh, What a Night! 40 hatchlings from Nest #83 finally decided to make an appearance with several visitors present to see (Day 67).  Unfortunately they battled a tidal pool and some very distracting lights.  After many trips up and down the runway we had to bucket them and take them to the edge of the water.  Even after making it into the water, dozens of them came back to the beach!  A fisherman found 1 hatchling about 50 yards away going back towards the lights!  Team #3 had called in reinforcements as many of their members were out of town and sadly missed the boil (they’ve been sitting for almost 2 weeks!).  Special thanks to Wanda, Gail and Allen for their help!

  Saturday Morning:

No additional activity over night.  It was a beautiful and crisp Fall morning on the beach!

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

Thursday Night:

It was a buggy night, but a successful inventory for the nest in the dune!

• Nest #86 Inventory
  • Live Hatchlings-0
  • Dead Hatchlings-0
  • Pipped Eggs-0
  • Unhatched Eggs-9
  • Hatched Egg Shells-101

Friday Morning:

No Turtle activity, but there sure were a LOT of boats out there!  Cheers for the King Mackerel Tournament!

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)

Wednesday Night:

We had 2 great inventories last night!

• Nest #84 Inventory
  • Live Hatchlings-0
  • Dead Hatchlings-4
  • Pipped Eggs-0
  • Unhatched Eggs-7
  • Hatched Egg Shells-98
• Nest #85 Inventory
  • Live Hatchlings-3
  • Dead Hatchlings-0
  • Pipped Eggs-1
  • Unhatched Eggs-1
  • Hatched Egg Shells-94

Thursday Morning:

Nest #86 had a big crab hole, but no shells dug out.

This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 21ST03)