Friday, August 28

Nest 39 had 12 more hatchlings emerge last evening and 1 more track in the runway this morning.

Nest 36 (previously not found) had a couple of hatchlings emerge so we were able to locate the nest.

Inventory results for nest 32: 112 shells and 3 unhatched.

Inventory results for nest 29: 76 shells, 53 unhatched, 2 pipped and 5 dead.  A bunch of the unhatched eggs had been opened by crabs.

Nearly every nest needs the sand removed from the green.

Thursday, August 27

I don’t really know where to begin but….

We had several calls late last night that there were hatchlings on the beach.  All calls within 30 minutes or so.  First one said near the lighthouse and they are all over, next one said 2 or 3 house past the lighthouse but they are all in the water.  Next one said east of the lighthouse, they scattered but I think they are all in the water and just wanted you to know. Last one said near nest 61.   Gary and I were not riding today so decided we would go to the lighthouse and look around at dawn.  Whew! 

Nest 39 (previously not located after the storm) hatched with a fairly good boil and had a nice fan to the water.  We watched another to the water this morning.   While we were watching that hatchling, Debby (a lady who walks the beach and called earlier this week about a hatchling) called to tell me that there was a hatchling going into the water near 200 walkway.   I went to see if there were more.  Tracks were everywhere but we located the nest and we assumed it was nest 36.  A gentleman who walks his dog via the 200 walkway everyday came by and said there’s never been a nest in that location, therefore we have a wild nest, nest #66.  Morning patrol watched about 50 hatchlings go to the water after they put the green down.

THEN, what we have called nest 61 had hatchlings emerge during the night.  Obviously we have misidentified nest 61 because it is only at 27 days.  I’m hunting for pictures to see if we can figure it out.  If all else fails, we will send DNA from the inventory to have it identified.

So you see there were hatchlings on the beach from 3 different un-greened locations….but they did get in the water.

Nest 33 had 2 or 3 hatchlings roam the beach last night too.

Thanks you for all you do!

Wednesday, August 26

Crab holes in nests 16 & 26.
Last evening:  nest 33 had 16 hatchlings emerge and nest 29 had 3 more.
Visitors, Avery and her mom, saw eggs on the beach and a crab this morning.  It was determined to be nest 24.  The eggs were only 2-3 inches below the surface.  Several eggs had been opened by crabs and others were dark in color and shriveled up.  We opened a few just to confirm that the nest was dead. We excavated and moved the eggs to the east end where it’s less populated.  The eggs were packed in the wet sand.  Isaias came at nest 24’s 40th day of incubation.  Thanks to Avery and her mom for taking time to call us.

Monday, August 24

Crab hole in nest 18…..again!
Nest 32 hatched during the night @50 days.  So glad the team had greened it early.
Yesterday, a hatchling track was seen coming from a crab hole beside nest 55.  After investigating, we believe that the nest is really nest 29 and has been greened by team 9.
Inventory results for nest 28: 122 shells, 12 unhatched, 7 pipped, and 1 dead hatchling

Friday, August 21

Nest 28 hatched during the night at just 53 days.
Inventory results for nest 23:  123 shells, 21 unhatched, 4 dead hatchlings and 4 live hatchlings.  Since it was a relocated nest we know that the nest prior to the storm was not nearly as deep as the team had to dig to get to the bottom.
It is a guessing game and using our best judgement.  We have nests that are just barely covered now and some that have sand added by the storm.  If we expose the eggs, predators will invade.  We did drive the stakes down into the ground to try to keep them in place.
Will they hatch or are they bad?  Nest 23 hatched at 55 days and nest 28 hatched at 53 days.  Nests 15 and 16 are at 69 days.  My guess would be that 15, 16 and 17 were just coming out of the shell and probably drowned.  I know the embryos in nest 18 were alive the day the foxes dug into the nest but don’t know how many eggs were left and how many the crabs have gotten since.
I think we definitely need to green at 50 days.  For those nests that are “areas”, just do the best you can.  We have pictures of most if you want them.  We need to make sure we are checking them periodically in the evenings after they are greened, checking all around the location.
Thank you for all you do.

Thursday, August 20

Nothing new today.

Coyotes dug into nests that had already been inventoried

Nest 21 had hatchlings in the runway Sunday morning (1 live and 2 dead) but it had rained heavily. Excavation results:  55 shells, 77 unhatched eggs, 6 dead hatchling and 7 live hatchlings.   Nest 21 hatched during the rain at 55 days incubation.

We don’t know the disposition of our nests and some of you have been sitting for a long time.  About half of the ones left have a general location and as some of you are already experiencing, we don’t really even know if we are watching the right spot and if the rain has washed away any tracks…it’s difficult.  We could be watching a bunch of nests for 80 days and marking more as lost if we don’t get to see the hatchlings.