Wednesday, August 11

OH, WHAT A NIGHT! We had 4 nests hatching all at about the same time.  My phone was dinging like crazy! 

  • NEST #17 INVENTORY
    • Live Hatchlings – 0
    • Dead Hatchlings – 0
    • Pipped Eggs – 1
    • Unhatched Eggs – 70 (All but 3 were tinted light orange or had black mold.  We left the 3 white ones near the top of the nest.  We opened 2 tinted ones that felt like they had some formation.  They were perfectly formed turtles.  Sadly, they just didn’t make it out of their shells.)
    • Hatched Eggs -9  😢

Nest #23 started when a hole opened up at 8:15 and then another hole opened beside that hole at about 8:50.  120 turtles quickly emerged and ran back and forth repeatedly from  the top of the nest down a few feet and back up again thanks to the navigation tower behind it in the river. We used green to cut off their path, moving them down the runway.  There were 5 more tracks in the runway this morning!

  • Nest #15 had 73 hatchlings at 9:15
  • Nest #30 had a huge hole at 9:02.  Around 10:14, 91 hatchlings exploded out of that hole like a cannon!  It took only 5 minutes for them to make it to the ocean!  While they (Team 5) were attending to Nest #30, Nest #34 decided to hatch also!  There were lots of tracks and they were able to see the last 5 hatchlings down the runway.  WOW!
  • Nest #32 had 2 more hatchlings emerge.
  • Nest #14 had 1 hatchling observed by a visitor and another possible hatchling track in the runway this morning.

THIS MORNING: Nest #20 had some tracks in the runway and 1 dead hatchling. Nest #35 had 3 more tracks.

A Beach visitor found a dead hatchling near the Joe O’Brien beach.  We have no idea where it came from.

  • NEST #18 INVENTORY
    • Live Hatchlings – 1
    • Dead Hatchlings -0
    • Pipped Eggs -0
    • Unhatched Eggs – 13 (liquid inside)
    • Hatched Egg Shells – 96
  • NEST #19 INVENTORY
    • Live Hatchlings – 0
    • Dead Hatchlings -0
    • Pipped Eggs -0
    • Unhatched Eggs – 22 (liquid inside)
    • Hatched Egg Shells – 110