2014 Turtle Season

October 20, 2014

2014 Caswell Beach Turtle Nest Summary 10/19/14

23   CRAWLS

15     NESTS

8   NESTS MOVED DUE TO LOCATION – 53%

921 eggs relocated yielded 805 live hatchlings – 89.5 % hatch rate

1,714 SHELLS COUNTED

9 DEAD HATCHLINGS

298 UNHATCHED EGGS

1407 LIVE HATCHLINGS

1,714 POTENTIAL HATCHLINGS FROM 15 NESTS (114 AVERAGE EGGS /NEST)

82 % HATCH RATE (1407/1714)

33” Average Crawl Width

57 Average Days of Incubation

1,253 VOLUNTEER HOURS (31 volunteers)

6,055 VOLUNTEER MILES

September 22, 2014

Nest #14 was inventoried last night with 101 Shells, 7 unhatched or pipped and 7 live hatchlings.

September 19, 2014

Keeping with the way things have gone for the season, nest #14 hatched during the night after everyone left. Turtle tracks were in the runway this morning making it hatching on the 56th day.

September 18, 2014

Two very wet inventories produced the following: Nest #12 – 91 shells, 10 unhatched eggs and 3 dead hatchlings (due to ghost crabs). Nest #13 – 94 shells, 11 unhatched eggs, 3 dead and 8 live hatchlings. Thanks to all the volunteers who braved the storm to get this done.

September 15, 2014

Nest #13 hatched last night around midnight with approximately 60 turtles making it to the water.  This meant that the two nests laid on the same day hatched on the same day.

September 14, 2014

Nest #12 had a hole this morning.  We waited to see if anything happened but there was no movement.  We covered it up so hopefully it will hatch tonight.  As it’s so cool and overcast they might come out during the day so we’ll be checking it often.

We checked the nest at noon and a couple of heads and flippers were out.  We decided to wait until it hatched, which it just did at 3:00 pm.  A perfect boil resulted in about 86 hatchlings being in the water by 3:05 pm despite the bright sunshine.

September 5, 2014

Nests #10 & #11 were inventoried yesterday evening.  Nest #10 had 31 shells and 80 unhatched eggs.  Nest #11 had 113 shells, 9 unhatched eggs and 3 live hatchlings.

September 2, 2014

Nest #10 had 31 turtles make their way to the ocean around 8:30 last night. Nest #11 hatched last night around 11:00 pm with 84 hatchlings making it to the water.

August 27, 2014

Nest #9 was inventoried last night with 109 shells, 12 unhatched and one lonely hatchling making it to the ocean.

August 24, 2014

Nest #9 had 16 hatchlings make their way to the ocean around midnight.  At morning check, there were a few more tracks  and one hatchling still on its journey to the water.

August 21, 2014

Nest #8 was inventoried Wednesday evening resulting in 122 shells, 8 unhatched eggs, 1 dead and 35 live hatchlings. Green has been delivered to  #10.

August 20, 2014

Nest #7 was inventoried last night with 98 egg shells, 3 unhatched and 6 live hatchlings.

August 19, 2014

Nest #7 had 2 more turtles entertain about a hundred tourist as they made their way into the water last night. It appears that another one came during the night.  Nest #8 also had a couple more turtle emerge in the evening and another during the night.

August 18, 2014

Nest #8 hatched last night between midnight and 5:30 am.  Even though no one saw it, this was good news as the nest had been invaded by crabs and ants.

August 17, 2014

Nest #7 hatched late last night with 72 hatchlings making it to the water.

August 16, 2014

Nest #6 was inventoried last night with 114 shells, 3 unhatched, 1 dead and 5 live hatchlings.

August 14, 2014

Nest #6 had 8 more hatchlings last night around 11:30.  Nest #5 was inventoried yesterday.  We had 29 unhatched eggs, 1 pipped, 1 dead hatchling, 0 live hatchlings and a lot of disappointed turtle watchers.

August 13, 2014

Nest #6 had several turtles come out last night.  It appears to have been 6 -7 hatchlings.  Inventory will be Friday night at 7:00.    Inventory of Nest #4 resulted in 92 shells, 20 unhatched eggs and 6 pipped eggs.

August 12, 2014

Nest #4 had 1 more hatchling make its way to the ocean.  Nest #6 had a huge crab hole.

August 11, 2014

Nest #5 has hatched.  Kathy reported seeing 4 hatchlings around 11:00 and later someone counted 82.  Inventory for Nest #5 will be Wednesday evening at 7:00pm. Nest #12 was overwashed.  Green was delivered to nests #7 and #8

August 10, 2014

Nest # 4 hatched last evening about 7:45 in the rain.  Team 3 got to watch 91 hatchlings emerge and make their way to the ocean.   Inventory for Nest #4 will be Tuesday evening at 7:00

August 9, 2014

Nest #3 was inventoried last night due to indicators that things were not as they should be.  We found 86 shells, 58 unhatched eggs, 1 spacer egg, 3 dead, 1 pipped and 2 live hatchlings. During our watch, we saw 7 hatchlings make it into the water.  The other 79 must have come out during the rain.

 August 8, 2014

Nest #3 had 4 hatchlings make their way to the water about 11:30 last night just after the rain had stopped.  Several vacationers and team members anxiously awaited a boil but it was not to be.  Morning patrol arrived just in time to rescue a hatchling being pulled from the nest by a crab.  Inventory for Nest #3 will be Sunday evening at 7:00.

August 7, 2014

Nest #2 was inventoried last night.  It was a moved nest with 112 eggs.  Last night we had 3 live hatchlings, 1 pipped egg and 8 unhatched eggs.  No new activity this morning.

 August 6, 2014

Nest #1 was inventoried last evening.  There were 90 shells, 13 live hatchlings, 6 unhatched eggs and a slew of anxious watchers.   Nest #2 will be inventoried today at 6:30.   No new activity today.

August 4, 2014

Nest #2 hatched early morning, apparently witnessed by some educated tourist.  They had written 94 in the sand but was barely visible after being rained on.  There was one hatchling on the top that we got to watch make its way to the water.  Nest #2 will be inventoried Wednesday at 6:30.

August 3, 2014

Nest #1 hatched early this morning.  When Gary went to check on it there was one hatchling left in the runway.  It will be inventoried on Tuesday.

August 1, 2014

We had a wild (undetected) nest #15 this morning.  Tourists had rescued one turtle from a crab and we found a nest just above the tide line. We excavated and found 82 shells, 24 unhatched eggs and 15 live turtles.  Hopefully the other 67 made it to the water.  We assume the nest hatched just before daylight.  We now believe this nest was the false crawl found on May 31st at the same location. Nothing happening with the other nests.  #1, 2 and 3 are all collared.

To the helpful runner who said we had a new crawl at the public access, this was actually people tracks dragging beach equipment.

July 25, 2014

Nothing new to report. Nest #1 is at 51 days incubation and the runway will be put down today.  This was a shallow nest so let’s hope for some activity soon.

July 24, 2014

A 30” crawl led us to nest 14 at marker 61.4. We relocated 108 eggs above the HTL.

July 21, 2014

We had a false crawl at Marker 58.  It was hard to determine the size as she turned around in her track and went back out on the same track.

July 18, 2014

We had a possible false crawl this morning but it was mostly obliterated by footprints.  We think she came in at high tide and was scared off by people too close to her.

July 17, 2014

Two nest and one false crawl, a record for this year. A 30” crawl at marker 64.2 gave us nest 12. A 33” crawl at marker 77.9 gave us nest 13. A 33” false crawl at marker 78.8 gave us nothing.

July 15, 2014

A 36” false crawl at marker 58

July 6, 2011

We had a 33” false crawl at marker 76 where the sand was rock hard.  Fortunately we believe the same turtle tried again at Marker 75.1 where we found Nest #11.  We moved 122 eggs back from the high tide line.

We now have one more nest than our worst year ever – 10 in 2004.

July 4, 2013

No new activity today.  Although nine of the nests were overwashed by the storm, they were in good shape and we hope they will still be viable.  We expected more damage after seeing the high waves yesterday but, if anything, we accrued sand on the dunes.

July 2, 2014

Nest #10 is located at Mercer Street. She had a 33 inch crawl and we just missed her on morning patrol. A jogger has just seen her going back into the water about 15 minutes before we got there.

June 27, 2014

We had a 29” false crawl at marker 61.5.  Although she went all the way into the dunes, she didn’t lay.

June 24, 2014

We had nest #9 this morning from a 36” crawl in front of the Villas.  Some of the turtles seem to just get to the high tide line before they lay, so we moved 121 eggs back to the base of the dunes.  As this turtle made her turn to go back into the water she hit the leg of a canopy.  Fortunately it didn’t stop her.

June 22, 2014

Nest #8 is located at marker 61.5 .  She had 42 inch crawl and left her nest nice and secure at the edge of the dune.

June 21, 2014

A 30” crawl gave us nest #7 at marker 79.5.  101 eggs were relocated  in front of the dune line.

June 20, 2014

We had nest #6 today from a 27” crawl at Marker 54 in the Baptists area.  We moved 116 eggs from the high tide line to marker #55.1.

June 16, 2014

We had nest #5 today from a 37” crawl at Marker 65.2, close to Nest #2.  We moved 123 eggs back from the high tide line to Marker 65.5.

June 13, 2014

Lucky for us, we got Nest #4 from a 32” crawl.  She laid just above the high tide so we moved 118 eggs to Marker 72.9.  We also had a false crawl of 32” which was very long but she didn’t make a nest.

June 11, 2014

No Activity today

June 10, 2014

We had Nest #3 from a 39” crawl at Marker 56.  The top eggs were just under the sand so she probably filled up the hole she dug.

We now have a nest at either end of the beach and one in the middle.  Hope we fill in the spaces in between.

June 9, 2014

We had Nest #2 today from a 31” crawl at Marker 65.  We relocated 111 eggs above the high tide line.

June 4, 2014

We had Nest #1 today from a 26” crawl at Mercer Street.