There has been a lot of sea turtle activity in the last 24 hours for the Caswell Beach Turtle Watch teams!
Our sea turtle mamas are still hard at work, and yesterday we had Nests #51 and #52 laid overnight. Morning Patrol observed nice clean crawls in safe locations for both nests.
A few existing nests had evidence of activity below the sand with divots or craters and Nest #3 had 2 more hatchling tracks.
Last Night
Two more teams greened their first nest and all but 2 teams are actively monitoring their first nests.
Nest #5 started a sequence of partial emergences. They saw a total of 47 hatchlings! Our visitors from Raleigh and Tennesee were very engaged, and the children in particular kept our team on their toes with many good questions! The moonlight out over the ocean greatly incented the baby turtles to move directly and quickly to the ocean. Unfortunately, this morning we observed evidence of crab activity in the nest.
Nest #9 had some evening activity that was later determined to be a crab in the nest cavity. THANKS to the visitor who called and let us know about the activity! The crab injured at least 1 hatchling, which the team released at the water’s edge for the best possible chance of survival. This morning brought out 58 hatchlings. Kudos to Team 7 for being out late and up early today!
This Morning
We had 1 False Crawl at the East End (smart Mama did not lay in the wet sand) and 1 new nest, #53, in a safe location.
The partial emergences are probably due to the May/June cooler temps mixed with the really HOT July temps. Those eggs in the bottom of the nests are taking a little longer to incubate. Also, relocated nests tend to hatch earlier. This has been a very unusual start to the season!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 24ST03).
Want to help? Please consider donating to our efforts to protect sea turtles at Caswell Beach Turtle Watch Donations.
New Nest and Crawls
Hatchlings
(Note: photos taken with night mode and no flash)
Nest Greenings
