It was another busy night on Caswell Beach. The rain sent many back to their cars, but some decided to tough it out. The high tides were lower, but Nest #9 suffered badly and Nest #85 was overwashed.
Best News: Nest #1 finally hatched! Team 3 sat through 2 sessions of rain and they got to see 3 babies emerge from the nest and make it to the ocean! That’s dedication! There was 1 lone fella in the runway this morning with flipper issues. We took him down to the wet sand where he crawled with his back flippers. Later we checked back to make sure he had not been washed up again and we found 42+ hatchling tracks in the wet sand! The sun was shining just right at that time for us to see them! YAY, NEST #1!
Nest #22 boiled at 9:25pm with Team 1 seeing 78 hatchlings make it to the ocean! No other tracks that we could tell this morning.
Nest #21 also hatched overnight! The runway had lots and lots of tracks!
These two nests were laid beside each other on the same day and they hatched the same night! How cool is that?
No new crawls or nests today. The tide was VERY LOW this morning. Let’s hope these next nests will hatch at high tide! It’s a long walk in some areas.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 23ST03).
Want to help? Please consider donating to our efforts to protect sea turtles at Caswell Beach Turtle Watch Donations.