Posts by CWBTW Editor

This week, Caswell Beach Turtle Watch wrapped up its 44th year serving the Caswell Beach community in its sea turtle protection efforts. Our turtle protection team, at 142 volunteers strong, oversaw 63 nests this season – all Loggerheads, with the exception of one Kemp’s Ridley. As we close out the 2024 season, we always review Read More

As Caswell Beach Sea Turtle season moves later into the fall, our Turtle Watch teams sit by patiently as we monitor our remaining nests that now take longer to hatch, in accordance with the necessary NCWRC sea turtle regulations. Last night, CBTW excavated Nest #58 on Oct. 9, which required we sit to the 75th Read More

Aside from sea turtle protection and public education, one of the critical functions that Caswell Beach Turtle Watch contributes to the North Carolina Sea Turtle Project is the collection of DNA to learn more about our visiting turtle population. Our morning patrol team gathers DNA from each new sea turtle nest so that we can Read More

The Caswell Beach Turtle Watch Hatchling Olympic Marathon (5 Emergency Excavations) was held Monday and Tuesday evenings due to Hurricane Debby. Earning the Gold Medal for Monday was Nest #17Hatched Egg Shells – 103Unhatched Eggs – 7Pipped – 0Live at Inventory – 0Dead – 0 Earning the Silver Medal for Monday was Nest #16Hatched Egg Shells – Read More

Is it true we have 62?  Yes, yes it is!  Our last nest was 5 days ago, so this is a nice surprise!  Our Nest #62 was laid in a low area at the high tide line.  With this nest, 102 eggs were relocated to a safer location, hopefully safe from the approaching storm also! It’s Read More

We welcome August and all the nest activity it brings!  Nests #11 and #12 have been inventoried and many nests have had hatchlings emerge (some have boiled and others have trickled). Nests are greened with runways up to #22. Unfortunately, a 4 legged animal (most likely a fox or coyote) dug deeply into Nest #41 and Read More

Caswell Beach has been inundated with rain this week. Friday evening the nest inventory for Sea Turtle Nest #10 had to be pushed up to 5:30 in attempts to beat the approaching storm.  We almost made it!  It was the fastest inventory this season, for sure, but we still got wet.  Some of the hatchlings Read More

Sea Turtle action on Caswell Beach is keeping our teams busy this week while we work to keep the high tides at bay. Nest #10 had a partial boil last night before dark with 67 hatchlings.   Nest #8 had 1 more hatchling emerge last night.  A young person called our hotline at 1:00 am to Read More

Caswell Beach Turtle Watch has had a busy couple of days as we have begun to see emergence from multiple nests. Nest #1 boiled Friday evening with 89 hatchlings going straight to the water on Day 66. Nest #2 had a straggling hatchling emerge late morning-noonish yesterday.  A beach visitor called and made sure he safely Read More

The Caswell Beach Turtle Watch has not located any new sea turtle nests in the last 2 days, but we did have 2 nests inventoried!  As part of these inventories we’ve noted that the recent hard rains have made the sand in the nests damp and heavy which prevented many hatchlings from emerging independently.  Sadly, Read More