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
Posts by CWBTW Editor
What Does Caswell Sea Turtle Data Predict for 2024?
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
Caswell Beach Sea Turtles Spark Their Own Olympics!
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
Sunday Surprise: Caswell Has Another Sea Turtle Nest
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
August Sunshine Brings Turtle Hatchlings for Caswell Beach, Despite Predators
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
Dodging the Rain While Sea Turtles Stay Busy!
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
Busy Sea Turtles and High Tides for Caswell Beach
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
We Have Hatchlings!
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
Heavy Rains Challenging Our Sea Turtle Hatchlings!
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
Hopping Nights and Mornings For Our Sea Turtles!
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 Read More