Category: 2023 Season

We had a surprise yesterday afternoon. Our last Nesting Site showed evidence of an emergence. A Nesting Site is an area where the Mama spent a good amount of time, but the nest chamber was not located by our patrol. Mama came in on August 4th.

Our best guess is that the nest hatched during the rains on Friday into Saturday. After digging an arms length deep, our patrol found the nest. That makes this Nest #96. Unfortunately they found many deceased hatchlings. Sadly the heavy rains must have stopped their progress out of the nest. Nature isn’t always kind.

Nest #96 Inventory
Hatched Egg Shells – 107
Unhatched Eggs – 3
Pipped – 0
Live in Nest – 0
Dead in Nest -66

We choose to focus on the 41 hatchlings that emerged!

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 23ST03).

It was chilly and quiet out there this morning.  

We had 2 successful inventories last evening for the 2 nests that hatched during Friday-Saturday’s rain.

Nest #87 Inventory
Hatched Egg Shells – 61
Unhatched Eggs – 8
Pipped – 0
Live – 0
Dead – 0
+ 2 small spacer eggs

Nest #89 Inventory
Hatched Egg Shells – 105
Unhatched Eggs – 8
Pipped – 0
Live – 2
Dead – 0

Nest 87:

Nest 89:

Looks like we made it through the storm! It was cold out there this morning and there was no damage to the remaining nests!

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 23ST03).

It has been very quiet on the beach the last couple of nights! The rain the night before could have erased any traces of activity, so hard to tell. There have been gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, though!

**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. 

After several days with a crater on top, several nights of sitting until 11pm or after, much speculation about whether or not it hatched during the rain early Wednesday morning and finding flies/ants at the nest this morning, Nest #82 was excavated as soon as the team could arrive.  The nest HAD in fact hatched without our knowledge and we were babysitting empty shells!  Thanks to Team 5 for your diligence during the buggy nights and quick response this morning!

Nest #82 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 91
Unhatched Eggs – 18
Nothing else.  

That is all the news this morning.

**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. 

It was nice to see the stars again last night.  Many visitors were out hoping to see some turtle hatch, but they just weren’t ready to come out (while we all were there)!  The surge from the storm way off shore brought the tides up close to many nests hours after high tide.  Nest #85 has been unlucky with overwash since the week after it was laid.  Sadly, last night was no exception.

We were concerned about Nest #84 because of an issue with Ants on top of the nest and going into the center.  We’ve never seen such an invasion!  We kept sweeping them away, but they always returned.  A volunteer did some research and we put cornstarch around the perimeter.  It seemed to help a lot on the outside of the nest.  After consulting with our State Coordinator at NCWRC, it was determined an emergency excavation could be done as soon as a fair number of hatchlings emerged.  Excavating a nest before they are developmentally ready could be life threatening for the turtles.  Fortunately, the nest hatched overnight!  We did the emergency excavation this morning and were able to save 26 hatchlings from ant attack!  1 baby was covered with ants and had to be immediately rinsed off and set aside for recovery.  The stats were devastating.  I don’t know how we were not attacked ourselves, but we did not get even 1 ant bite.

Nest #84 Inventory:
Hatched Eggs – 65
Unhatched Eggs – 26
Pipped – 7
Live – 26 (1 badly attacked)
Dead – 26 (many covered in ants)

**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. 

Wednesday night had lots of beautiful distant lightning and cool breezes.  We all went in when the wind shifted, bugs came out and the rain got closer.

Nest #83 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 95
Unhatched Eggs – 15
Pipped – 0
Live – 3

**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. 

We really are starting to slow down!  Last night was beautiful with the lightning show (the storm was in Florence and Lumberton), Starlink Satellite Train (22 lights) and the cool breeze.  We have 11 nests still incubating on Caswell Beach.  The hatchlings will probably take a few more days to incubate than the ones pre-Idalia.  The high tideline is much lower now, so hopefully anything swells comes our way from Hurricane Lee won’t be a problem!

Nest #79 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 41
Unhatched Eggs – 24
Pipped – 3
Spacer Eggs – 2 tiny ones

Nest #79

Morning Activity

**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. 

We had another beautiful evening for the inventories last night! There were no new nest hatchlings to report from the inventories.

Nest #83 had no activity last night but a few more tracks in the runway this morning.

Nest #73 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 82
Unhatched Eggs – 15
Pipped – 0
Live – 1
Dead – 0

Nest #80 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 71
Unhatched Eggs – 51
Pipped – 0
Live – 0
Dead – 1

Nest #81 Inventory:
Hatched Egg Shells – 100
Unhatched Eggs – 19
Pipped – 2
Live – 2
Dead – 0

Nest #73

Nest 80

Nest 81

Morning Activity

**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. 

Nest #75 Inventory (last night – We had a sweet family from Kentucky observe!)
Hatched Egg Shells – 80
Unhatched Eggs – 1w
Pipped -1

Nest #77 Inventory (this morning)
Hatched Egg Shells – 98
Unhatched Eggs – 28

Nest #75

Nest #77

Morning Activity

**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.