It’s been an exciting week for Caswell Beach Sea turtles amid the heat and storms, and Caswell Beach Turtle Watch teams are keeping busy with hatches, inventories, and even new nests.
Saturday morning on patrol we found four nests had early emergence activity (day 49-52), with one nest making a very slow boil (bloom) in the early morning rain. The sand started moving around 6-6:15 and by 6:39 we had heads and flippers at the top. It took 2 hours for the first 74 hatchlings to make it to the water!
A 75th straggler took its time emerging and spent a little time on its back but eventually righted itself and made it to the water. In the event that hatchlings flip onto their backs, we are directed to leave them for some period of time to right themselves as data as proven they develop necessary strength and increased survivability if we do so. There were 78 eggs in this relocated nest, so that is quite the success story!
More New Nests!
We are pleasantly surprised to announce Nest #42 & #43! They were exactly 1 week apart. The eggs were not very easy to locate, we had to go beyond some hard sand, but Morning Patrol found them! A nice family from West Virginia/Virginia observed the process and had wonderful questions and appreciated our time and education. A few of them were teachers ❤️.
Inventories
At this point, we have inventoried 13 nests so far this season. Inventory Results are posted daily in our 2025 Inventories page. We are seeing some great hatch ratios!
Unfortunately, Nest #8 proved disappointing. The top of the egg chamber (top layer) was just 6 inches below the sand’s surface. One layer of eggs down they found eggs with thick patches of hairy roots. All of the unhatched eggs were beige to light pinkish and had thick yolks. Our NCWRC biologist thinks roots may have grown into these eggs.
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 25ST03).
Please consider donating to our efforts as we build up our necessary resources for the season.
You can donate at Caswell Beach Turtle Watch Donations.