It’s a wrap for the 2025 Sea Turtle Seaon at Caswell Beach! We are grateful our few remaining nests, many washed over by Hurricane Erin, had some time to incubate, hatch and be inventoried before the threat of more hurricane activity. It’s been a very different season, mixed with challenges, blessings and many lessons learned about our sea turtles and Mother Nature.
We are ever-grateful for the generous support from our community and the many beach visitors we get to interact with each season. We could not do what we do to protect our beach’s sea turtles without you. Enjoy these stories from our final nests.
Nest #43 (Last Nest of 2025)
After a little crack and dip the previous evening, our last nest Nest #43, finally hatched. It was a relocated nest and hatched on Day 58. There were hatchlings waiting at the top when our team had to leave the beach due to lightning. When they went back to check there were many tracks in the runway.
We were granted permission to emergency excavate this nest early due to the impending hurricances. Nest #43’s inventory was less than ideal, but we had 40 hatched eggs and two live hatchlings. One was still pipping out of his shell. Both struggled with using their front flippers and were putting their noses to the grindstone as they worked to wake up their new muscles, so we applied some gentle flipper massage therapy to help them along. Two young turtle ambassadors named them as they swam away!
After several attempts to crawl into the surf and getting pushed back, we provided an assist to get them further out in the surf. We inspected one of the unhatched eggs and could see that it was close to fully developed, but had stopped for some reason. Some of our stories are sad, but we always learn from our work with the turtles and that knowledge feeds improvements in the overall Sea Turtle Project in NC.
Special thanks to Stacy and her young daughter, Lily, for the nest visits this summer and help with pictures!
Nest #42
On the evening of Day 62, Nest #42 finally had hatchlings emerge with a very excited Team 4 present! They counted about 46 hatchlings before 9 PM, with additional tracks in the runway the next morning. Nest #42 was overwashed multiple times during the Hurricane Erin Tides so we were very happy when hatchlings emerged.
Permission was given by NCWRC for Nest #42 to be emergency excavated. It was a small nest and there were three live hatchlings at excavation!!!! A wonderful surprise for all!
Hatched Egg Shells – 63
Unhatched Eggs – 5
Pipped – 0
Dead – 3
Live at Inventory – 3
Nest #41
Nest #41 had ant activity when the nest team noticed a flipper fighting against the ants. The hatchling was stuck in beach grass so with approval the hatchling was freed. Poor baby was a little stunned at first, but he worked out the kinks and made it down the runway straight to the water! A couple of sweet families got to cheer him on along with the nest team.
The nest was inventoried with a great crowd and a sweet Wildflower Troop (Girl Scouts) present! This gave our nest team a wonderful opportunity to share and educate! There weren’t any hatchlings remaining, but it was a very successful hatch! The girls and many adults liked looking in the nest cavity and seeing the eggs, especially the double egg!
Hatched Egg Shells – 112
Unhatched Eggs – 14 plus a Double Egg = 15/16
Pipped – 0
Dead – 0
Live at Inventory – 0
Nest #40, in memory of Dennis Watson
Nest #40 was a special nest for all of Caswell Beach Turtle Watch, as it was dedicated in memory of Dennis Watson, a member of Team 10 and in honor of his wife Karen, a Team 10 Leader. The nest was adopted in his honor by he and Karen’s previous team, Team 8.
This was one of our miracle nests. The nest had at least 8 tidal overwashes, but yielded 80% hatched eggs!!! It was a small nest of 68 eggs total. The first live hatchling brought out was named Dennis! The second one had a hard time getting his front flippers moving to start with, but eventually got them working.
At inventory, we gathered to commemorate Dennis. Many memories were shared, as well as a special poem, and a toast to Dennis.
Hatched Egg Shells – 58
Unhatched Eggs – 10 (2 were inundated with roots)
Pipped -0
Dead – 0
Live – 2
Nest #36
Nest #36 was a nest heavily impacted by Hurrican Erin, and as we feared, the results were not great. The eggs were at about Day 46 at the time of Erin, a critical stage in their development. It’s difficult for our teams to continue to sit at nests when we know there will not be good results, but this is part of our duty as NCWRC permittees. There had been at least 3 hatchlings pulled out by crabs during Days 55-60 of incubation, so we knew some of the eggs had hatched, just not emerged independently. One was able to be used for paternal DNA.
Hatched Egg Shells – 5
Unhatched Eggs – 136 (some developed and some undeveloped)
Pipped – 0
Dead – 0
Nest #33
Similar to Nest #36, Nest #33’s inventory was as expected, but sad nonetheless. Most of the eggs had hatched, but unfortunately none of the hatchlings made it out of the nest. We thank the nest team for their faithfulness in watching over the nest for so long!
Hatched Egg Shells – 101
Unhatched Eggs – 11
Pipped – 2
Dead – We are assuming 101, too decomposed to count
Live – 0
You can see our latest inventory results here.
**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.