I don’t really know where to begin but….
We had several calls late last night that there were hatchlings on the beach. All calls within 30 minutes or so. First one said near the lighthouse and they are all over, next one said 2 or 3 house past the lighthouse but they are all in the water. Next one said east of the lighthouse, they scattered but I think they are all in the water and just wanted you to know. Last one said near nest 61. Gary and I were not riding today so decided we would go to the lighthouse and look around at dawn. Whew!
Nest 39 (previously not located after the storm) hatched with a fairly good boil and had a nice fan to the water. We watched another to the water this morning. While we were watching that hatchling, Debby (a lady who walks the beach and called earlier this week about a hatchling) called to tell me that there was a hatchling going into the water near 200 walkway. I went to see if there were more. Tracks were everywhere but we located the nest and we assumed it was nest 36. A gentleman who walks his dog via the 200 walkway everyday came by and said there’s never been a nest in that location, therefore we have a wild nest, nest #66. Morning patrol watched about 50 hatchlings go to the water after they put the green down.
THEN, what we have called nest 61 had hatchlings emerge during the night. Obviously we have misidentified nest 61 because it is only at 27 days. I’m hunting for pictures to see if we can figure it out. If all else fails, we will send DNA from the inventory to have it identified.
So you see there were hatchlings on the beach from 3 different un-greened locations….but they did get in the water.
Nest 33 had 2 or 3 hatchlings roam the beach last night too.
Thanks you for all you do!