Tuesday, August 23

Monday night was a busy night in the light rain!

  • Nest #45 Inventory
    • Live- 1
    • Dead- o
    • Pipped- 0 
    • Unhatched- 3
    • Hatched Egg Shells- 84
  • Nest #49 Inventory
    • Live- 4
    • Dead- 5
    • Pipped- 2
    • Unhatched- 1
    • Hatched Egg Shells- 82
  • Nest #50 Inventory
    • Live- 39
    • Dead- 4
    • Pipped- 19 (the rain made it hard to get out)
    • Unhatched- 5
    • Hatched Egg Shells- 87
  • Nest #51 Inventory
    • Live- 0
    • Dead- 0
    • Pipped- 0
    • Unhatched- 37
    • Hatched Egg Shells- 76

Nest #52 had hatchlings emerge at 10:20 pm with the last one making it to the water at 11:25.  They were very disoriented!

Nest #53 had evidence of possible emergence overnight.

Unfortunately, crabs decided to perform early excavations of #53, #54 and #60!  Eggshells were put back into the nests and crab holes covered up.

A Coyote visited the Nest #49 Excavation area, dug a bit, but did not reach the eggs.  We know it was a Coyote because he left his calling card (Scat).

BIG NEWS:  Nest #95 was discovered at the East Point as it was boiling!  We  are grateful to the former OKI Turtle Volunteer who happened upon the boil last night!!!  Kathleen, Theresa and LuAnn searched for over an hour to find the exact location so an emergency excavation could be done.  The nest was in some very thick and tall dune grass.  Mama hid those eggs well!  It was near some false crawl locations, but could not  be determined to be from one of those, so it is marked as an undetected nest.

  • Nest #95 Inventory
    • Live- 2
    • Dead- 1
    • Pipped- 0
    • Unhatched- 2
    • Hatched Egg Shells- 92

**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 22ST03).

Here are the pictures for the Wild Nest #95: