Waties Island Sea Turtles 2024: Wednesday, May 29th Two nests today

The day started out with a nice sunrise, and great morning temps and low humidity. Leslie walked the lower end and the rest of the volunteers and a guest walked the long end. Not long after they left, a phone call was received, we have a crawl, and shortly after the first call, another call was received, we have two crawls and we think two nests.

Both of these ladies knew what they were doing - classic crawls in and out, no crawling around for a scenic view of the island, and very distinct body pits.

Nest #2, this Lady came in and her body pit was up close to the base of the dune. There seemed to be two body pits, one close to the base of the dune, but after looking closely, this is here she turned around. She laid her eggs right below this turn-around. Her nest chamber was about 8 to 10 inches deep. She did have a squiggly line in her crawl, possibly dragging something on her plastron. She was 34 inches wide.

Nest #2 - crawl and body pit close to the base of dune

Wednesday Volunteers - Nest #2


Nest #2

Nest #3R was relocated since she laid the original nest close to the high tide line. We relocated it very close to the original, just higher up on the dune. This lady was a big girl, 38 inches wide. Her nest was deep, we dug about a foot down before we uncovered any eggs. She laid 135 eggs. Again, she did not fool around, she came in and left crawling over a portion of her incoming crawl.

Nice classic body pit

Predator tracks in body pit


Predator Patrolling the dunes

The volunteers worked together to move this nest a little higher up on the dune - safe from future King Tides and possible storms. They had to dig about a foot before we found the eggs. After the eggs were removed, the nest cavity was 23 inches deep.