A busy morning on the island today: not one but two nests!
First up, just above Marker 4 was a lovely set of tracks and no hunting around for the nest either. Pretty easy to find the eggs. It was in a great place on the beach so we left it in place. Took our DNA sample, took measurements and caged it. Easy peasy :)
Bev continued the patrol while we were finishing up Nest 8. She called with the news of another crawl just a little below Marker 9 - up in the part of the island that often has no beach during high tides. It too was a nest but it needed to be relocated further down the beach in a safer spot. Steve was able to find the nest chamber pretty quickly; it took us longer to find the eggs - they were deep!
Turned out to be a sizeable nest with 140 eggs. Took us a while to get them all out. The new location for this nest is right at Marker 6. For some of our team, this was a first - relocations can be a lot of work. But a happy day for everyone!
All safe and sound now!
Thanks to Valerie for sharing her photos (and bringing us good luck)!
Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP500.
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