The Wednesday Volunteers and visitors were busy today. Hot an buggy on the beach. We had our veteran volunteers and some visitors.
We had Nest #11 which was soon discovered when walking this morning. A classic crawl and body pit. It took about a minute to find the egg chamber, very shallow - 4 to 6 inches deep. When probing for the egg chamber an egg was ruptured and we used that for our DNA sample. This nest was caged and we made sure to add some sand to cover the eggs. She came in and crawled over her incoming tracks. This lady is dragging something on her plastron (belly).
The nest was very shallow . . . lots of help from our visitors
At the jetty area of the island a crawl was discovered and this lady crawled up the dune, slid down the back side, crawled and trampled down the vegetation, and thankfully crawled back over the dune and left. She also is dragging something on her plastron. Possible same turtle who nested later last night - Nest 11? Both turtles were in the 33 - 34 inch size.
Thankfully she found her way back to the ocean.
Exciting morning on Waties - We now have 11 nests, and a total of 23 False crawls.
Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP500
Pictures by Leslie P and Kim P
Narrative by Leslie P
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