Wednesday, July 31st Inventory of Nest 02

Today the Wednesday Volunteers with some help from LOAs Sharon Turek and Kim Toney, along with Volunteer Cherie Barrett got to complete the inventory of Nest 02.  This nest was found by the Wednesday Volunteers, so they have completed the entire journey with Nest 02.

Nest 02 was laid on May 29th, as was Nest 03R - it was Wednesday's two-for day.  The lady who laid Nest 02 was 34 inches wide.  It was a classic crawl straight up to the base of the dune, excellent place for a nest.  This is a natural nest, it did not need to be relocated.  Her nest was not very deep when we found the egg chamber, only 8 to 10 inches deep.  She is the lady who has a barnacle or something on her plastron (belly) that we could see dragging in her crawl.

Nest 02 - laid 5/29/2024

As assignments were given, Sharon and Kate started the digging process.  This nest had about two feet of sand on top of the nest.  We know this, since we mark on the DNR pole with colored tape the level of the sand when the nest is laid.  Normally digging into sand is not a big deal, but with the high winds and pounding rain the island has experienced this summer the sand is like concrete.  We eventually had to use a shovel to break the sand up for our "diggers".  The sand was so hard Kate had to change gloves since some of her fingers busted through the gloves.  As they were digging in the soft sand, a dead hatchling was found - poor thing.

 

Sharon, Kathy and Kim loosening the sand to get the nest cage free out of the sand, and off of the nest so the digging can begin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The helpers were assisting the diggers and eggs started coming out of the nest chamber to be sorted.  The next process is sorting the eggs in the following categories - hatched, unhatched, hatchlings - dead or alive.  Unfortunately we did not find any live hatchlings.

Sharon measuring the depth of the nest with the reed - these eggs were a good 24 inches deep

Diggers, helpers, sorters to the right

Sorters shaking sand out of the eggs, and categorizing the eggs

 

 

 

Deep nest, it is so amazing that these little hatchlings can crawl up through that sand - amazing

The outcome of this nest was great!  This nest emerged on July 28th, on day 60, here's the egg count - 94 Hatched, 4 unhatched, and one dead hatchling - summary totals for this nest is 94.9% Hatched Egg Success, 93.9% Emergence Success.  She laid a total of 98 eggs.

Text and pictures by Leslie

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Sunday, July 28th Nest 02 has emerged

There was a lot going on this morning but it was cool out so we were okay with it! These sunrise views make it worth getting up early.

 

Nest 2 emerged last night with BEAUTIFUL  hatchling tracks that went in a straight path to the water! No ghost crabs, and no eggs or hatchlings lost in the area. I was glad the Sunday Volunteers, who are new members of our team, got to see an emergence hole and hatchling tracks.  They also got to see the emergence hole from Nest 03R.

Nest 03R and Nest 02 were laid on the same day, May 29th.  Nest 03R emerged first on Day  59, and Nest 02 emerged the next day at day 60.

Our new Nest 17 (this was our Possible Nest 02) had another Ghost Crab hole with 3 broken eggs at the surface. We did catch who I believe is the culprit. I tossed him over the dunes, far from the nest. I collected the eggs and covered the hole. I marked them on the Nesting Card along with the emergence of Nest 02. 

 

The rest of the island was pretty calm with a LOT of space to walk. It really was a beautiful morning! 

Text by Erin and Leslie, Pics by Erin

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Beautiful sunrise but turned to clouds. 

Nest 3R.  Picture perfect emergence.

Pesky ghost crab caught in trap.  Was released of the dunes.

Beautiful sight on the way back to the shed.

Jacquelyn Andrews

Waites Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDN Permit Number MTP500.

Friday July 26, 2024 - Nest 17

Busy morning on Waties.Those pesky ghost crabs are giving us a run for our money!

PN01was at 75 days so we removed the DNR post and recorded it as false crawl 26.

N7R  had ghost crab activity,  and we found 2 egg shells on sand surface.

 

 

 PN02 had ghost crab holes and egg shells on sand surface alerting us to the presence of a nest. This crawl was found on 6/2/24. The volunteers probed but were unable to locate the elusive egg chamber deeming it a possible nest. The crawl width was 31 inches. 

                     Original crawl 6/2/24

Nest was caged and marked as N17. We have recorded 5 lost eggs as a result of ghost crabs.

M

Text by Melissa; pictures my Melissa and Erin.

 Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

 

Thursday, July 25, 2024 Inventory of Nest #1R

 The day started out with threatening skies as the Thursday volunteers covered the beach checking the status of nests and possible nests amid intermittent light showers. No new turtle activity was noted overnight, however there was an important objective to be completed today - the inventory of our first hatched nest of the season.

Nest #1R was laid May 17, on the far end of the island. Because of the high water table and short beach in that area, the nest was dug up and 119 eggs moved and reburied down island to protect them from repeated high/king tides. (120 eggs laid, one egg taken for DNA research). The nest emerged at day 66, on July 22. In the week prior to emergence, and despite our best efforts to deter them, the ghost crabs descended on the nest with a vengeance. Nine eggs and 1 dead hatchling, found outside the nest in the days prior to the inventory, were recorded as lost due to ghost crab activity. 

Our long term and valued volunteer Avery, who was with us for her last day prior to moving, was awarded the privilege of initiating the dig into the nest. She was joined by Sue and Pam who were experiencing their first inventory. Despite the ghost crab barrage, the nest had a favorable outcome. One hundred hatched eggs, 6 unhatched eggs, and 1 dead hatchling were excavated from the nest cavity. No live hatchlings this morning. The nest had a hatch success rate of 83.3% and an emergence success rate of 81.6% **

The team toasted Avery at breakfast, acknowledging her years of service- both before and after her graduation from CCU, and wished her well on her new adventure on the Pacific coast. We’ll miss you!

**The hatch success rate is determined by number of eggs hatched vs the number laid (100 divided by 120). The emergence success rate is the number of hatchlings that successfully emerged from the nest vs the number laid. (98 divided by 120 - the two dead hatchlings are considered “ successfully hatched” but not “successfully emerged” from the nest).

Photos by Kim P. and Sharon. Text by Kim T.

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

 

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 False Crawl #25 and N1

 Due to storms all around our proximity, we postponed our start time until 7am. On the ride out, the large mosquitoes were happy to show those riding in the back of the truck that they were in the area. 

At the beach, we found a lot of ghost crab activity at many of our nests and filled each hole as we found them. 

Nearing mid-island, we could see classic incoming and outgoing crawl tracks. She came in and veered left and slid over a crest of sand at the base of the dune. She crawled back over the crest and continued about another 25 feet further up the beach where she moved some sand around but there was no indication that she dug a nest. Her tracks then turned back to the ocean and she crossed back over part of her incoming tracks at the water's edge. 

As we continued to Nest 1 we could see eggshell fragments outside the hole and a ghost crab was caught in the crab trap. The shell fragments were scooped up and discarded in the trash at the shed. The hole was covered back over and the nest is scheduled to be inventoried tomorrow. The crab managed to escape halfway between the nest and the water - I hope it finds something else for its meals today. 

Feeling the heat of the day setting in as we finished our turtle duties and with the tide coming in, I snapped two pictures before we all headed back to the shed. 

Text and pictures by Kim Pf

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP500

Monday, July 22. Nest 01R Emerges

 Due to a rainy morning, we delayed our start time till 6:30.  We had no sun, no bugs and no breeze,

Most  Nests and Possible Nests are fine, but some have been pretty buried with sand from the extreme windy conditions on Waties.

But the good news of the day was finding that Nest 01R had emerged.,

History of N#01R -  this nest was laid on Friday, May 17th.  It was laid almost at the end of the beach, so the 120 eggs minus one for DNA were moved down the beach to an area that was safer from extreme high tides.   Today  which was day 66, we found a deep hole. At first we thought it was a  ghost crab hole, but with the reed being moved, we felt it was a distorted emergence hole due to rain.. Unfortunately there were 4 empty egg shells on the top that ghost crabs had pulled out.  We knew they had hatched because yesterday the team found some empty egg shells and one dead hatchling on top of the nest.  Some pesky GC had been harassing this nest for a few days.

 Again because of a downpour an hour before there weren’t any hatchling tracks to verify that this was an Emergence.   Diligence by our volunteers Jewel finally found a hatchling track way down at waters edge.  It’s a little distorted due to the rain.

Text and pictures by Sharon

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP500

July 14, 2024- Nest 16R

 It was a bright and muggy Sunday morning. 

The team started walking and there was trash everywhere. Before Tammy and Erin were done with the short end, they already had one full bag of trash. It was not long into the walk before Erin recieved a call about a crawl. Due to the heat and the amount of trash, Billie Jo and Karen finished walking the long end and met Erin and Tammy at the crawl. 

When everyone met, Erin told everyone that there may not be a nest, because it was hard to tell how long the mama was on the beach.The tide had washed away the ends of her tracks, and her tracks were very faint. The body pit was promising though, so the team got to work. It only took a few probes to find the egg chamber. 

The nest was right at the high tide line, and the king times are coming, so Erin made the decision to relocate it, closer to the dunes. Tammy and Karen quickly removed all the eggs, counting 100 eggs even.

 Erin and Billie Jo found a new location for the nest and got all the supplied ready. One egg was used for DNA so the team quickly relocated 99 eggs after creating a new nest, 16R. 

We were thankful the new location was close to the original, with the temperatures quickly rising. The team collected all 5 bags of trash and made their way back to the car. 

Photos by Billie Jo and Erin

Narrative by Erin

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP500.