Friday, August, 23, inventory of Nest #18

 It was a “bonus” kind of morning for members of the Friday Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol. 

First, a big thanks to our tireless project leader Leslie for joining our limited team today, marking her third early day in a row on the beach- bonus #1 for us!

After a season of sometimes challenging weather in terms of heavy rains and thunderstorms, intense heat indexes, crazy winds, errant king and storm driven tides, incessant insect invasions, it was a pleasant morning on the beach.  Cool- dare we say- almost chilly, breezy, calm seas, with few bugs and  a spectacular cloudy-ish sunrise - bonus #2. 

Abundant color over the marsh on our way to the island

….and continuing as the sky lightens above the beach

After concluding our beach survey, checking and completing some maintenance on our remaining nests, we settled in to complete the inventory of Nest 18- a bonafide “bonus” nest. This nest started out as Possible Nest 5 on June 25, because no egg chamber was located on the day the crawl was discovered. That day we had a record breaking 6 crawls on the island. Four were deemed false crawls, one became Nest 10, and this one, PN 5. Fifty-six days later, on August 20, the survey team observed numerous hatchling tracks heading from the dune near the PN marker to the ocean. PN 5 became our 18th nest of the season- bonus #3.

                                                           Hatchling tracks 

The joy in finding a previously unlocated nest was tempered by the fact that it showed definite signs of coyote depredation, which, thankfully upon further scene investigation, appeared to occur after hatchlings had evacuated the nest - bonus #4. Because it had hatched, the dug-up nest was re-covered, caged to protect against further depredation, and scheduled for inventory. Seven hatched egg shells were collected from the sand surrounding the nest. 

Coyote prints on top of the hatchling tracks and evidence of depredation after evacuation

Today’s inventory went smoothly, although results were not the finest - 58.2% hatch success rate and 56.3% emergence success rate. But, given the circumstances (not found or protected, coyote depredation), it’s a win in our book and bonus #5! 

Friday team members Linda, Kim and Summer dig into the egg chamber

                   Inventory results

Linda, Summer and Leslie examine a hatchling who was unable to emerge from the nest

Concluding our “bonus” morning, as we finished up our survey, a quick check of incubating Nest 10 (the nest laid the same day as the one we inventoried today) demonstrates signs of an imminent emergence. Fulfilled by our bonus filled day, we’ll happily leave that gift for the upcoming weekend volunteers. 

Pics by Leslie and Kim. Text by Kim

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