Visitors to the island over the last week have gotten a chance to watch our staff members totally transform the old decking at the ferry dock. Because the boards were rotten, they dug out and removed all the old boards, replacing them with a whole new platform.

I’ve posted before about how quickly they replaced individual boards; but the speed with which they replaced this deck was impressive. It was hard work, with a lot of heavy lifting, but they greeted everyone cheerfully and the new decking looks great!

Our friend Cathy Miller has posted a fantastic description of the Dewees Island Christmas Bird Count. Her blog, pluffmudperspectives, describes our whole day and strategy. She is very generous in her descriptions of the teamwork on the island and the hospitality, and her bird photos are fantastic! And, with all the teamwork, we managed a record 89 species this year! Click here to read the whole post on the Charleston Audubon Blog, and make plans to join us for next year’s count! Every time I bird with the Millers, Aaron, and the other Audubon volunteers like Ann and Carl, I learn more: about birding AND about photography.

You will really enjoy Cathy’s descriptions of the island and the day, and her fantastic photos! And if you are participating in this year’s Big Year Contest, you’ll get ideas about where to find which birds! Here’s a tiny sample:

Carl and I were delighted to be returning to bird with our friends and to see the beautiful natural barrier island landscape that this sea island community protects… After a few e-mail exchanges on some photographic evidence, we determined in the end that we had done very well, indeed! Although individual bird numbers seemed lower, our species count was high — 89 species! — the highest count since I became the designated leader of this territory in December 2008! It is also the highest count for any of the Charleston CBC territories this year. The credit goes to the great teamwork! Thank you everyone on the Dewees team! Your participation was significant to this count!

While it is true that a little competitive spirit helps to bring more fun to the adventure, I would like to say to all participants in bird counts that your volunteerism is important to the overall ecological health of our natural communities. We should always remember, as I pointed out to the ladies on the beach, each count provides valuable data to the scientists tracking them, and the analysis thereof informs the conservation efforts required to sustain our natural resources. Bravo to all! Let’s go birding!

Each summer, we have interns on the island who help with sea turtle patrol and environmental programs. Many of our interns have gone on to positions at the Department of Natural Resources or other scientific organizations. Last fall, I had the chance to talk with Lisa, one of our interns, and she was so excited about what she learned here that I asked her to write it down. Here is her letter, in full.

I was a Sea Turtle Tech intern on Dewees Island during the summer of 2010. The time I spent on Dewees has definitely helped mold me into the person and scientist that I am today. While most college students spend their summers working at restaurants or sitting at home, I was gaining experiences that I would not trade for the world. As a sea turtle tech, my main responsibilities involved participating with the Dewees Island Sea Turtle Patrol and volunteering with the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge Turtle Team. When I was not focusing on turtles, I worked at the nature center where I could explore something new on a daily basis. I had never experienced any place like Dewees; for someone who loves nature, what better place to grow, learn and experience it at its fullest? From leading marsh walks to seining events, movie nights to plankton parties, I spent more time learning on my own than I ever anticipated. One of my most memorable experiences on Dewees was the fish kill that summer. This sounds like a horrible and disgusting time, which I can assure you it was; however, this experience changed my understanding of the world around me. The whole summer leading up to the fish kill I monitored the temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen content of different locations around Dewees including the ferry dock, rice trunk dock, Chapel dock, Lake Timicau Dock, and Myrtle Dock. As the summer continued, I began to see the dissolved oxygen content decrease and the temperature rise, events that commonly lead to a fish kill. Monitoring the events would end up leading to a fish kill brought my knowledge about these events to a new level. I went from bird watching at the Fairchild’s house to wadding hip deep with Lori in the impoundment filled with dead menhaden. I had studied the importance of water quality, and I understood the basic concepts of life cycles and the food chain. Having the opportunity to watch all the pieces fit together gave me a new perspective on my previous textbook education, and allowed me to grow from a student to a scientist.
Not only did the internship fill my summer with great personal experiences, but also with wonderful professional experiences. While I gained great field experience with sea turtle nesting, I also became very experienced in environmental education, wildlife and coastal habitats, barrier island morphology, and I made great professional contacts for the future. I also received ATV training and earned my MOCC (Motorboat Operator Certification Course). Four months after my internship, I graduated with my B.S in Marine Science with a Biology minor, and I accepted a job as a Seasonal Biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program. I believe that my experiences on Dewees helped me get where I am today and will continue to aid me in accomplishing the goals I have set for myself. I owe so much to Dewees for all the important experiences I had while there. The island and the people I met made me feel so at home, and I still consider myself as a part of the community. I could not stress how important the internship experience was for me and how much it has shaped my future, and I would like to thank everyone who helped in making that happen.
Lisa Scarano

The island manager posted these photos on his blog: our new ferry is in the water for finishing touches. Stay tuned for plans to celebrate her arrival!

We are really lucky, here on Dewees Island, to have a wastewater treatment system that is state-of-the-art, environmentally. Effluent from homes is macerated with a pump at each home, and sent back to the main station for treatment in our system that uses biological decomposers to filter and refine the water. Supposedly, water on the outtake end of this system is potable, but we are not going to test that for ourselves.

That said, as homeowners (or guests or renters) we need to treat this system gently and fairly. We tell our guests not to flush anything that hasn’t been eaten first; the system is meant to handle human waste; not dryer sheets, baby wipes, or Polly Pockets. (Our cat used to be fascinated with those tiny rubber dolls and drop them in the toilet, presumably to play with them in the water. There was nothing worse than standing up to flush and seeing Polly swirling down into the abyss!)

On December 25 (yes, Christmas!) we learned more about this system than we had previously been aware of. For example, we did not know that there is an alarm on the pump, and when it is not working to maximum potential, it sounds a regular screeching out into the world. We learned this fact as we were preparing dinner. We called Public Safety, who called the utility folks, who told us how to stop the racket. Fixing a pump in the rain and the dark is not an optimal situation, so they told us to wait until morning and they would be on the first boat over. They also told us to limit water use. (like “don’t use any if you can help it”.) So our holiday dinner dishes would have to wait until morning, as would laundry and showers. Unfortunately, the screeching alarm repeats every two hours and ten minutes. All night. Apparently the reset button has a short duration.

The last alarm went off at 6:20 December 26, and we decided to go out to shoot pictures of the sunrise and early birds until the first ferry got here. Imagine our surprise when the cheerful team of Paul Conover and Ryan Auk showed up before 7:10, having taken the sea ark over to get our water online as early as possible! They were very appreciative to find that we had, in fact, stopped using water right away.

If people don’t stop using water right away (or don’t hear the alarm) then there is a bit of a back-up that necessitates a pumping out situation. We were fortunate not to need a pump out. Apparently, the salt air is hard on pumps, and they need repairs now and then. If your alarm goes off, turn off all appliances using water in your home, paying special attention to those which put water into the treatment utility. (A refrigerator ice maker, for instance, isn’t sending water through the system at the rate of a dishwasher or washing machine. Stop using the washer and dishwasher.) If you need to make the sound stop, check with Paul, who can give you directions for a longer solution than the reset button. (NOW we know this.) Then stop using water to the best of your ability. We were thrilled (and really impressed) that the staff responded so quickly.

We are getting so excited about our new ferry!  These photos are the latest; the island manager’s blog also has some updates. It looks like it will be finished near the end of January to mid-February… woohoo!

We are really looking forward to being on the top deck again… we will miss the traditional lines of the Aggie Gray, but can’t wait to be able to greet neighbors and guests in style on our swanky new boat!

The New York Times recently featured an article in the opinion section titled The Joy of Quiet, by Pico Ayer.  I have actually had it sent to me by several people, and today, when I went over to the island for coffee, I had a chance to appreciate what a special place Dewees is, in terms of finding quiet.  The basic premise of the article is unsurprising; people need time to disconnect with all their connecting devices and experience the absence of electronic media.  Forgive the irony of my writing, (and your reading) this on those very intrusive devices for a second… Dewees gives us that chance to really unwind.

As I headed to the island, a pair of dolphins leaped into the bow wave, and hovered there for half the journey, occasionally looking up at me as I leaned out to watch them.  (This wasn’t actually quiet; the thrum of the ferry engines, the wind, the gulls, the splashes all made noise… but I WAS unplugged.) Arriving on the dock, there was a loon and a pair of grebes near the rice trunk.  Once the ferry turned to go back, the hush was awesome.   Along Old House lane, the tiny rhythm of a woodpecker was audible, as was the flurry of wings.  The ponds behind the impoundment were filled with Widgeons and Mottled Ducks, American Coot and Common Moorhens, and they all quacked and whistled and splashed as I attempted to sneak up on them without breaking too many twigs to startle them.  And the Wednesday coffee group generally sounds like raucous laughter as we make real connections rather than electronic ones.

The article talks about the real value of places like ours:

…after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends (as neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have found) on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.

We are fortunate indeed.

Our Big Year contest hasn’t begun yet, but I managed to catch sight of a new bird that I had never seen before: A Red-necked Grebe. They are a species that is only here in winter (and then only occasionally; the last one recorded nearby was 20 years ago), and because we were pulling in to the dock with the boat after shooting photos of American Oystercatchers, I barely had time to grab the camera.  It was bigger than a Horned Grebe, with a bigger bill, and it had distinctive white patches on the wings.  Since I didn’t have binoculars, I raised my lens and started snapping.  I was pretty sure it was a bird I hadn’t spotted here before, and I checked on ebird to see if anyone else had reported one on Dewees.  There had not been any reported here, and the last time one was reported in the state was in January near Clemson.  I sent my grainy photos to a local expert who monitors ebird data, and he verified it.  (He had recorded one on Capers in 1991.)

Final SC Sea Turtle Data for 2011 As the 2011 sea turtle nesting came to end, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Marine Turtle Conservation Program reports that approximately 4,011 sea turtle nests were laid this season on beaches that are monitored. In addition to nesting by the loggerhead sea turtle, we have had one green sea turtle nest on Cape Island and four leatherback nests (three on Hilton Head Island and one on Hunting Island State Park). Hurricane Irene passed the beaches of South Carolina on Aug. 26, 2011. While the majority of South Carolina residents were not severely affected by the storm, the sea turtle nests that were still incubating were significantly affected. Preliminary counts indicate that 50% of the nests (379) that were still incubating were lost. Because many nests hatched prior to the storm, approximately 9% of the total nests laid in 2011 were lost during this storm. The Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR) was hit especially hard since it comprises 25% to 30% of the state’s nesting effort. CRNWR reported approximately 1,448 nests this year, and it is estimated that 160 out of the remaining 215 nests were lost on Cape, Lighthouse, and Bull Islands, collectively.  Some nests that were initially thought to be lost to the storm due to tidal inundation and sand accumulation have actually hatched. Therefore, the actual number of nests lost to Irene will not be known until all remaining nest sites have had the opportunity to hatch. Sea turtle stranding response and necropsies (post-mortem examinations) are an important component of DNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program. In 2011, there have been 125 sea turtle strandings (turtles that wash ashore alive and dead) in South Carolina. Twenty-seven of these turtles were alive at the time of stranding. The mean number of sea turtle strandings since 2000 is 127. Sick or injured live turtles that strand along the coast are retrieved for rehabilitation at the South Carolina Aquarium. Twenty-six sea turtles that were rehabilitated have been released to date this year. These turtles included cold-stunned turtles that stranded in North Carolina and live strandings from South Carolina. Dead turtles are necropsied to examine probable cause of death, food habits and gender. Twenty-four necropsies have been performed by DNR staff. To keep up with strandings in South Carolina in real time or for more detailed information, visit the online stranding database provided by Seaturtle.org: www.seaturtle.org/strand. Survey effort at index nesting beaches in South Carolina from 1982 – 2011 did not vary among years. The natural trend includes high, medium and low years. Both 2010 and 2011 were good years.  It remains to be seen as to whether or not the 2012 nesting season will follow this trend.  Nesting prior to 1982 was much denser in South Carolina with over 2000 nests solely on Cape Island in the early 1970’s. Currently, Cape Island has an average of 1,000 nests per year. The DNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program is also participating in a multi-state project along with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the North Carolina Wildlife and Resources Commission and the University of Georgia to answer several basic loggerhead sea turtle nesting questions. The answers to these questions will help biologists better understand the status of the loggerhead population. Currently, the actual number of loggerhead sea turtles that nest in South Carolina is not known. We will use DNA genetic fingerprinting (CSI for sea turtles) to identify individual loggerhead nesting females, how many nests they are laying each year, and how long they go in between nesting years. This information will provide a much more accurate census of the actual nesting population. This year (2011) marks year two of this project. In 2010 and 2011, 3150 (91.6% analyzed with 911 unique females) and 4011 (33.3% analyzed with 496 unique females) samples were collected, respectively. Although the genetic analysis is not complete, several interesting results have already emerged. Between June 11 and July 30, 2010, one female nested on Ossabaw Island (GA), then laid a nest on Kiawah Island (SC), and then nested twice on Cape Lookout National Seashore (NC). This female traveled great distances between nesting events, but another sea turtle currently holds the record for maximum recorded beaches visited in one season. One loggerhead laid nests on five different beaches: Daufuskie Island (SC), Hilton Head Island (SC), Seabrook Island (SC), Folly Beach (SC), and Cape Lookout National Seashore (NC). Most females are showing strong nest site fidelity.  For example, one individual female laid all six of her nests on Cape Island, SC between May 21 and July 16, 2010.  This female also holds the record for the maximum number of nests (6) laid to date. You can follow the progress of this study on our genetics study web page provided by Seaturtle.org: http://www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/genetics.shtml. What you can do to help sea turtles in South Carolina! * Obey local and county lighting ordinances * Do not shine lights on a sea turtle or take flash photography * Turn out all exterior lights (flood and deck) visible from the beach, dusk to dawn, from May through October * Close blinds and drapes on windows to shield interior lights that can be seen from the beach or ocean * No flashlights, fireworks or bonfires on the beach * Encourage your local and county administrations to enforce their lighting ordinances * Do not disturb a nesting sea turtle and observer her only from a distance * When boating, lookout for sea turtles both inshore and offshore.  Sea turtle mortality from boat interaction is on the rise * Fill in large holes dug on the beach at the end of the day because adult and hatchling sea turtles can become trapped in them * Remove tents, chairs, and other items from the beach and dunes at the end of the day that could obstruct a sea turtle when nesting * Adopt-a-Nest (www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/adopt) The DNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program is responsible for managing and protecting sea turtle populations in the state of South Carolina. The sea turtle nest laying season in South Carolina is May through August, with peak nesting in mid-June. The ten-year average nest incubation duration for a loggerhead sea turtle is 55-60 days. Nests begin to hatch around mid- to late July and hatchlings continue to emerge through October. After a turtle nest has hatched, DNR staff and cooperators evaluate the contents of the hatched nest to determine the success of each nest. To keep up with nesting in South Carolina in real time along with more detailed information, visit the online nest database provided by Seaturtle.org: http://www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/. (From the South Carolina Sea Turtle protection program newsletter to turtle volunteers.)