Turtle Team Party scheduled for September 25 at 5:30 pm.

If you were a volunteer (even if you just walked once) and you will be here on the 25th, please join us at Huyler House at 5:30 Saturday the 25th.  BYO libations; snacks provided.  Please rsvp to Gary McGraw at g_mcgraw@bellsouth.net.  We’ll look at the final data and celebrate with our turtle team friends!

September 1:  Nests 10-15 in danger of erosion due to Hurricane Earl.

September 2: Gary reports that Earl didn’t do too much harm:

I just walked the beach after today’s high tide began to recede. It’s too soon to break out the champagne, but maybe we dodged a bullet. None of the nests were washed out; the water came up close to the cages for almost all of them; but none had water wash over them. We were fortunate to have a strong north wind with no ‘east’ so it helped slow down the swells. My weather glass peaked a couple hours ago; Earl was at 31.7 degrees North at 2PM [we’re at 32.8 N] so Earl is passing us. The next high tide has a lunar component of one foot less and Earl should be pulling away from us. As the wind clocks to ‘west’ it will help us even more. Let us hope that the worse of high water is behind us for Earl.

Our turtle nesting season is well underway, with the first nests beginning to hatch.  We do need walkers to be on the beach in the evenings to check nests– please see Gary if you are interested.  We have a total of 15 protected nests on the beach right now, and we are so grateful for all of the walkers and observers who are helping us with turtle conservation.

Here is a recap of the season– which we will update as we have more information.  New information since first publication in other colors.

Nest 1.

Discovered on June 6 by Bob, the nest was named Jill-Bob since Jill had found a false crawl the day before.  It was located just North of Osprey walk, with a V-V measurement of 22 inches.  The first hatchlings emerged on July 29.  We inventoried this nest on Sunday, August 1, at 7:30.  We were delighted to find that almost all of the hatchlings had made their way to the sea.  There were three unhatched eggs, two dead hatchlings, and the remainder of the 118 eggs were accounted for with eggshells, signifying that this was a very successful hatch.

Nest 2.  Our farthest crawl from the boardwalk, this nest was north of the shoal.

Named for Gary, the nest was left “in situ.”  The nest was found on June 10, and hatched on July 31, when Gary found 50+ tiny tracks leading to the ocean.  We inventoried the nest last night and were perplexed to find that there were lots of eggs, at least half the nest, that hadn’t developed.  They had the appearance of a nest that had seen a washover, but this was high upon the dune.  In addition, there was a dead leucystic hatchling that either had no fully formed shell or a white, soft shell.  Interesting that whatever prevented over 50 eggs from developing did not seem to affect the half of the nest that hatched.

Nest 3.  “Jane” is just North of Osprey.  It was found on 6/14 by Jane and relocated.  This nest is currently sporting a green sign that lets us know it will hatch soon.  If you are down on the beach in the evening or night, please be aware that hatchlings may be making their way to the ocean and watch your feet.  If you notice activity, please call us.  The inventory will be scheduled for 3 days after first evidence of hatching.  (52 days will be today, August 4).

We had a good crowd up at the nest last night, waiting and watching.  Tips for watching a turtle hatching:  Be very quiet.  Set up your observation spot far from the nest, and sent a quiet volunteer back to check every so often.  No bug lotion– wear long pants and sleeves.  Bring water.  Only use a flashlight with red lights so as not to disrupt your night vision or that of the turtles.  Nest 3 did not hatch last night, though we could swear we saw a concave spot.

Nest 3 hatched on August 7 to an enthusiastic crowd of well-wishers who scared off the ghost crabs. At least three were lost to ghost crabs, but many more were saved.  The nest was inventoried on Tuesday to a near record crowd, and we found one hatchling “orphan Jane” to send off to the sea.

Nest 4.  “ReggieBob” found on 6/17 by Reggie.  It is just north of the Ancient Dunes Boardwalk.  The nest was left in situ, so we don’t know how many eggs are there.  The V-V measurement for this turtle was 20″.  Estimated hatch date range (46 – 58 days) is August 3 – 10.  There is a green flag signaling imminent hatching there too.  (52 days is August 7).

Nest 4 hatched shortly after dark on August 12th.  Attended by the Demattos family, renting from Minnesota, as well as turtle team members Judy, Gary, and Reggie, one tiny head popped through the surface.  The nest began to boil, with tiny hatchlings fanning out across the beach.  The total amount of time from when the first babies bubbled out to the last one making it out to sea was all of about 20 minutes. Gary estimated 100 hatchlings made it out!

Nest 5.  “Courtney” found by intern Courtney on the North End on June 23.  The nest was relocated to the sand bar area and is closer to Osprey Walk than Nest 2.  The v-v measurement was 19 inches.  There were 91 eggs.  Estimated hatch range is August 10- 17, with 52 days at August 13.

Nest 5 emerged the night of August 15th at Day 52. Jessica was on the beach ‘nest sitting’ and saw the grand event, I believe with her parents … what a delight ! We had relocated this nest with 91 eggs. I found no dead hatchlings in the area today. As per the guidelines we just received from DNR, we will conduct nest 5 inventory on Wednesday.

The nest was inventoried last night (August 19) to a great crowd of 41 people. We had 80 hatchling shells; 9 un-hatched eggs; 2 live hatchlings; 0 dead hatchlings.  The Willcox family, renting from Ct, and several other renters were on hand to watch our two babies slowly head out to sea.

Nest 6.  “Rita”. On her FIRST day walking on June 24, Rita found a nest immediately.  The nest was left in situ just south of Osprey Walk.  This was a curious one to start with– the nest had been dug into by some sort of canine.  3 eggs were broken and left on the surface.  Our initial sense was that a small dog had done the digging, but subsequent patterns may point to a fox.  We cleaned up the broken eggs and caged the nest.  The next day, there was another home where another (or the same) canine had dug into the hole.  We extended the caging, and there has been no activity there since.  Estimated hatch range is August 11- 18, with 52 days at August 14.

Rita was nest sitting her babies August 16th when the little fellows decided to make a mad dash for the sea. The Savages and others helped guard the hatchlings from the ghost crabs and none were lost. Rita guessed about 75 hatchlings were on the move.   The inventory is scheduled for Friday at 7:00 pm.

We found 54 hatchling shells; 22 undeveloped eggs; 1 dead hatchling; 0 live hatchlings. This was the nest predated by an animal where we found three broken eggs on the surface.

Nest 7,   “Fio”.  Named for the Fiorino and Fiorenzo families, renting from New Jersey, who also found a nest on their first day walking on July 9.  The nest is near Marshmallow walk, and was below the spring tide mark in a low area.  We relocated 130 eggs to a higher area.  V-V measurement of 21.5″  Estimated hatch range August 26 – September 3, with 52 days at August 30.

On August 21, Gary and Toone placed a green flag on this nest to signify that it should hatch soon.  On August 27, Gary wrote the following: We had a significant rain early this AM so field signs are hard to read … however, there is a moderate sized depression in the middle of Nest #7 which is at Day 49. We can keep a close eye on it for emergence. My guess is that it “caved” last night.

On September 1, Gary reported 15 new hatchling tracks heading onto the water this morning. We will discuss what this means for inventory.

Nests 7 and 8, both near Needlerush, will be inventoried Wednesday night, starting with Nest 7 at 7:00.

Nest 8, “Fiona”.  Our youngest nest discoverer so far, Fiona got up early to accompany her grandmother Jane on her Monday walk.  Fiona found the nest on July 12, and there was a rather distinctive 2 barnacle track.  Near Ancient Dunes, the nest has an estimated hatch range of August 29 – September 6, with 52 days at September 2.  Nest #8 “Fiona” reaches Day 46 today(August 27) so Gary put up a run-way and a green flag.

August 29: Jane Savage just reported seeing a hatchling crawl out of Nest 8 and go into the sea. Brucie was on the beach, too. Gary checked and found one hatchling track … so Nest #8 did emerge. Nests 7 and 8, both near Needlerush, will be inventoried Wednesday night, starting with Nest 7 at 7:00.

Nests 7 and 8 should be inventoried tonight (although we may postpone 7, stay tuned) near Needlerush walkway, so we can get a clearer sense of what’s happening.  Earl is supposed to bring significant risks of rip currents, as well.

We did actually postpone nest 7, because Gary saw clear evidence of a major emergence on September 1.  It was fortunate that DNR representative Kelly Sloan was there to clarify the process for us– we wait for inventories until three days after a major emergence.  So nest 7 will now be inventoried on Saturday night along with nest 9.

Nest 7: Final inventory for nest 7 was sad and puzzling.  84 dead hatchlings were found.   24 or more appear to have survived to the sea; Gary witnessed the evidence on Wednesday morning.  At least 5 of the dead hatchlings were leucystic (white-pigmented) so we are guessing that some genetic anomaly was at play here.  If we had gone into the nest on Wednesday and discovered a whole group of hatchlings wriggling right below the surface, protocol would dictate that we cover the nest and let them get out on their own.  And we know that some made it out, so there wasn’t an inhibiting crust over the nest.  There were fire ants everywhere, but not actually on the baby turtles.  Hopefully, the genetic data will help us understand what happened.

Tonight’s nest inventories are according to the preplanned schedule.  Gary reminds us of turtle protocol in a storm:  Keep people safe.  Be sure to have accurate GPS inventories of nest locations, and perhaps plant an additional stake behind the nest to find it in the event of a washout.  Only volunteers with an LOA should intervene in any way, and that intervention should be limited to reburying eggs found on the beach.  Early inventory (despite impending storms) is illegal, because it will skew the data.

DNR states:

Yes, storms have an impact on sea turtles, but they have adapted their nesting strategy to accommodate for natural events such as hurricanes. Each nesting female turtle deposits several nests throughout the duration of the nesting season ‐ essentially hedging her bets to make sure that even if a storm hits at some point during the nesting season, there is still a high probability that at least a few of her nests will incubate successfully without being impacted by a storm. No storm season is a total loss for sea turtles.

Nest 8 was inventoried on September 1; Kelly Sloan from DNR was present.  We found 103 hatched eggs and 10 unhatched eggs.  There were no hatchlings dead or alive.  We could see some tall clouds (Earl?) off to the southeast. On our way to the beach, we noticed the large feline tracks in the swale again.  After the inventory, Trent McDevitt called me to tell me that he had been to the beach after we left, and his flashlight caught a sparkle from what he thought was a large reflector from a turtle nesting sign.  When he explored further, he found himself staring into the eyes of a very large cat.  The cat was about 50 yards away, and stared at him for a minute before turning and disappearing into the brush.  He described it as enormous (3+ feet long), with a long tail.

September 2: Gary writes:

Today all nests are dry after the first high tide. # 10 at day 47 shows no activity. Something dug up all the egg shells at nest 8 and scattered them about. Hurricane Earl will pass by today [CAT 4, 125 kt winds] giving us swells and high water. Keep your toes crossed our remaining nests remain dry. I’ll check out the beach at our 3 PM high tide today.

Nest 9, “Anne.”  Found by Anne and Jim on their regular Thursday walk on July 15, nest 9 is way around the South end by the Riley’s dock.  It, too, was well investigated by a fox, who dug a hole into the top of the body pit, but did not encounter eggs.  The egg chamber was about a foot away from the fox disturbance.  The lateral gait and particular track made us pretty sure that it was a fox.  The nest was left in situ, and is scheduled to hatch between September 1 and 8, with September 5 being 52 days.

On August 21, Gary and Toone removed some grass growing within the cage.

On August 31, Gary reports, “I went out this morning to put a crab trap on Nest # 9 “Anne” and found it had emerged. I found a cave-in; 30-40 individual hatchling tracks heading to the sea [so there’re probably more]; no tracks going in the wrong direction; and one dead hatchling still in the grasp of a ghost crab. I left them alone thinking if he & his friends fill up on this dead hatchling then maybe they’ll be too full to want another straggler. At Day 47, this is the 3^rd nest that has emerged early. Do you suppose they know a hurricane is coming in a few days with possible beach erosion ?

Nest 9 inventory scheduled for Saturday night at 7:00, take Huyler House walk and walk around to the inlet on your right.  Keep walking.

When we arrived at ‘in situ’ Nest #9 “Anne”, we found an animal had dug into the nest under the cage all the way to the cavity. Egg shells were scattered all over the dunes. A nearby boater told us he saw dogs roaming over the dunes that day from visiting boats on the south end. We were able to collect an estimated 64 shells but this is surely a low count. So the inventory results are not accurate.

Nest 10:  “Art-Gin”.  Art and Ginny found nest #10 just south of Needlerush on July 16.  It was left in situ, and the v-v measurement was 20″.  The fox had again investigated the tracks. The hatch date range is September 2 – 9, with 52 days at September 6.

Inventory: “In situ” Nest #10 “Art-Gin” had 99 hatchling shells; 10 un-hatched eggs; 2 dead hatchlings; 0 live hatchlings.

Nest 11, “Judy”.  Found on July 21 near Needlerush, the track showed some sort of missing flipper.  One egg had been left out of the nest and was on the surface, undamaged.  (Consistent with missing flipper).  The nest was extremely shallow (2-6 inches), so we built a dune around the nest and caged it away from predators.  Estimated hatch range September 7- 14, with 52 days at September 11.

Nest 12, “Melinda”.  Also found July 21 named for Melinda walking the North Beach that day.  Located in a low washover area at Ancient Dunes, the 112 eggs were relocated to higher ground right near Ancient Dunes.  The original site has since been washed over, so we are feeling good about that decision.  Estimated hatch range September 7- 14, with 52 days at September 11.

September 1: Gary caught ghost crab in a trap.

September 7: Nest #12 “Melinda” emerges at Day 47. A visitor, Mark, was walking the beach at dusk [and a very high tide]; saw hatchlings boiling out of nest 12; read the green flag; and called my cell. By the time I arrived around 9 PM there were only two more scrambling to the sea. None went in the wrong direction and none were attacked by ghost crabs. I could count 30-40 individual tracks.

Nest 12 inventoried September 1. We found 110 shells, 9 unhatched/pipped eggs, and 1 dead hatchling.

Nest 13, “Mary/Molly”  Found by Mary and Molly on their first day of walking, nest 13 is located near Ancient Dunes.  There is something off kilter about the track.  The nest was relocated to the higher dunes in the same area. The nest was found on July 22.  Estimated hatch range September 8-15, with 52 days at September 12.

September 15:  Nest #13 “Mary-Molly” emerges at Day 53. Gary writes, “This morning I found a large cave-in; 30-40 hatchling tracks leading to the sea; two errant little hatchlings [probably male] heading in the wrong direction … bumping their little noses on the black runway .. then turning around to join their brothers & sisters; and no dead hatchlings in the area. We can conduct this inventory on Sun or Mon.  Forecasts predict minor beach erosion here from Hurricane Igor so this may affect our decision as we watch what happens.”

Inventory for Nest #13 “Mary-Molly” was a good one with 83 hatched shells; 4 un-hatched shells; 0 dead; 0 live hatchlings.

Nests 14 and 15 appear to have stayed high and dry despite high tides and surf from Igor.

Nest 14, “Jill” was found by Jill just south of Osprey walk on August 3.  It was relocated to higher ground and 105 eggs were relocated.  The track had an offset gait, with a v to v measurement of 22″.    Estimated hatch range September 21 – 27, with 53 days on the 24th of September.

Nest 15, “Anniversary” was found by Judy and Reggie on August 7. It was a “stumpy” turtle again, and the eggs were laid very shallowly. Nest was relocated to a higher dune in the area, around the point on the north end.

Rescue: Turtle Stranding: Gary got an emergency call from DNR at 1PM that someone reported a loggerhead struggling in the surf on south Capers. He had plans to sail but told DNR he’d go over to look. “DNR called back to tell me a DNR turtle person from Cape was at Garris Landings and could respond. Before I arrived on the scene, DNR called again to report the turtle had been rescued; it was hit by a boat; had a gash on its flipper; was bleeding and losing strength; but they stabilized it and rushed it to our Sea Turtle Hospital. Kelly & Shane will take good care of it.”  You can follow details of this rescue on the Sea Turtle Hospital’s blog:  http://seaturtlehospital.blogspot.com/.