Last evening, Faith, Laura, Stephen, Lindsey, Shane and Sarah were coming out of their beach house to play flashlight tag on the beach. As they walked the path over the dunes, they saw what appeared to be a discarded beach towel laying on the sand in the middle of the V of the sand fence in front of them. All of a sudden, this "towel" moved! The towel was actually a nesting Sea Turtle. The kids stopped and watched as she dug her nest, layed her eggs and turned to head back to the water. The turtle then rested for a few minutes before continuing down the beach. The kids notified the passing Beach Patrol who in turn called the NMB Sea Turtle Patrol. Rob and I went out to the site around 11PM, just missing the turtle. We taped off the nesting area and came back at sunrise to confirm and protect the nest.
Tuesday Segment A walkers, Steve Huggins and Rose met us on the beach. The track measured 29-30 inches so I'm confident this was the same turtle who false crawled on Saturday and again twice yesterday. She finally found her perfect "spot." Steve is becoming an expert at probing and was able to find the egg cavity very quickly.
Faith, Laura, Stephen, Lindsey and Sarah got up at 6AM to watch how we search for the eggs. They saw the eggs in the nest and held the egg taken for DNA Research.
Great job Faith and Laura Elliott, Stephen Estes, Lindsey and Shane Weese and Sarah Johnson.
(Double click to enlarge pictures)
(Double click to enlarge pictures)
This nest is at 4208 North Ocean Blvd. It is very close to Nest 4.
Linda
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