Ginny and Teressa had just barely started their walk this morning, when they came upon this crawl at 9th Ave. North, Ocean Drive Beach. The sand was very soft, a ghost crab had already taken up residence at the end of the incoming crawl, near the beginning of the nesting area, .
After probing around the top of the incoming track, sure enough, the egg cavity was found under the ghost crab hole. Ginny and Teressa soon found the eggs.
This is a super wide, very active beach. The eggs were located just above the high tide line, but in the middle of beach, so the decision was quickly made to relocate the eggs back closer to the dunes.
It was a very slow process. Rob and Linda moved the eggs out of the egg chamber, one, by one.
135 eggs! Finally the bucket is full and the hole is empty!
The last two eggs, from the bottom of the hole where more oval than the normal round, ping pong ball shape. We decided to use one of these eggs for the DNA Sample.
Heavy bucket full of precious eggs!
Ginny and Teressa dug the new hole, Rob and Linda slowly filled it.
Eggs finally relocated, hole is filled, nest is caged and protected. Nest #2!!
What a morning! Thank you Sharon for counting the eggs, very accurate despite all the interruptions. And Thanks to all of the Wednesday Walkers. It was a long morning for us all. See post below about the false crawl on Crescent Beach.
Thanks to Allison and Cindy for your pictures.
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