Late on June 16, Linda received a call from NMB Dispatch that a nesting female was on the beach around 30th Ave S in Atlantic Beach. NMB Police helped Linda mark off the nesting area. Early the next morning, a group of volunteers went to the site,
Rob probed and quickly found the eggs. The nest was in a great spot, high on the beach, so the nest was left in situ or natural.
Around 2AM on day 52 for this nest, Linda received a phone call that the nest had emerged, hatchlings all over the beach.
Atlantic Beach
Stragglers continued to emerge from this nest during the next 3 days. Mikela, a NMBSTP volunteer and her fellow co-workers from Atlantic Watersports kept Linda informed on the status of this nest.
On August 11, the nest was inventoried. Mikela and Jim dug up the eggs.
Mikela got carried away with the digging or maybe she was just getting back at Rob as he teased her....
Very good nest..103 empty shells
Natural hole dug by the mother...How does she do this? The sand around the hole was hard packed.
Thanks to all the volunteers who helped with this nest. Thanks to the people from the Watersports who watched the nest. Thanks to Joey form Beach Services who brought us the supplies to mark the nest. Thanks to the NMB Police Department who helped the night the nest was laid.
Inventory Results:
Nest was laid on June 17, natural nest
Nest emerged early on August 8th, Day 52
115 eggs were in the nest
1 egg was taken for DNA Study
103 eggs hatched
11 unhatched eggs, of which 10 eggs died in early development, 1 egg died late development
90% hatchling success rate
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