Inventory Nest #20-33rd Ave S, Windy Hill

August 9th, 6:00AM,  "There's a turtle on the beach near the swash at the end of Wind Hill."  Sure enough, turtle tracks coming up out of the surf,  crawl halfway up the beach before making a U-turn and going back into the water.  Two days later,  another crawl, halfway up the beach, but a quick U-turn back into the water.  This time near Main Street, 48 blocks North of first crawl.

August 11th, Donna comes across a similar crawl in the Atlantic Beach section. Up out of the ocean, but a quick turn back to the water.   But, just a short walk further down the beach, another crawl, this one going all the way up into the dunes.

Rob probed and had no problem finding the egg cavity.

Donna quickly found the eggs.   Nest #20!!!

One egg taken for the DNA Study,

Nest is marked, roped off and protected.

50 days later, beach is changing, summer is coming to an end, days are getting shorter, temps are getting cooler.

Nest is being watched closely.  Moon is going from 1st quarter to half.

Low tide in early evening, ocean is calm, sunsets are peaceful and beautiful. Day 54, Dolphins are seen swimming and playing off the shore.  Two osprey are watched as they fish and then fly overhead with their dinner in their talons.  

Nine days have gone by, moon is rapidly approaching full stage, high tide is now in the early evenings.  By Day 59 and 60, weather has turned, very high tides, rough surf, windy, cool and/or rainy. 

Day 60, rain on and off all day, heavy at times.  Surf is very rough, water line is high up the beach. Around 8:50PM,  quick look at the nest, all appears quiet. No hole, no movement.   FIVE minutes later, another quick look,  hatchings are out of the nest, some are already halfway out of the cage.  All the hatchlings seem to be on the same singular mission and run to the rough surf and quickly disappear into the white foam.  Next morning, only evidence of the night before is the hole in the sand, left as the hatchlings crawled out.  

Day 65, Donna and Jill inventory the nest.

Eggs are pulled out,

most of them are empty.  Donna and Jill separate and count.

Whole eggs are opened to determine stage of development.  No one told Donna to aim the egg away when opening!!

Sherry recorded all the data.

A huge thanks to Donna.  She not only found the nest on August 11, but watched over it for 60 days.  This was the last nest for the season, a late nest so we were hoping the weather would stay warm and nice for them.  Thank you Jay and Petey for checking the nest every morning around sunrise.  During that last week, we half expected the hatchlings to emerge just after sunrise as the sun warmed the sand up after the cool night.  Thank you Jill, Corrina and all the other NMB Volunteers who were at the nest at different times during that last week.  The weather was up and down, one night would be nice, the next windy and cold or rainy.

Thank you Julie for your pictures.

Inventory Results

Nest was found on August 11, 33rd Ave S, Windy Hill

Nest emerged on October 10, Day 60

78 eggs were found in nest

70 empty shells

8 whole or unhatched eggs of which all died in early development

No live or dead hatchlings were found in the nest

1 egg was taken on August 11 for the DNA Study for a total of 79 eggs originally in the nest.

89.7% Hatchling Success Rate