July 18th, Early morning, sun is just rising, Larry and Cindy call in two crawls on Briarcliffe Beach.
A Turtle crawled on shore, crawled a short way up the beach, did a quick U-turn and went back into the water. Did she see someone or something that scared her, did she just not like the sand? Just nervous? She came back on shore just a few feet from her original crawl, went up to the base of a dune and laid her eggs.
Nice nest, but just below the Spring High Tide line so the eggs were moved further up the dune. 104 eggs, less the 1 taken for the DNA Study.
53 days later...summer is turning to fall. Dune grass is going to seed.
Hatchlings emerge late in the evening or early morning hours. Only evidence is a hole in the sand and tracks going into the water.
Inventory is conducted 4 days later. Hole has started to fill in from the blowing sand.
Larry and Laura dig up the egg cavity.
It is deep, eggs are finally found.
Volunteers anxious to see what this nest will reveal.
One lone hatchling is found, deep in the hole, among all the egg shells.
Laura opens the 4 whole eggs found, all died in early development, yolk still runny
Inventory finished, Larry and Dustin return the shells to the hole
and cover with sand.
Hatchling is release on the beach to crawl to the water.
He is determined and seems to know exactly where to go
YES!!
High tide, water is rough but that doesn't stop this little guy. Soon he takes the final plunge and disappears into the waves.
Nest #7
Original Nest laid on July 18th, relocated further up the dune
104 eggs
1 egg taken for DNA Study
103 eggs relocated further up the dune
hatchlings emerge on Sept. 9th, Day 53
99 hatched eggs
4 unhatched, all died in early development
1 live hatchling found in the nest and released near the water
96.12% hatchling success rate!!!
Great nest...Thank you Larry, Cindy and Laura. And a big Thank you to all the Briarcliffe Team
Thank you Larry for your great pictures!!
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