Inventory...Nest #6, 36th Ave S, Windy Hill

Nest #6, 36th Ave S, Windy Hill.   July 12th,  Carol and Gary came across a nice crawl in the middle of the beach.  Rob probed and soon found the egg cavity.  The eggs were moved backed to the protection of the dunes, 130 eggs less 1 taken for the DNA Study.

50 days later, all is calm with the nest.  No sign that the eggs have actually hatched and the hatchlings are getting ready to emerge into the world.

Sept. 1st, Day 51....Just after 10PM, small hole forms.  We watched in amazement as a reed moves up and down in the hole.  This went on for several minutes.  A secondary hole formed about 1/2 hour later, the holes merged and soon filled with turtle heads.  And then the rush was on.  The hatchlings emerged after 11PM.  The full moon was out and over the ocean, tide was changing but the water was still high on the beach.  All ran to the ocean, some going left, some to the right and some straight.

 Early in the morning, two days later Ed, NMS STP volunteer, checks the nest and is surprised to see one more hatchling climbing out of the nest.  Arlene had already reported at least two hatchlings had emerged early the first morning after the emergence.

Ed watched as the hatchling crawled down the beach, making sure no one interfered with it and no birds were around.

Long crawl but the hatchling went straight to the ocean!!  

Wednesday, Sept 5.  It has been very windy the last few days.  Sand has completely blown over the emergence hole.

Time to dig up the egg chamber and inventory the contents.  A crowd gathers....

A family from Utah is anxious to see....... 

Julie and Rob dig into the egg chamber

and start to remove the contents....It is deep, no live hatchlings are found.

Finally, all of the eggs are removed, sorted and counted.

One dead hatchling was found mixed in with the eggs.  Such a shame,  he managed to crawl out of his egg, but was not strong enough to make it out of the sand.

Many had questions, wanted to see the contents of the nest and see how deep the hole was.

NMB Nest #6, Windy Hill

Date Laid,   July 12th

131 eggs, 130 eggs relocated back to the dunes

1 egg taken for DNA Study

Hatchlings emerged on Sept. 1st,  Day 51

127 hatched eggs

3 unhatched, hatchlings died in late development

1 dead hatchling found in the nest.

97.7% Hatchling Success Rate

Thank you Carol and Gary for reporting this nest.

Thank you Jill and Neal for watching over this nest.  The nest emerged earlier than expected but they were there when the call went out for help.

Thank you Joe for your pictures of the early morning hatchling tracks.

Thank you to all the NMB STP Volunteers who came out and helped with this nest during a major holiday weekend.

It was a great nest!!!