On Monday Morning, Cindy and Larry reported a false crawl on Briarcliffe. A quick in, up the beach to the wrack line, u-turn back into the water. Checking out the beach??
Yes, Tuesday morning, beautiful sunrise....
Claire calls early....
"we have another crawl, could be a nest"
Bob came across the crawl. Looks good. Outgoing is much longer than incoming, indication turtle has been on the beach awhile
Very wide, distinct track in the wet sand
V from the claw is very clear, just like in the false crawl from the day before.
This appears to be a big, heavy turtle
Linda probes, turtle has pushed a large mound of sand over egg cavity, but it is found.
Claire and Bob gently dig for the eggs
Because this nest is below the spring HTL and in danger of being over-washed during a storm or extreme high tides, the eggs are moved back to the dunes
original hole dug by the mother, deep in the sand
New nesting site
eggs are carefully moved, one by one
almost done...
Bob helps to process the DNA egg. Yolk is separated from egg shell and discarded in the ocean
DNA Sample
Nest #7---3rd nest on the Briarcliffe Beach.
108 eggs less one for DNA Study
THANK YOU Bob, Claire and Cindy
It was such a treat to get to see this on my morning jog (that's me in the pink shirt). Glad to hear so many eggs were successfully moved! I wrote a blog post about it as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://thereadingmama.com/gifts-from-god-at-the-ocean/
Enjoy your early morning beach patrols!