NEST #9

Stormy Saturday.  Hard rains on and off all day.  Really heavy rains come through between 4 and 5:30AM.  Some question on whether the Patrol would be able to walk.  But, as soon as it was light enough,  volunteers were out, armed with rain jackets and umbrellas

Donna and Sherry had just started when NMB Sanitation Workers, John and Chris stopped to tell them that there was some turtle activity ahead.

Sure enough, long outgoing crawl with short incoming crawl, but a strange body pit

Turtle had  completely circled around, through the body pit before zig zagging her way down the beach, back to the ocean

Volunteers gather

Linda probes after studying the crawl and deciding where she thinks the eggs might be

Yes, soft spot, Donna carefully digs while Paulette tries to keep the rain off her....

We have eggs!!

Wide beach, nest is in the middle so the eggs must be moved back to the dunes

Donna and Linda start the slow process

Janice counts

Sherry takes over for Linda

Eggs are deep

It is raining hard, other volunteers try to keep the rain of Donna and Sherry

Slow and steady, bucket is filling up

One egg is taken for DNA Study.  Mary, Stan and Stephanie are curious about the eggs and help process the DNA egg

Cold, wet and dirty job this morning, but all helped with excitment and no complaints

Less than ideal conditions, heavy rain at times, but many volunteers showed up to help.  Donna and Sherry moved the eggs, one by one as Janice counted,  Jay dug the new hole, Brenda helped record the GPS positions, not an easy job trying to write on wet paper,  in the rain,  holding an umbrella to keep the phone dry... Stephanie helped with the DNA Egg,  Paulette, Mary and Stan took charge of putting up the poles and rope to protect the nest area.  THANK YOU ALL!!!

A special thanks to Brenda for her pictures.  Hope your phone was not damaged by the rain.

NMB Nest #9   124 eggs, 123 relocated