After a frustrating week with two false crawls
Monday--quick U-turn above the HTL
Tuesday- Crawl all the way up the beach
Into the dunes. Quick U-turn back down. Was she scared away by over zealous on-lookers? No defined body pit, but Rob probed anyway, no egg cavity found
finally the call comes early Saturday morning: Larry and Cindy, we have a crawl on the Briarcliffe Beach. Width of the crawl was the same as the false crawl on Tuesday...Same Turtle?
Larry probes
Quickly hits soft sand
Egg cavity is uncovered!
Because the High Tide comes way up on this beach, eggs are relocated back about 20 feet, higher into the dunes.
Each egg is carefully removed from the egg cavity
I think we are done
99 eggs, 102 were found in the nest but 3 were broken...these eggs were used for the DNA study...Ghost crab was found in nest
Eggs carefully placed in new hole
Rope and poles go up to warn of the nest
The Group, tired, hot but happy
Briarcliffe Nest #5
A huge thanks to Cindy and Larry.
A big thanks to the rest of the Briarcliffe crew...Laura, Judy C, Pat and her dog Lucy, and Judy E
And a special thanks to Patterson for her great pictures.
NEST #5, the 11th nest protected by the NMB Sea Turtle Patrol
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