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Friday, August 30, 2013

Inventory Briarcliffe Nest #1


Braircliffe nest #1 was found by Cindy, Larry And Cherie on June 27th.  Extreme south end of the beach.  126 eggs less the 1 egg for DNA were moved from just below the HTL back, up into the dunes.   The eggs incubated for 58 days, emerging on Saturday, August 24.  A quiet and undeveloped part of the beach, all hatchlings ran straight toward the water.
 
Larry and Cindy checked this nest just before daylight...Nice large hole and tracks
 
 
 
All tracks ran straight down the dunes


toward the water

 
Susan was out about 1 hour later, very excited to see the
 
 
Tracks

 
Going straight to the water

 
4 days later, time to inventory.
 
More tracks are found coming out of the hole

 
 
Straight to the water
 

 
 

 
Crowd starts to gather


Larry digs

 
One whole egg is sunken in and surrounded by plant roots


 
Inventory complete, egg shells returned to the earth


 
 
Inventory results
 
Nest Laid on June 27th, 126 eggs, 1 taken for DNA,  125 moved back into the dunes
 
Hatchlings emerged on August 24th, day 58
 
Inventory on August 29th
 
110 hatched eggs, 15 unhatched, all early development
 
no live or dead hatchlings found in nest
 
88% hatching success rate
 
Thank you all from Braircliffe who helped with this nest, Larry, Cindy, Cherie and Laura
 
Thank you Larry, Susan and Julie for the pictures
 
 



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