NMB Nest #6

Early morning walkers were told by Jimmy, NMB Beach Raker that there was a crawl ahead.  When they arrived, to their dismay, a big, busy tailed fox was already digging in the body pit.  They chased it away....concern...did the fox get the eggs?  Following the fox tracks up the beach to a path leading off the beach, an egg is discovered, laying on the sand, cracked open, yolk running out.  No other eggs were found......

Finding the egg chamber was easy, just dig where the fox was digging.  Moving the sand, one egg was discovered closed to the surface, a huge crack in the shell but otherwise intact.  This egg was used for DNA.

Further digging, more eggs found, all looked to be OK, undisturbed, 

nestled in the sand.

  The egg chamber was in the middle of the wide beach, in the middle of all beach traffic, Sanitation, Beach Patrol, Beach Services as well as people wanting to use the beach.  So eggs were moved further back, halfway up a dune. 

Titus did a great job counting, same number of eggs counted in the new egg chamber as

number removed from original hole

Sunday Morning Crew....Great JOB

Eggs have been relocated, nest is marked and 

protected.  Fingers crossed the fox

does not come back

118 eggs, 2 eggs destroyed by the fox

116 relocated to the dunes

NMB Nest #6