On July 21st, a nesting loggerhead first false crawled on the Briarcliffe Beach but then came back, right in the same spot as Nest #2, crawled through the roped off area, over the egg cavity, came out in back and nested. Eggs are in a good spot so nest left natural or in situ.
54 days later, September 13, hatchlings emerge either late at night or early morning. Day 54 of incubation. One hatchling is found on the top of the egg chamber, completely out of the sand. Lethargic, exhausted from climbing out, the hatchling is covered up with sand in hopes it will gain strength and be on it's way.
Inventory is performed 4 days later, on September 16th. Hole has started to fill in,
Larry starts to dig up the egg chamber
Claire takes over, pulling out shells as Patterson separates whole from hatched.
One whole egg is found with a root growing into and out the other side
Finaaly egg chamber is empty, Patterson counts the shells
Since this is a natural nest, this is roughly the hole dug by the other,
very deep......
Inventory results
Nest laid on July 21st, hatchlings emerged on Sept. 13th, 54 days incubation
112 hatched shells
17 unhatched, of which 16 were collapsed, died in early development
1 egg died in late development, fully formed
No live or dead hatchlings in egg chamber
the one hatchling found on top of the egg chamber, died but was not included in stats since
it was completely out of the egg chamber
86.8% hatching success rate
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