As the month of May draws to a close N.E.S.T.ers are gearing up for what will hopefully be a busy nesting season!! With the wonderful success of our 18 nests last year (as well as the continuous attention KC has been paying to nest 19), this has already been a season to remember!
The ATV riders got off to a sandy start, with a May Nor’easter testing the driving skills of the Kitty Hawk drivers. Luckily our comprehensive training program prepared them for EVERYTHING. Our ATV riders battled everything from beach construction, washed out roads, and quicksand (which nearly ate Peggy Cathey), all in the name of searching for turtle crawls!
But why did we start searching so early in the season? (Why thank you for asking!) There is always the possibility of the big kahuna of mamas to come ashore, and mama leatherbacks typically are early nesters. We’re still waiting on our first crawl of the season, but our neighbors down south already have 6 reported loggerhead nests on Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras!
As of now, all the mama turtles are plotting to crawl up over the weekend to make sure we’re not too lazy on our days off. But where will they show up first??
-Jane