ATV sea turtle patrol rider Bill had a busy morning. He had 2 nests laid in his patrol area over night. Cruising down the beach, Bill is checking on nest sites, looking for new nests laid over night, and trying to avoid falling into holes.
As a reminder to all our sandcastle building friends, we love seeing your creations on the beach, but please fill in any holes at the end of each day. It means you can start the next day with a clean stretch of sand for a new creation, but also keeps people, emergency vehicles and our beloved sea turtles from falling into a hole and getting hurt. We have lots of little ghost crabbers out on the beach at night.
Bill on early morning sea turtle patrol
Nest #25 started out as a turtle on the beach call late last night. Team Lead Tony P responded to mark the nest site and make sure the turtle was safe while on the beach. The Response Team headed out the next morning to process and secure the nest site. It seemed like a typical nest, however it turned out to be anything but normal.
As the team dug to find the mama turtle’s egg chamber, they found 3 lone eggs. Loggerhead sea turtles lay on average between 80 – 120 eggs per nest. The team fearing more eggs were buried close by dug a humongous hole searching for additional eggs. Alas, no additional eggs were found. Per our North Carolina biologist, this is a rare occurrence but it has happened in the past.
Large area search for additional eggs
The Response Team, tired from all that digging, collects data on the nest site. Then they carefully secure the 3 little eggs and put up stakes to mark the nest site. Great job to our Nest #25 Responding Team!
Nest #25 Responding Team
- nest number: 25
- town: Duck
- date eggs laid: 07/21/2023
See all active nests