We love our beach walkers who call N.E.S.T. letting us know about sea turtle activity on the beach. A big thank you to Wrinne for notifying us about a newly laid turtle nest. If you come across sea turtle activity in the Outer Banks, please call the N.E.S.T. hotline at 252-441-8622.
This loggerhead mom crawled up the beach in Southern Shores and laid a nest of 125 eggs. The sea turtle mom was affectionately named Meredith after a beach guest whose birthday was also today. Because this nest is in a zone that will be renourished, it was relocated to a safe area. Luckily we had eleven responders who formed two teams. One team worked at the original nest site. They found the egg chamber, carefully extracted eggs from the nest, and collected all sorts of nest measurements and data. The second team recreated a new nest to match the exact measurements that mother turtle constructed to protect her eggs.
Responding team recreates a new nest egg chamber for the relocated eggs
Eggs being transferred into the new nest site
Eggs are placed in egg cartons, and put into the new nest in roughly the same order they were found in the original nest. Data loggers are added inside the nest, on top of the nest and just outside the nest to gather hourly temperature data. N.E.S.T. uses the average temperature of the nest over time to determine approximately when a nest will emerge.
Data loggers being added into the new nest
The new nest site is covered up with sand and a small square of stakes and flagging is erected to keep it safe while the eggs mature. This is called the incubation period. Now we wait until our newest batch of sea turtles emerge from the sand. Thank you to all of our wonderful N.E.S.T. responders who helped to relocate this Loggerhead nest.
Some of our responding team members at the new nest site
- nest number: 05
- town: Southern Shores
- date eggs laid: 06/11/2022
- actual emergence date: 8/5/2022
- live hatchlings: 82
- total eggs: 125
See all active nests