Jackie Orsulak took this photo with a infrared night vision camera, no visible lights were used.
Sunday night, nest #6 sitters arrived around 6PM to find a sink hole on their nest. After much encouragement from the team throughout the evening (including flash mob hatchling dance moves, singing, and multiple cheers), the hatchlings finally came out just before 11PM. Nest #6 was our only green nest this year and the team was thrilled when they finally emerged at Incubation Day 68.
Before the greens even showed signs of coming out, nest sitters at nest #7 arrived Friday night (Incubation Day 59) to signs of a sink hole at their nest. The team was surprised because this was the earliest sign of activity from any of our nests so far this season. So crowds came out Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday, night… and still no new signs of turtle hatchlings. The group re-joined Monday night, knowing, “They must be coming tonight!” but no signs of activity prevailed so they packed it up for the evening. Tuesday morning, NESTers came to check the site and some time after they team left and some time before sunrise, those little boogers snuck out on the group! The runway was filled with little flipper prints running straight to the beach. It looked like a perfect boil on Incubation Day 62!
Nest #7 Crawl!
Hatchling tracks in the sand