Finishing up his ride this morning Corolla South rider Robert pulled up to the MP 1 sign when he noticed what looked like a tractor tire marks less than half a football field south coming in and out of the beach. Driving literally 37 meters south, he found a loggerhead nest near the foot of the dune. Shortly behind him arrived Barbara, Duck’s ATV rider finishing her run. If she had just started driving north this morning, she would have been first! Both riders were very excited to see the successful crawl and Barbara gets the official claim on her end of the run.
Nest #3 - Duck
Based on the crawl patterns and the tide marks, this turtle probably came out after high tide (around 1:30 AM last night) and finished well before the ATV riders got on scene. Best guess, she was probably laying her eggs around 3AM.
Nesting responders arrived and quickly got to work. Assessing the nest was a little challenging as it appeared that she made an additional circle in her nest site before leaving but intern Jessica found the eggs in her first hole.
Nesting responders. Intern Jess finds the first egg.
A DNA sample was collected. We are really excited to see if it will match to our Nest #1 which was almost perfectly two weeks earlier. The crawl widths are, however, a little different so it may turn out to be two different moms. Time will tell.