To adopt Nest#02, visit http://seaturtle.org/nestdb/adopt/?b=1 and select ID# 88756.
Nesting Response Team for Nest #2
ATV rider Dan was thrilled this morning to call in his first sighting of a crawl this season in Duck. Soon after, the Nesting Response Team spilled out onto the beach ready to get to work. Louise and Dan looked closely at the crawl pattern noting it’s beautiful comma-shaped imprints. They knew right away that was a sign that mom was a loggerhead. As they measured the width of the tracks, more responders arrived to help.
The nest site is circled with flags and seagrass to help the team keep track of where they will look for the eggs.
The team took a moment “reading” the crawl. They could tell she came in on the north side and left on the south side. Looking closely at the nest site (the area where sand has been disturbed, it’s marked by a pile of sand at the end of the incoming crawl and an accompanying body pit at the start of her outgoing crawl), they marked the area where mom threw sand to cover her eggs. This identified the area they should focus their dig.
The Dilley's locate the egg chamber.
With the site marked off, the team ‘Dilley-gently’ began digging to find the eggs. Sarah and Jim (Dilley… now you get the pun??) began digging at the team’s first best guess. They dug up to their elbow but came up shy. So, moving along the turtle’s projected path, Sarah dug slightly behind the first hole and Jim dug slightly in front but they weren’t digging for long when Jim said the sand was getting soft. Before he even finished saying the words, we saw the first egg inside the egg chamber!
The team measures from the nest site to the last high tide line.
A DNA sample was collected and then the team got to covering the nest site back up and staking off the site. As Dennis chit chatted with everyone, Karen and her NEST Jr. volunteers worked hard at marking the site. Another great morning for NEST!
NEST Jr's mark add flagging tape to the nest site.