N.E.S.T. Volunteer Tim Moore is the lucky winner to find this season's first nest in Nags Head! Volunteer Jerry Alexander is also shown getting ready to mark the nest site.
N.E.S.T.’s first sea turtle nest of the season was found by ATV volunteer Tim Moore this morning in Nags Head! He was even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the mama Loggerhead leaving the beach!!
N.E.S.T. Volunteers carefully relocate the eggs.
After close evaluation, trained N.E.S.T. volunteers were allowed to relocate the nest closer to the dune. 40 eggs total were moved with one taken for the DNA research project. This number of eggs is somewhat low for a Loggerhead, on average they typically lay about 100-115 eggs per clutch. A nesting female can lay up to 3-4 nests per season approximately 2 weeks apart. Volunteers will monitor the nest daily and will anxiously await the tiny hatchlings arrival in 55-80 days.
If you see any sea turtle activity on the Outer Banks, please call our 24 hour Hotline immediately at 252-441-8622. For more information about N.E.S.T. please visit our website at https://www.nestonline.org/. To adopt this or future nests, please visit http://www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/adopt/.