Nest Mom for Nest 13 was leaving town for the week so the team decided to excavate at 10PM on Sunday. The moon was rising, the light was great, and the heat dropped to 89F so really, it was ideal.
It took a while to get to the egg chamber but when they did, they found great results! Only 4 whole eggs and the rest were all eggshells from hatched and emerged hatchlings… but suddenly as the sand was scraped just to the side of the egg chamber, one live hatchling came on the scene. It was probably 6 inches shy of the surface. The team was able to immediately release the hatchling seeing as it was dark out already and off it went! Just in time to get everyone off the beach before a great big thundershower.