The Nesting Response Team works in an early morning/late night 'haze'.
With a nearly full moon illuminating the sky, a gentle ocean breeze, and calm rolling waves, it was a perfect night to sit on the beach, both for our beach goers and our nesting loggerhead! At around 1:30 AM a group on the beach were watching the waves lap the shore when they saw what looked like a huge rock pushing its way in. Suddenly they realized it was no rock, but rather a beautiful turtle making her way up the beach. They found NEST’s phone number and called Charlotte. Immediately the Nesting Response Team (some of whom may have laid their heads not much more than an hour before) woke with a hope of getting to the beach in time to see mom laying eggs.
Nesting Responders work to locate the egg chamber.
After having responded to Nest #13 just that morning at 6AM, some of the team claimed they could now do this in their sleep! And by the time mom finished up around 2:30AM, they were doing just that. Wasting no time the team hit the nest site digging for eggs. Even Dennis joined in and we know he never finds the eggs. But just as Rae started to expand her hole his way, he hollered out, “I’ve got them. No, I really have them!” Jerry peered in and convinced him it was just a sea shell but after a good taunting laugh we couldn’t keep the charade up. Dennis finally found his first eggs!
Dennis poses with his eggs.
Measuring to the depth of the first egg, the team then collected their DNA sample and covered the site back up. Stakes went up quickly and the team packed it in. Hoping for a few more hours of sleep before the next call, they headed home.
Dennis and Susan measure the nest depth to the first egg.
Nest #14