Dennis flags off the nest site while Hailey begins to dig.
On his way to bed last night, NESTer Jonny told Barbara that we were going to have two nests in the morning and one was going to be in Kitty Hawk. True to his words, the turtles didn’t disappoint this morning! What a fourth of July celebration we woke to when Sherman called with a report of a crawl in Kitty Hawk and five minutes later, Tom called with one in Nags Head.
Hailey collects the egg for a DNA sample.
Nest #15 – the Kitty Hawk crawl went to the foot of the dune where she made a nice little nest site, turned around, and exited right over her incoming crawl. Even with the rain that muted much of the crawl, Sherman’s sharp eyes still managed to find the site.
Nest #15
The team quickly located the eggs and staked off the site while some of them headed south to Nest #16 in Nags Head.
The protected nest site.
Nest #16
Diverted from Kitty Hawk to the Nags Head nest, Christian was the first to join ATV rider Tom on his Independence Day nest. Looking at the site, they were concerned about the location that mom chose. Another nest, just at the high tide line. This one would need to be relocated.
Nest #16 - Incoming crawl is on the left and outgoing on the right.
The wavy plastron drag and comma-shaped flipper marks indicate the nest belongs to a loggerhead.
Tom carefully located a new site where the nest would be relocated to, near the original site but away from areas known to pool water.
Tom digs the new nest.
Stephanie and Susan remove the eggs.
While Tom created the new site, Susan and Stephanie prepared the eggs for the big move. Carefully placing each egg into a carton, they kept count until reaching the final egg… number 101! The team then placed the eggs carefully into their new home and wished them well for the next two months.
Nest #16!