8-July-2013 Nests #04 & #05 both found in Nags Head (along with a lovely false crawl!)

And the winner is… Al, with a record 3 crawls on his single ATV ride this morning!  Yes, Al called in with not only one nest but two and a false crawl to spare.  Around 6:40 AM the Nesting Response Team was called out for Nest #04 in Nags Head.  Once the team arrived, they began their search for eggs and Al continued his ride but he didn’t get too far.   All of 3/4 of a mile away he came across a false crawl near the water’s edge.  As the team continued digging , Al kept

on going.  Not satisfied with two crawls, he found yet another one before finishing up for the day. So Nesting Responders were called again for reinforcement.  As the search for eggs continued on Nest#4 (mom was a little tricky this time, she actually turned a little before laying eggs this time, making it a little harder of a site to read), back-up arrived to the new nest, Nest #5.

New come digger Tim arrived at Nest #5 and after having observed at Nest #4 and under the guidance of experienced diggers Dennis and Peggy, the team read the nest and started digging.  This time mom laid a classic nest, making it easy for the team. In the first five minutes, (with Dennis teasing that he had the soft sand and was going to find the eggs first) Tim suddenly went from hard sand to soft sand to… yes, his first egg find!  Right about that time, the rest of the first team (from nest #4)

was starting to arrive.  They had just finished up Nest #4, which had yet another surprise for them… spacer eggs! Spacer eggs are common in leatherback nests but every once in a while, we see them in loggerhead nests as well.  So the team collected the DNA sample using the spacer egg.  They then all finished Nest #5 together, and called it a morning!

 

To adopt either of these nests, go to http://seaturtle.org/nestdb/adopt/?b=1

for Nest #4 select ID# 76059,

for Nest #5 select ID# 76169