We slept in today because the tides weren’t cooperating to go for another pre-dawn nest check. We went out to the beaches at 7:30am and only got maybe a third of the way through our nests before the beach became impassible. We did find that one of our nests on the north side hatched after we had checked it last night. Bobby found a hatchling from it stuck in a ghost crab hole. It looked like the crab tried to nab it and bit off more than it could chew, but the hatchling wasn’t able to fully get away. So we rescued it and released it into the ocean. Everyone came back for breakfast, and now we have free time until about 4:30, when it’ll be time to go dig rotten nests again. I may nap, I may go to the beach, I may color, I may do some work on the tile, I may inventory my clothing and organize it.
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| These lines in the sand are baby turtle tracks. |
I wound up going to the beach for a little swim and then crashing after lunch because I didn’t feel well. Bobby found a piece of driftwood and an old machete and decided to fashion himself a surfboard. He had...limited success...but he enjoyed having a thing to occupy him.
Bobby and I had separate digs this time. His group found a total of 4 live turtles from already hatched nests, and in my group I dug the one nest where we found a live one, but she was still inside her egg with just her head sticking out.
When we checked, her yolk was already absorbed, so we just helped her out of the rest of her shell and released her. Because she was stuck under a bunch of unhatched eggs and couldn’t get out, she was still curled up inside her egg and so her front flippers didn’t go out to the side properly or forward enough.
She couldn’t go anywhere on the sand but once I put her in the water, she seemed to do okay.
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| She can't move her flippers forward enough to walk on the sand. |
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| With her flippers stuck under her, she can't reach the ocean. |
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| The waves help carry her to the ocean. |
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| With water underneath her instead of sand, she can actually move. |
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| She can swim, but it will always be a struggle, making her easy prey. |
I know hatchlings only have one in a thousand chance of getting to adulthood, but this one has more of a chance now than if we weren’t here doing this work. If she survives, though, she'll be deformed and struggling her whole life. Poor thing, but at lease she didn't die in the nest.
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| A hatched nest (notice all the turtle tracks), with shells and other signs of post-hatch scavenging by critters looking for stragglers and rotten eggs. |
We got back and had a little free time before supper, which was quesadillas on the grill, and quite good. I did some coloring and reading and finally got a good enough signal to post something quick before we ate, and after supper I finished the turtle picture I was working on then we played a few rounds of a couple trivia games. We went out on night patrols pretty late, 9:00pm, because of the tides. Bobby was with Darnice, Nawdane, and Carol’s group, and I was with Kris, Christine, and JoanBeth’s group.
We went south, and I found a hatchling outside one of the nests that had a depression in it. There were only his/her tracks around, so it seemed likely s/he was the first one out and that more would eventually follow. We released the turtle into the ocean and continued with the rest of our checks. On our way back, I asked to stop by and see if the nest had boiled yet. When we got there, three hatchlings were hanging out at the top of the nest but not really trying too hard to get out. I called everyone over and we waited for about 15 minutes until, with some encouragement, the nest boiled and all the hatchlings emerged and raced for the ocean. Kris said not to collect any this time around because both groups already saw boils last night and it is best to disturb them as little as possible. So we turned off even our red lights and watched by the light of the night sky the little shadows scurry over the sand and into the waves. Then we collected any stragglers and disoriented turtles and brought them closer to the ocean and once they hit the water, they were off. I decided not to try and capture this one and just enjoy it, because I took pictures of last night’s boil and Bobby got a great video of it.
On our way back to base, we see the other team flashing their lights, so we go to them to discover another boil about to be in progress. They have a nest that they have been watching for a while, and a bunch of babies are just sitting on top of it but not really going anywhere. All it takes is a little gentle encouragement and the nest boils. Both teams watch them go for the ocean and escort misguided hatchlings over debris and back in the right direction. Then we both head in for the night. We have an early start tomorrow, and a lot of nests to dig before the storm hits.
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| One turtle's head and flipper are sticking out, but it's just waiting. |
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| After the tiniest amount of encouragement, the boil begins. |
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| You can see just how many turtles are on the move now that they've gotten started. |
Kris has been watching a tropical storm that has been growing out in the Atlantic all week, and it just got upgraded to a hurricane. Depending on where it is supposed to hit and when, we’ll have a lot more nests to dig and hatches to batten down. We’ll be gone by then regardless, but they don’t want all our nest coverings to get washed out to sea, and if there are stragglers in the old nests, they need to be out of the sand before the storm or they’ll drown. There’s nothing much we can do about the nests that are still awaiting hatching but hope for the best.
