Gimpy, on her 3rd nesting cycle this season, has had 15 false crawls since June 30. On Wednesday, there were 2 crawls on DeBordieu Middle where she had never come up before. Last night she revisited the Middle just south of WW#5 and had the good fortune to find a digging partner in our dedicated volunteer, Kathi A.! At midnight, Kathi found Gimpy on the beach near her house. The turtle is missing her left rear flipper and had difficulty digging her chamber deep enough. As Gimpy scooped out sand on the right, Kathi scooped out sand on the left until the chamber was deep enough. Gimpy felt around with her good flipper and deemed it sufficient and began dropping her eggs. Kathi stood back and watched as Gimpy finished the process on her own. Both girls were exhausted from their evening and retreated home at 2:00 a.m. Kathi was able to send us several videos from this thrilling experience!
https://youtu.be/NmgLGVgBq-A https://youtu.be/X9HPxQM9g9U https://youtu.be/v_gpwAj1GRM
https://youtu.be/Efn1_buAzI4
Middle: This morning, Bob C. was on Middle duty. He had been informed about Gimpy’s nest. Having no other activity and working with Bill, they decided the Gimpy’s nest location was below the spring tide line. Too much effort went into this nest to jeopardize it’s safety. Bob located the chamber and carefully moved the eggs directly back. What an honor you had, Bob, and you did it well!
DEB20 32 yds. south WW#5 Relocated 125 eggs
DEB 20 HOB 33 SCUTE 118 SC 3816