Hobcaw nest! 4 false crawls

North: Buffie and Mark, subbing for Judy K., were hopeful when they found 2 crawls:) There were fox prints in the tracks of both. One crawl was an obvious false crawl south #12mm. The second, south #10mm had more promise but after extensive probing, no egg chamber was found. We are wondering if the fox was there when the turtle came up and could have scared her?

DEBFC16   47 yds. south #12mm   DEBFC17   82 yds, south #10mm 

There is a fox that works the beach at night. It looked as if the fox was right behind the turtle as she crawled. Did it scare her and cause the false crawl?

Middle: Jane also had 2 crawls this morning by the same turtle. Jane gave both crawls a thorough probing and found nothing. Carolyn also gave them a try with no luck…maybe tomorrow:)

DEBFC18  63 yds. north WW#5  DEBFC19  92 yds, north WW#4 

This turtle has a barnacle on her plastron that makes a distinctive mark in the sand. Both Middle false crawls had this same characteristic (between WW#3 and #5).

Hobcaw: Brandie and Ryan had one crawl that had the classic characteristics of a nest…and it was! Brandie located the egg chamber. The turtle crawled close to the antenna wires but thankfully they were elevated enough. Fine work Brandie!

HOB42  60 yds. south #1mm   33.3550  -79.1530

Brandie and Ryan found this classic crawl/body pit and turned it into HOB42!
Ryan documented Brandie’s nest find of HOB42 with this photo. It is located south #1mm.

DEB 23 HOB 42 SCUTE 145 SC 4710