We have such fearless, dedicated volunteers:) A special thanks to Bob B., Pat St., Lourdes, Buffie, Mark and Bill for their perseverance in covering our 3 areas this morning…yay team!
North: We got a call last night around 9:00 that a turtle was nesting in Ocean Park. The observers were concerned that the 3 foxes they had seen harassing the turtle would get into the nest. We assured them we had not had a fox problem to date, to give the turtle plenty of space, keep others away and not use flashlights or take flash photography. This morning, when there was a lull, remnants of the nest could be seen in front of N. Beach Villas. It was Lourdes’ day so she geared up and went to the site and probed, later joined by Mark. Neither could locate an egg chamber with so little to go on. Bill, because of his North Island experience with old nests, was able to find the chamber by noticing broken roots on the top. Elsa’s winds had blown away the sand covering the nest. Go Bill!
Buffie and Mark split up and covered the North while Lourdes worked on the nest area. They sent us this video from their North survey…whew! Watch video: https://youtu.be/gpWiRY3dOjM
Middle: Pat St. waited till the winds had calmed somewhat to walk. She found what appears to be a faded body pit just south WW#3 and possibly faint tracks (good eye Pat!). Any covering sand by the turtle had been blown away. She did a lot of probing and digging and after being severely sand blasted, threw in the towel. Pat marked the body pit using beach stones. She plans to return early tomorrow and is determined to find the chamber if there is one there!
Hobcaw: Delaying his walk, Bob B. had the toughest mission when he set out on the 2 mile stretch. Wishing he had goggles and glad he had on long sleeves/long pants (photo), he found not the slightest evidence of turtle activity.
DEB 32 HOB 24 SCUTE 136 SC 3821
