Carolina Day & 5 False Crawls

Today is the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sullivan when the patriots defeated a fleet of British ships at Fort Moultrie. It seems that our loggerheads celebrated during the night by crawling on the beach, but none laid eggs. On the Isle of Palms there was a false crawl at 45th Ave found by Terri Stafford and Rene Rivlin. and on Sullivan's Island there were four more non-nesting crawls all found by Jim & Haley Bailey and Tracy Doyle. It appeared that one turtle may have crawled up twice near the Sand Dunes Club near Station 17 and couldn't find a spot that she liked. Then there were two more spots, one at Station 16 and again at the fort at Station 13 where the tracks were slightly larger.

The photo below shows the one at Station 16 where a turtle hit up against the steep dune escarpment and could not get onto an elevated spot for nesting. Erosion on both islands causing loss of nesting habitat is a major problem this year.

This last false crawl at Fort Moultrie was where re-enactors in uniform were cooking their breakfasts after sleeping in their tents getting ready for a huge celebration today with over 10,000 people expected to attend. We don't know if tonight's full moon will bring these turtle moms back to lay eggs tonight, but we are hoping that will happen and that all the cannon and musket fire at the fort today will not disturb them as they wait offshore for night to fall!