Final Inventory for 2025 October 4

We ended the 2025 Nesting Season by inventorying Nest #12 on Sullivan's Island exactly two months after it was laid on August 4. This nest was found by Diane Brumley and Jenn Gragg on the beach at Fort Moultrie where it would have washed away by now. It contained 99 eggs and was relocated to a low dune near the Sand Dunes Club where it incubated for 58 days before producing hatchlings on October 1. The long incubation was probably caused by the cooler than usual weather in September. It was also influenced by the cooling effect of the tide that washed over it twice during the full moon cycle last month. But that did not keep them from hatching on October 1 after the threat of a landfall from Hurricane Imelda had passed. Today we found 82 empty eggshells in the nest along with 16 undeveloped eggs and five live hatchlings who were released by Diane in front of an appreciative crowd. Hatch Success was 82.8% and Emergence Success was 77.7%

Since the last inventory we did was Nest #9, you might wonder why we seem to have skipped two inventories. Nest #10 washed away at Station 26 on September 9/13 from Hurricane Erin. Nest #11 was not reported to us when it was laid at Station 25. It was only discovered when the eggshells were exposed by erosion and disturbed possibly by coyotes on July 27 after it had hatched. It was inventoried that day; so that brings us to our final Sullivan’s Nest #12.