IOP Nests #26 and #27 Inventoried September 5

NEST #26 was found near 23^rd Avenue on the morning of July 13 by Kathy Kowalchick as she, Blair Amon, Michelle Ziegler and Kevin Farley were on patrol. Claw marks on these tracks were 20” apart and 124 eggs were found below the spring tide line and relocated to 28^th Avenue. After 50 days a ghost crab went into the nests and hatchlings that were ready came out. For several days only a few came out of the nest,. Because of the crab invasion, the inventory was done a day late at four instead of three days later to give them extra time. Today we found 109 empty eggshells, 14 undeveloped eggs and four live hatchlings. These turtles were released by Blair Amon and her son Joey to swim away. Hatch Success was 87.9% and Emergence Success was 84.6%

NEST #27 was found the same day on July 13 by the same people as Nest #26 near 28^th Avenue but was too low on the beach to survive tidal inundation. So it was moved to the primary dune. There were 114 in this one and the turtle mother was larger with 25” between her flipper claw marks. Seven of the eggs were found on the surface of the sand because she overflowed the egg chamber she dug and broke those eggs with her huge flippers when covering the nest. One of them was used for the genetics sample. This nest incubated for 51 days before producing hatchlings. The inventory revealed 87 empty eggshells, 20 undeveloped eggs and three dead hatchlings. Hatch Success was 76.3% and Emergence Success was 73.6%.