Nest 8 for Sullivan's

The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur were passing though the lowcountry this morning causing high wind and heavy rain on the coast. Kristin Zeaser-Sydow and Karen Britton discovered three sets of tracks toward the southwest end of Sullivan's Island. They all were the same extra large size at 27" between the flipper claw marks, so possibly the same loggerhead. The ones near the lighthouse were high on a dune. We found the top egg and used it for the genetics research sample and left the others in the nest with our nest sign and screen for protection against coyotes.

We were happy to see Kristin do her "turtle dance" that she performs whenever she finds a nest. Congratulations are in order!

But before finding Nest #8, Kristin and Karen spotted two false, non-nesting crawls about halfway between Stations 16 and 17. Did you know the streets on Sullivan's are called "Stations" because in early days those are where the trolley car stops were? It appeared likely that the same extra large turtle tried to nest there but encountered all the dead trees on this so called "boneyard beach" that have been killed by salt water as the maritime forest suffered repeated erosion. It was interesting that she bumped into dead horseshoe crabs at this spot and again by the lighthouse as she crawled along, but that didn't stop her. We thought we might beat the rain, but the sky opened up at 7:45 and we got drenched before we could get back off the beach!

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