Nest #9 third Saturday for Shree June 7

Turtle Team member Shree Beverly is on a roll. She has found a loggerhead nest in Wild Dunes on every Saturday walk since May 24. This time she was with her friend Anne Venters visiting from Cincinnati. It is likely that the same loggerhead with tracks measuring 22" laid eggs at Shipwatch in Wild Dunes two weeks ago. But this time the nesting mother failed to dig her nest hole deep enough. It overflowed, and she broke three of her eggs with her heavy flippers when covering up. One of these egg shells was used for our genetics sample. The other 104 eggs in the clutch of 107 were relocated from this area which was at the foot of a chopped off dune escarpment caused by erosion. The tide would have come over the nest and killed the eggs before they hatched. For this reason they were carefully relocated to a safe dune just south of the 30A Access Path. All but one of our Wild Dunes nests were laid in places where the dunes are damaged in this way.

Congratulations, Shree!