Nests 34, 35 & 36 Inventoried
Three more Isle of Palms nests were inventoried to collect data this morning. They were laid on consecutive days in July and all produced hatchlings on three consecutive days after 29 days of incubation in September.
Nest 34 was found near the 6A Access Path near the south end of the island by Julia Vanderpool, Jeff & Jennifer Laurinaitis and Nancy Willms on July 18. There were 75 eggs that were relocated to near 31st Avenue and incubated for 49 days before hatchlings came out of it on September 5. Today we found 68 empty shells, 6 undeveloped eggs and no hatchlings dead or alive. Hatch Success was 90.6%.
Nest 35 was laid at Ocean Point in Wild Dunes at the north end on July 19 and discovered by Diane Troy, Cindy Moore & Karin Ritter. Because it would have been destroyed by the renourishment sand pumping project, it was relocated to 31st Avenue. It had 89 eggs that incubated for 49 days before the hatchlings emerged from the sand on September 6. This one did not do as well because there were 29 undeveloped eggs and no hatchlings with a hatch success of 66.2%.
Nest 36 was also laid at Ocean Point in the renourishment project area and was found on July 20 by Sandy & Harold Hirschmann. It was also moved to 31st Avenue. The turtle laid 106 eggs that came out of the nest after 49 days on September 7. This nest gets the prize for hatchlings today with 6 undeveloped eggs and three live hatchlings. Sandy released the hatchlings to crawl to the ocean. Hatch Success was 90.6%.
At the inventory was a man named Chris Haviland who had made a beautiful acrylic on canvas painting of a hatchling crawling to the ocean at sunrise. It is a familiar sight on our beach right now. To see more of his work, go to his website at https://www.chrishavilandart.com/
CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE WHOLE PHOTO
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