SI Nests 6, 7 & 8 Inventoried
Nest 6 was laid on June 17 right in the Station 16 vehicular path since there was no dry beach there. We had to ask the SIPD and SI Fire and Rescue folks to let us get the eggs out just before dawn before they drove out onto the beach there. Perhaps this turtle was smart to find about the only elevated dry spot in that area. Bob and Laurie Snyder were on patrol that day and helped with the relocation. There were 132 eggs that were moved to Station 19. They would not have survived long with trucks driving over them! Incubation time was 53 days. At today's inventory we found 126 empty eggshells, 5 undeveloped eggs and one dead hatchling. Hatch Success was 95.4%.
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Nest 7 was discovered by Bob and Laurie Snyder the same day at the rock sea wall at Fort Moultrie. Another impossible spot below the high tide line. This turtle kept trying to dig – only to encounter granite boulders buried in the sand there near Station 13 until she finally made an egg chamber. Bob and Laurie again helped carry the 116 eggs it contained to Station 19. The eggs took 55 days to hatch and emerge from the sand. There were 102 empty eggshells, 13 undeveloped eggs and one dead hatchling. Hatch Success was 86.9%.
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Nest 8 was found on a rainy morning of June 19 high on a dune at the lighthouse at Station 18 ½ by Kristin Zeaser-Sydow and Karen Britton. Kristin executed her famous “turtle dance” that she does whenever she finds a nest. We left it up on that dune where it was laid, so we will have to find out how many eggs were laid when we do the inventory. It boiled over with hatchlings at only 50 days. Maybe it got extra heat because of the afternoon sun it got instead of being shaded later in the day. After counting all the empty shells, we found that a total of 142 eggs were laid and 21 failed to develop. No hatchlings were left in the nest. Hatch Success was 84.5%.
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