SI Nests 6 and 7 IOP Nests 19 and 20

SI Nest #6: The loggerheads on Sullivan's Island really had trouble finding spots to nest during the night. One crawled up above the tide line into the vehicular access path at Station 16 Street and laid her eggs right where the SIPD and SI Fire & Rescue drive on most days to get on the beach. Someone called about this nest well after dark, so the firemen and police waited for us to move them from the path. Laurie and Bob Snyder were covering the southwest end of SI and would have found tracks here, but the high tide had completely washed them away. We were able to get 132 eggs out of danger and before sunrise to move to one of the few dunes left on this island at Station 19.

SI Nest #7: Laurie and Bob then discovered tracks at Fort Moultrie up against the rock wall near the Station 13 path. This poor turtle bumped into the huge granite boulders and tried to dig three times before she finally found a spot where she did not hit buried granite when she tried to dig and lay her eggs. We found 116 eggs in this nest. Most of the spots probed hit underground boulders. The tide would have flooded this spot repeatedly and destroyed the nest. Those eggs were taken to incubate with Nest #6 at Station 19.

IOP Nest #19: Sissy Harris and Barbara Jervey discovered two sets of tracks just south of 40th Avenue that were close together but appeared to have been laid at different times during the night from what the tracks showed. They were both below the spring tide flood line. Nest #19 held 112 eggs and was moved near the 30th Ave path. IOP Nest #20 was close by and contained an extra large clutch of 152 eggs. It is unusual to see this many in one nest. They were also taken to 30th Avenue. It is a shame that erosion is causing so much loss of good nesting habitat with many dunes disappearing or being chopped off into steep escarpments on both of our islands.