Some of the details will undoubtedly escape me as I try to tell yesterday from today. Steve and I headed south to patrol with the low tide. I was on the ATV, and not a minute into the drive, I saw a turtle crawl. I radioed Steve that we had a relocation to do so he finished South Beach. There was no turtle activity on his beach so he met me at the tidal creek and carried all our gear over. The loggerhead crawled up the beach and over much dry sand that eventually drops back into a slough. She turned around, but before giving up, dug a nest. This section of beach is very dynamic and prone to washover. We got to work and soon Steve located the eggs. He carefully picked up the eggs and transferred them to a 5 gallon bucket. The protocol is to put the eggs in the bucket in the same way they were found in the nest. The bucket is never turned during the move. This method is important because the egg contents attach to the shell at about 12 hours after being deposited and we want to reduce the impact. It also keep the eggs in a similar orientation in the nest that they were laid. This nest had 107 eggs, which is average. At the new location, Steve used a large cockleshell to dig a hole similar in dimensions to the original nest. The eggs were placed in the hole, and then it was covered with sand and protective screens. Steve deserves a pat on the back for doing so well. I was a bit nervous with this relocation since it was our first time.
We then headed north to patrol those beaches. Steve was convinced that North Beach would have a nest so we patrolled together, and then we would stroll North Middle. There was a nest, and luckily it was in a nice dune. We've gotten better at locating the nest from the body cavity so it didn't take as long. It's so exciting to find the first egg of the nest. A little farther up the beach we came upon a false crawl. The tracks reached far down the beach, so we guessed that she came up around 4 AM. She never made it above the high tide line. Statistically, there are twice as many false crawls as nests, though many won't be as easy to read as this one.
Our last beach was going to be tough. It was already noon and we ran out of water. Hot and dehydrated is a poor way to start a 3 mile walk. Only a few hundred feet into the walk and Steve and I both saw a crawl a bit ahead of us. On the other beaches it's not any trouble, but we haven't been bringing any gear with us, simply because it's heavy and there's a lot of it. Steve kept walking and I headed back to the Mule to get everything I'd need to work it up. We were already pretty sure it was a false crawl, but this one needed a closer look to be certain. I loaded the kayak and made my way back. After closer inspection and probing efforts failed, it was evident there was no body cavity and no nest. I continued to walk the beach to catch up to Steve in case he found more turtle crawls. Nothing else, so we headed home.
We drove past the
clubhouse, where the birders and
GA GPB's Georgia Outdoors host Sharon and cameraman were staying, to see if they'd left yet. Sharon flagged us down to offer us their food. We ended up staying for several hours. After great conversation, the DNR guys got back and immediately began to pack up the truck to head off the island. Steve and I helped, and offered to clean the house. We swept and mopped and hung out with the historical restoration carpenter Mark. This led to another hour or so of more fun conversation. He took us to the boarding house, and we were immediately blown away. The level of restoration is amazing. I want to live there. Steve and I eventually made it home and we're so tired. Lacking food and water most of the day put us out. Steve was in bed at 7 and I followed by 8, the sky still bright.
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