North Middle Beach is where we're mostly concerned about nest depredation. Yesterday I found a nest that a raccoon had dug up before I could screen it off. The bugger ate 53 eggs (we found three more shells this morning at the original nest site). The same morning I found that a nearby nest had been dug around. This is what prompted the traps, and rifle. We looked for two good areas to put the traps - close to the racoon's trail, and close to the nests, but far enough that it doesn't attract them to the nests. Upon inspection today, we found that the raccoon is seriously trying to dig up two nests, and therefore increasing awareness to the hogs. It also returned to and dug up the original nest location looking for eggs. Since the nest depredation is a learned behavior, it's imperative that we catch the raccoon.
South Beach was next. We found two false crawls, and boat loads of people, literally. At the south tip, several boats were anchored and two dozen people were walking around with trash bags. We learned that a group of volunteers with Clean Coast were picking up trash along our beach. A few weeks ago they cleaned the north end. Steve and I couldn't be more grateful of their efforts.
Our last stop was South Middle Beach. We arrived at the ATV around 11, which meant it was already pretty hot. I secured the tool box and Steve drove us to the beach. Just after the first turn, I spotted a Wilson's Plover nest! There were three speckled eggs on a small depression of crushed shell in the sand. The plovers had been giving us a hard time for the last week or so, but we never spotted anything to be of concern. Now we know that they've officially laid eggs, so we'll probably change our route so we don't disturb them every day. Every few days we spot new chicks running around and have to be more and more careful with our vehicles on the beaches. Sometimes the chicks will just sit down to hide, so we need to be sure not to run them over!
Halfway up the beach we had a nest, which we relocated to a higher dune. A lot of the nests are right in the high tide wrack line which means they'll all wash over at the next full moon. Steve's quick, so soon we were back on the ATV. Nearing the north end, we thought we were done, which was good because we were both starving and dehydrated. Not wanting to disturb some plovers, Steve took the ATV away from the high tide line. Just as we were passing a large dead tree, I saw a turtle crawl. Steve made a large loop back and stopped at the track. Immediately we knew it was very different than a loggerhead crawl. Then we saw how BIG it was - almost 6 feet wide! A leatherback sea turtle nested on our beach, which to us, is one of the coolest things to happen. Leatherbacks are critically endangered and rarely nest on Georgia beaches. Before our nest, there were only 3 nests in Georgia this year. Steve and I feel privileged to witness her track and to protect her nest.
We walked up the crawl and were dumbfounded by the size of the body pit, maybe 5 times larger than the loggerhead (easily an underestimate). There was thrown sand everywhere. Where to start?! Steve started systematically probing with no results. Soon I got the small shovel and started removing layers. Steve started digging out small holes where he thought a nest could be. One area in particular he kept returning to, but after digging what he thought was deep enough, found nothing. We continued to dig and probe. I finished the survey and scoped out places to relocate the nest. Sadly it was placed on a washover fan and probably wouldn't be safe at the next full moon. I hoped that upon my return Steve would have found the nest, but that wasn't the case. I grabbed the shovel and kept removing sand. By now Steve's blistered hand had worsened, but he's no quitter. We each took breaks to cool off in the ocean, our only relief from the heat. After what seemed like hours, not really though, Steve went back to the first hole for the third time. The sand he reached into continued to be soft. Deeper and deeper, then finally, an egg! The nest appeared to be in an unlikely spot given her track, but one thing we've learned is to look everywhere. By the time we found it, the area looked like a huge crater! Before digging up the nest, Steve and I hopped on the ATV to settle on a new spot. Once we agreed on it, we headed back to dig up the eggs. Steve pulled out eggs of many sizes. The first few were smaller than the loggerhead egg, which we were surprised to see. Then, he pulled out a real egg. Much larger than the loggerhead egg, about the size of a billiard ball. The smaller ones are probably spacer eggs - unfertilized eggs with no yolk. With the bucket full, we returned to the new spot. This time, as Steve was returning the eggs, we tallied up the eggs based on their size. With a total of 117, 61 were large, and the rest were either considered small, medium, or tiny (smaller than a dime). We're interested to learn more about the eggs after the hatch. We screened it off and marked it SM10. You can bet that we'll try to be there for the hatch!
By that point, roughly 1:00, Steve and I were hot, thirsty, hungry, and tired. We finished all the data collection, got back on the ATV and started the return trip, checking the nests along the way. About an hour later we were home. After cold showers, a big lunch, and some down time, we felt much better, still smiling about our rare experience. In nine more days, we'll be hoping to find she came back.
She's HUGE! How much do you think she weighs??
ReplyDelete1,000 - 1,500 pounds!
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