Sunday morning I had the south beaches, and after a fast Mule ride (lately we've been taking the truck south), I patrolled South and found no crawls. I did find some campers though, with their boats beached and sleepy guys still on their air mattresses. I didn't say anything, as it's not my position, but sent Andy a message in case he wanted to set them straight. Not 100 meters away I spotted a dead hog on the beach, though I'm not sure if it was killed the night before or two nights. Hopefully it wasn't the night before or the campers would have been pretty scared. I wanted to let them know that camping wasn't permitted, but that more importantly, a lot of hunting takes place on the beaches at night. Best not to be mistaken for an animal in the dark...
Steve told me this morning at breakfast that he was having second thoughts about a false crawl or South Middle and asked that I recheck for him. My ride north had no crawls so I had no problem working the disturbed area. The tracks were unreadable, after a day in the hot sun and wind. I could tell where she had crawled over the dune a few times, but the directions were indistinguishable. I looked at the mess of sand and saw what resembled a pile she might have made. There were no other obvious signs. I marked the body pit with sea wrack, a step Steve and I have been skipping as of late. After probing didn't reveal anything, I grabbed the little shovel and started removing the soft, dry sand. Eventually I decided that getting on my knees and using my arms to move the sand would work better. After a large area was cleared, I grabbed the probing stick and tried again. This time, I found the nest on the 6th or 7th try. The eggs turned out to be right in the center of the disturbed area. The nest was a good candidate for relocation but we're past the 12 hour window. Instead, I hoped that nature would be gentle and her choice of placement would prove sufficient. I screened off SM12 and radioed Steve to let him know of my early completion. He told me he had a lot of work, but it was okay for me to head home. So I did.
On my way, I decided to go for a small adventure, check out some roads we haven't been down yet. My ultimate plan, aside from seeing new things, was to scope out a place to take Steve for his birthday, hence the lack of details of my trip. I think I succeeded and hope that my idea turns into a fun day for Steve. Stay tuned.
After I arrived home, I knew I had some time before Steve would show up. I did some chores, tidying up so we could relax together. Soon I received a call from Steve saying that if he wasn't home in 30 minutes, to go find him - he was almost out of gas. Watching the clock, I surfed the internet reading news stories when he pulled up. Good for us. We unpacked, did some data entry, and ate a big lunch. The rest of the day seems like a blur, and I'm not sure what else we did. I know that we were in bed way before the sun went down as Steve anticipated a busy day alone - I had Monday off. Maybe even Tuesday, if I'm lucky.
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