Hurricane Season Is Officially Upon Us

Another week has gone by and Steve and I are finally catching a break.  Early last week, I helped Steve finish the repairs to the truck.  The next morning, however, I broke down on the Mule.  It had been having fuel issues - carburetor, fuel lines, fuel pump and filter.  We're not sure what the real problem was, so when we did repairs, it involved cleaning every part we could.  Since then, the Mule has been performing much better, and I'm finally reassured that I won't putter to a stop 6 miles from home.  By mid week, I had been feeling stressed about home life, so by Friday, Steve and I needed a trip to town.  We raised our spirits by a sushi feast at one of Savannah's best restaurants.  

Our nest inventories have been going well.  Our hatching success is near 70%, a very good number.  Today, Steve had a nest (NB91) where 100% of the eggs hatched, though he found one dead hatchling.  Almost a perfect nest!  Yesterday, Steve found our first wild nest.  There were egg shell fragments scattered around a hog crater.  I've been able to narrow the wild nest to two reported false crawls, though we'll never know.  Unless we find another wild nest, our nest total for this summer is 216.  We're getting more of our DNA data back, and so far have been able to see the nesting activity of 13 different females.  I'm already able to see patterns of behavior.  When we get more data back, I'll update with more information.

Blue crab on the beach this morning, overshadowed by the rough skies and seas.

Even though it's located hundreds of miles offshore, Hurricane Danielle has brought interesting weather.  The beaches are very windy, the waves are big and sloppy, it's pleasantly breezy around home, and thankfully, the humidity has dropped.  On an uncertain note, Earl (Tropical Storm?) is gaining strength.  Its present course will definitely bring strong weather to Ossabaw.  We're hoping it stays far enough east of here that we're not evacuated, and our remaining nests are safe. 

Current track for Earl...