After a week without our regular routine, we're starting to fall back into it. Andy and Amanda returned to the island this afternoon, so there is no more feeding of island pets, and no more quiet retreat to escape to in the afternoons. We are also finished with giving each other days off, which we now agree, is harder than splitting the island between the two of us.
I believe Kate's last blog discussed Saturday morning, my first day off, in which I woke up early anyway to join Kate and our new friend Patricia on our first nest excavation. We had only saved one small turtle when we excavated our very first nest with Mark. This time, we were able to save 17. Even though they were all a little slow and some malformed, and are all probably dead already, it was nice to see them, and to hope for them. When we were done, and after I returned Patricia back to her group at the clubhouse, I went back to bed. Once I was fully rested, I went over to Andy & Amanda's for some kitten love and movie time. Their black cat, Panner (Panther/Panter, however you spell it...) is very shy, but on this day she finally warmed up, jumped right up on my lap, and fell asleep on my chest. She makes me miss my own cats. Kate finished the day late. It takes at least five to six hours to run the beaches alone, more if there are nests or crawls. When she did, we relaxed together in front of the TV.
Sunday was my turn to work again while Kate took off. Thankfully, it was much easier than my Friday alone. I started on the north end at 6:30am. I found no crawls on North Middle, and was quickly working my way up Bradley beach looking for crawls. Kate had brought our nest count to 198 the day before, and I was getting excited to hit nest 200. Soon I found a crawl that led up to a nest - nest #199. I continued north, but there were no more nests on Bradley...maybe on the south end.
On my return trip south, I began checking all our nests, removing the small screening on those at 50 days of incubation, and looking for emergences. I didn't find any nests that appeared to have hatched, but I know we're still in the learning curve for this, and after seeing some since, it's possible I've missed one or two. Tiny turtles don't make nearly as much of an obvious track as a giant mama turtle.
The very last nest, the most southern, on North Beach, is NB12. It had hit 50 days incubation and was due to have it small screen removed. I found the nest buried by wind blown sand, so I started digging down to the screen. Then I pulled up the metal stakes that hold down the screen, pulled the large screen up, cut the two cable ties that hold the two screens together, and pulled the small screen away. Within seconds of removing it, the sand below began to move. Then, a little turtle head popped out of the sand, then another, and another...
We've been told that we could accidentally set off a nest by disturbing the sand, or digging into a nest too early. This was completely unexpected though, because the nest had only been "cooking" for 50 days and should need more time to finish. Nevertheless, these turtles were coming. When the top turtle starts to go, it signals the rest below to follow, setting off a "frenzy." Once the hatchlings begin their frenzy, they won't quit for 48 hours, running down the beach and swimming as far as they can to eventually pick up the North Atlantic gyre. In this time, they use up all the reserve energy they've collected from the egg yolk, so we really want to avoid them wasting energy. As much as I didn't want it to happen then, in the daylight, and at low tide, these turtles were going anyway.
37 little hatchlings emerged from their nest in the sand. Almost all of them began going the wrong way, down the back of the dune. This could be because this nest was on the backside of the primary dune, with a steep incline in the path to the water. It could also be that hatching during the day disabled their natural sense to go toward the reflections over the water. I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to leave them alone, and let nature do its thing. But the other part of me realized that it was my fault they were confused, since I set off the nest. And with the low tide, they'd have an awful long walk to the water, and likely be picked off by birds. So, I gathered each one up, placed them in a bucket, and took them down near the water. I let them run about 25 feet of beach before they went into the ocean. It was amazing to watch. They were so strong, could crawl very fast, and swim even better - just minutes after emerging from the nest.
After my wonderful daylight emergence experience, I went to the south end to find nest 200. It never happened. I didn't have any more crawls that day, and was home around 11:00am. Kate would have the honor of nest 200, and 201 the following day, Monday, which I spent enjoying another day off, lazing around our house and our "vacation house" with kitties.
Today we both worked, and I had the north end. It was pretty routine, except that now we are looking for emergences. We thought we knew what we were looking for, but today I found that NB9 did in fact hatch, and looked nothing like I expected. Kate experienced the same thing on the south end when she found hatched nests that did not have the "tell-tale" signs. We are going to have to be extra vigilant on our patrols now, until we get a handle on this whole emergence thing. It's frustrating to be back to a point where we are so unsure of what we are doing, especially after feeling so confident now on the nesting side of things. All is well though, because we know we'll catch on soon, and the excitement of baby sea turtles makes it all worth it.
Hatch success is the percentage of eggs that actually hatched, calculated from the shells (50% or greater), over the total eggs (shells + undeveloped eggs). Emergence success is the just about the same, but we subtract any dead or live hatchlings from the number hatched (shells), before dividing by the total. These numbers give us an indicator of problems with the nests, whether they be infertility, blocked nests where hatchlings couldn't emerge, root inundation, washover, predation, etc.
The actual inventory process involves removing the screen, post and stakes protecting the nest, digging up the nest, sorting its contents into the four categories, and recording the data in our book. Any live hatchlings are taken to the sea and encouraged to swim off - though most are unable to do so, due to deformity or injury. Dead hatchlings and the remaining eggs and shells are taken and buried on the backside of the dune. This returns vital nutrients to the beach environment, and prevents us from finding the contents later and mistaking them as something new.
