Digging Up A Nest On Our Own

Saturday morning was our turn at excavating a nest - NB4 was ready to be unearthed.  Even though Steve had the day off, he came out to see it, learn some more.  We're back on the learning curve again, so every experience counts.  Steve got the camera and I got to work.  Not far from the surface I began pulling out hatchlings, some dead, but some alive.  At first the live guys were lethargic, but we quickly watched them wake up and begin their own delayed frenzy.  Steve had to get the bucket to put the live ones in so we wouldn't lose them as I was still digging up shells and turtles.  This was my first time digging up the nest, and I'll admit it was a little gross, but nothing I can't get over considering my years at the zoo.  

Once I hit the bottom and there were no other live turtles, it was time to take them to the water.  We set the bucket down shoreward of the water, to let the turtles run down the beach.  One at a time I took them out and placed them on the wet sand.  They all oriented themselves well and started to make the journey toward the ocean.  Some were faster than others, others had obvious issues.  A few still had curved carapaces, some had flipper problems.  After some time, we took them to the water's edge, hoping this would better encourage them to keep moving.  After several trips we had them all in the water.  Again, some were better than others.  I moved a few deeper so they wouldn't get washed ashore.  Soon they were all out of sight and we headed back to count the remains: 87 hatched shells, 55 unhatched or pipped (hatchling broke through shell but didn't emerge), 16 dead hatchlings in nest, 17 live released in the water.

Soon Steve was gone and the beaches were left to me.  I had two nests on Bradley, both relocated.  Later I removed the small screening from several nests meaning that we should have a lot of emergences soon.  NB1 seems like it should emerge at any time, and NB3 should be very close.  After biking North Middle, and finding no crawls, I headed south.  I didn't find any crawls on South Beach, but I did find a lot of people.  It's hard to remember the day of the week out here, but we always know when it's Saturday because of the boaters on the north and south tips of Ossabaw.  I had to weave around them to scan for turtle crawls, and fortunately found none, since I'd have 50 people watching me.  The Mule then started giving me problems as it acted like it was running out of gas even though it had plenty.  Not wanting to get stuck in the rising tide, I took the barely used road on the south end.  Even though the road was rough, it was fun because I had never seen that part of it.  There were Lantana flowers everywhere - vibrant reds and oranges.  Big pine trees, old rolling hills from older dunes.  Steve and I will have to do more exploring down there.  By this time the Mule was running normally again.  I arrived at the South Middle kayak and headed over for the last beach.  It was hot and sunny, and I hate that I'm often stuck on this beach with no shelter in the afternoon.  

I drove through the dunes and headed south first.  The Oystercatchers were at the nest, so I let them be.  We're still hoping for one chick, so better to not disturb the parents.  The number of shorebirds grows every day as they are returning from nesting, some as far as the high arctic.  I hit the south tip and turned north.  I didn't find a crawl until the north end.  The body pit was very long, which meant more area to probe.  Luckily, I found it at the tail end, and didn't have to work the rest.  I had to relocate it and was relieved when I found a good dune 30 feet away.  By now I was sunburned and tired.  I was soon on my way south.  I didn't find any emergences this day, though some looked like there might have been.  My untrained eyes are have some trouble deciding between sea turtle hatchling and ghost crab.  When I saw the tracks from NB2 with Mark it was very obvious, so I am trying not to second guess myself.  When I see it, I'll know.  

I made it home late, just as late as Steve the day before, and he had so much more work than I.  I don't know, I guess I am that slow.  After data entry, we went to Andy's for dinner and cat time.  Panner has really grown a liking toward us and finally naps on the couch with us.  We're glad to be a substitute family for them.  

I Love This Job...Even When It's Super Hard.

Kate took the day off today - part of a plan to for us both to get some good quality down time.  While Andy is away, and we are watching his pets, we've been granted use of his house, DVD collection, large TV, and two cats to love on.  So, Kate had today off, I get tomorrow off, then Kate off again, followed by me.  Two days off each, with no interruptions by the hog boys...bliss.  Another reason we thought this was such a great idea is because turtle activity has been ramping down, most days having just a couple of crawls.

Today however did not go according to plan.  I'm not sure if the turtle gods like me, or hate me, but there was more activity today than we have seen in two weeks - 15 activities total, 8 nests, 7 false crawls.  It was a long, long day for Steve.

Things actually started out well.  I woke up at 4:30, sleeping on the alarm clock side of the bed and setting my own snooze schedule.  I was out of bed by 5:00 or so, and had a bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant for breakfast (substitute bacon for a small Ossabaw hog loin).  After loading up the Mule and hitting the fuel station to top things off, I was on my way.  Kate gave me her iPhone for the day, with her great head phones.  I could barely hear the Mule running as I made my way to the beach.  I was on Bradley by 6:30 and the tide was just right to get across to North Middle on the Mule.

North Middle patrol had no crawls, and only took a half an hour.  I was back on Bradley by 7:00am.  I then started out on my journey north, and found a crawl within minutes.  I had an egg in hand rather quickly, and continued north.  There was another crawl, I worked it, and then another, and another...  One body pit I came to had a stick sticking straight out of it.  I had known the teacher group on the island had been planning a night excursion and I was happy to know they had found a turtle, watched it nest, and marked it off for me.  Saving me a few precious minutes in what proved to be a long, long day.

It turned out I had five nests on Bradley beach.  I also had six false crawls.  Kate radioed me about the time I was finishing up the fifth nest.  I wasn't sure it was the last nest for North Beach, but I was sure I was on my last set of screening materials.  Of course she offered her help if I needed it, but I wanted her to enjoy her day off, and told her to stay home.  But I had to cross my fingers and hope I could finish the beach without another nest, otherwise I'd be fresh out of material and pretty much screwed.  Things worked out though, I only found one more false crawl north of that.

After Bradley, I was feeling good, rocking tunes, checking nests, and heading south.  The only problem I had was that I had no more screens.  I knew there were some out on South Middle with the ATV, but I wanted to check on South Beach first, thinking I could take note of what I would need, and bring it back on the kayak later.  And so, I drove to South Beach, with no screens.

As soon as I hit the first road to South Beach I saw a crawl, not just a crawl, but an obvious nest.  I cursed a little for not having screens, decided to leave it for now, and headed south for the rest of the beach.  The tide was coming in and I couldn't skirt around the boneyard there, so I tried to drive up and over some of the downed trees.  Kate and I have done this before, a hundred times I'm sure, but this time was different.  The sand must have washed out, and the this particular palm trunk was a bit higher than usual.  And so, the font tires of the Mule ran over the trunk, but then the rest of the Mule came down on the trunk, and stayed there.  I was completely stuck.

I worked on that Mule for an hour or more, trying everything I could to get it unstuck.  Eventually I realized the tide was coming up and there was a real possibility I wouldn't be able to get it un-stuck in time.  I called Kate, interfering with her day off, and asking for rescue.  I told her she could recruit Eric if he was available.  I  wasn't worried about seeming the fool for getting the Mule stuck, I was more worried about leaving it stuck too long and losing it to the tide, which would make me even more the fool.  As they were headed down to me, I kept working to move the Mule.  Eventually I found a long enough piece of driftwood that was strong enough to lever the Mule off the log.  The relief I felt when I did was one of the best things that happened all day.

By this time it was about 1:00 in the afternoon.  I had driven North to meet up with Kate and Eric to intercept them and let them know everything was fine.  Afterward went out to South Middle and found one nest on the north end which had to be relocated.  Following that I went back to South beach, dug up the nest that was sitting by the north road, and drove it down around the boneyard to be relocated on the south end.  I didn't find anymore crawls on South, and finally was headed home.

After washing off the Mule and re-supplying it with screens, stakes, and posts for Kate tomorrow, I took a shower and laid down for a spell.  In less than an hour I was refreshed enough to rise, and head off with Kate to visit our teacher friends at the clubhouse.  They fed us chicken pot pie and other things, along with wine and stories.  We mooched some educational materials off of them which we will add to our turtle library and will hopefully be able to share with friends.  They're headed out again tonight, and I wish them turtle luck.  But for Kate's sake, I hope there are a few less crawls than I had today.

Timmy the Turtle

Today  was like any other day.  I hit the north end, and Steve hit the south end.  My only moment of mention was the discovery of six egg shells and two dead hatchlings at NB4.  There were two ghost crabs hanging around, so I grabbed my shovel and killed one.  My first ghost crab kill.  I didn't think I'd try it, but immediately after I saw the hatchling, I had no problem.  I found myself staking some more out around other nests, probe stick in one hand, shovel in the other.  I never did get any more.  Mark said that we'll find a ghost crab in nearly every nest.  It's a natural relationship, so we can't get too upset.

Steve and I had three nests today, still averaging a good number.  We've been worried about the end of nesting, but they still keep coming, though the days of 8 nests are over.  As I was on my way home, I found Steve at the culvert fishing.  He already caught two nice red drum, so we decided to head home and catch a break before Mark's visit.  Today was our training on nest excavation.  Just after I finished feeding that cats, at only 10:30, Mark called to let me know he was on the island, hours before we expected.  We packed up the truck and headed to Bradley Beach.

Our stop was NB2, our first nest to hatch.  Mark and I discovered the crawls on Monday.  Typically, we'll wait 5 days before we excavate a nest.  This number varies by state, island, organization...  We do this to allow stragglers to find their way out on their own.  It provides ample time for the late bloomers to try, as well as not being to long to help out other healthy turtles.  Mark started by digging in the nest cavity, and started pulling out dead hatchlings, over and over again.  Soon we had lots, not a good sign, but also not the end of the world.

On Monday, Mark counted 49 crawls, so at least that many made it out of the nest.  Eventually, he pulled out a live turtle.  He was slow moving, but still alive.  Mark dug a little hole and covered the little guy with damp sand to keep it cool.  We continued digging up the nest, and once the contents were out, and we only had one live turtle, we took it to the water.  Mark told me to put it down at last night's high tide line, to give it a chance to imprint on its way to the water.  It didn't do so well, not walking directly to the water.  Mark took it to the water's edge and gave it a chance to swim.  The first small waves kept bringing it back onshore.  It was really cute to watch the turtle swim, and especially to lift its head to take breaths.  Mark said that the wave action is also a clue to orient the little guy, and again, it failed.  He said next to take it farther, so that the waves would encourage it out deeper, not back up the beach.  After he let it go this time, we never saw it again.  During the swim trials, we were able to get a better look at the sea turtle.  It had an abnormal lump on its head, and abnormal scutes on its carapace.  Its chance of survival is very low, but we were still glad to send it off in the water.  It's definitely bittersweet to experience this, the live and dead sea turtles hatchlings.  Steve and I are now welcoming the new chapter of our Loggerhead nesting season.

For Mom & Dad Tighe: you should recognize the name reference.  Steve thought of it.  Little Timmys will always have a special place in our hearts.  (For those who don't know - we're referencing Timmy, from South Park).

Other Updates:  I had my first "hole in one" - probe in one.  I used to probe systematically, but Mark and Steve said I'd never get it if I didn't start where I thought the nest was.  The day after (Tuesday), I got it.  Next, the Least Tern egg Steve found on South Middle washed over and is missing.  We're sad, but the terns still seem very active, so we think there are still more nests.  As of a few days ago, the American Oystercatcher nest only had one egg.  We don't know what happened.  Our last bit of bird news is that the Wilson's Plover nest by NB31 never hatched and the parents have stopped returning.  The three eggs are still in the nest.  Steve and I are learning first hand how difficult shore bird nesting really is.

Links of interest: Sea Turtle Necropsy and Oil Spill from NYTimes, Sea Turtles and Shrimping (opinion), Plight of the Sea Turtles

I Still Hate Solo Days

Late last night Steve asked if he could have the day off.  I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted he needed a day away from the beaches.  I really hate doing them by myself.  It takes so long, and after all the heat and sun exposure, I always feel like I need the next day off.  To make me feel better, he promised he'd do some serious chores, so, of course, I gave in.

I was up at 5, cooked up a large breakfast, and loaded the Mule up for a long day.  I packed all of my accessories - the nice camera, binoculars, snacks, big water jug, towel, my Five Fingers, and my iPod.  Soon, I was on the road, dodging large branches and deep puddles.  I decided to work North Beach first, assuming I'd be done early enough to avoid the flooding tidal creek on the north end.  As I drove north, I checked on the nests.  NB2, the nest that emerged yesterday, didn't have any more activity.  I found my first of three crawls on the north side of the tidal creek.  It had to be relocated, as did the other two.  The first crawl was in an area of dense, dead wax myrtles.  There was no evidence of a body pit, just tracks, and a mess in the sticks and sea wrack.  I guessed there was a nest, so I probed around.  I quickly found the nest, and got to work.  The next two nests were close together, at the north end of the dead myrtles, a very common spot.  These nests were added to Sea Turtle Row.  After I finished relocating the nests, I finished my patrol and headed back to check the remainder of the nests.  It turns out that NB4 had an emergence, though I only counted 4 or 5 crawls, and only 3 making it to the water.  I wonder if we missed it before, or if tonight will be a big emergence.  Only time will tell.

On North Middle Beach, I loaded up the bicycle with enough supplies to replace the screens we used yesterday.  I tried to ride the bike, but with the high spring tide, the sand was too soft, and I frustratingly had to walk most of the beach.  I found three false crawls, all on the north end.  After I dropped the supplies off at our spot, I was able to ride a little bit.  By the time I reached the Mule again, it was nearly 11:00, and very hot.  I hid under the shade of the Mule, completed my data entry, and rested with a lot of water and some snacks.  Once I was recharged, I hit the south end.  South Beach didn't have any activity, South Middle had only a false crawl, but I did have screens to remove, some much more difficult than others.  After this long, hot day, I finally arrived home around 2:45.

As I pulled up to the house, I saw a red-faced Steve pushing the lawn mower around.  He spent hours clearing the tall grass from around the property - a must to too keep the bugs down.  He received help from Codey, who cleaned off the roof.  It had a foot deep layer of tree litter, which is obviously bad for the roof.  Steve also cut up the screens Mark delivered yesterday, hopefully they're enough to finish out the season.  Steve also gave himself an overdue trim.  Shortly after our showers, we realized that the looming storms were nearly upon us so we raced to the houses to feed the multitude of animals.  Then we packed up some food and headed to Andy's to visit the cats.  They're both so sweet.  We're glad to have them around, though some days it just makes us miss our cats more.  Meeka, we're half way there...

Pardon the Delay...

I have to apologize for not writing.  Not only to all our readers, but to myself and Kate.  Part of the purpose for the blog was as a diary for ourselves.  We have a pretty good excuse for not writing: simply, not enough time in the day.

Saturday was spent running the beaches, with 5 false crawls and two nests.  All of that activity was on Bradley beach, and on my patrol.  I hit the beach a bit late that morning.  Kate and I had slept in a little, trying to catch up on the sleep we lost tossing and turning in bed stressing about our household situation.  When I did pull on to the beach, I found a crawl right away.  It looked like a nest, but I couldn't find any eggs after lots of probing, and finally digging up the entire area.  Frustrated, I moved on.  I saw another crawl that I couldn't decipher right away and moved on again.  Then I decided to drive all the way to NB4, which we were expecting would hatch. I thought if it did, it might brighten my spirits.  But, it hadn't hatched, and I continued north to the end of the beach.  I had counted 7 crawls in total at that point.  Of course I was glad the turtles were active, but I was tired, and stressed, and my mind was all over, so I was not in the best of spirits about working all these crawls.  I radioed Kate to tell her it was a busy day up on Bradley, and I could use her help if things were slow to the South.  IT took some time to get her on the phone, but when I did, I learned she had zilch, and wasn't excited about going home, so she'd come help me.

I worked my way back South, checking nests and stopping at the crawls.  In the end, it was only 2 nests, both that needed to be relocated.  Neither was an easy nest to find, or relocated.  Both were up in the dead myrtles and the nearest good dune was a good drive down the beach.  One of the two was extremely shallow, only 1/2 to 1 inch below the surface.  I broke 3 eggs probing that one and was very upset.  I haven't broken an egg by accident in a long time.  Two of the false crawls I had looked like nests and had to be completely dug up, 2 feet down, 6 feet around, to make sure there were no eggs.  It was a lot of work.  Kate showed up and helped a little, but by that point I was just about done anyway.  After my bike ride of North Middle, I could finally call my beach day done and head home.

Back at the compound, we showered, ate, put away our work stuff, and did our data entry.  Then it was time to go feed all the animals on the island.  At Andy's we fed the cats, had a lunch of clam chowder (made from the local bi-valves) and took naps on his couches.  Later we went to Eric's, watered the garden, fed the pigs & chickens, let Bug, Nikki & Sarah Palin run around, fed the 3 hunt dogs, gave everyone new water, convinced Big, Nikki and Sarah to go back in their cages, fed them, and then left.  We finished at Mrs. West's, feeding the horses, pigs and goose.  We got home around 6, ate some dinner, and tried to go to bed.

The boys came home around 8pm or so, and decided to cook up some burgers on the stove.  Soon the smoke alarm was buzzing and we were still awake in bed.  We took a peak our of the room to see the entire house filled with white smoke, the boys just sitting in it eating.  Kate was smart enough to open some windows to vent it all out, but the A/C had already sucked it in and was pumping it into our bedroom.  With burning eyes, windows open to the heat and humidity, we tried to fall asleep.  Eventually we must have... because we awoke Sunday morning, unrested, and ready to patrol again.

Sunday was much the same.  I had two nests on the south end and Kate had one up north.  When we finished up, we came home, got cleaned up, and split up to feed animals.  Kate did the horses while I took care of Eric's farm.  We met back at Andy's to escape and relax, watching LOST on his big TV and cooking up some frozen pizza.  We went home in time for an early sleep, but still didn't sleep well.  Then we woke early enough to meet our boss Mark, who was coming to hang out and help us run the beaches for a day.

Mark arrived this morning around 6:30am.  Kate and I were ready to go to the beach by then.  I drove over to Andy's to give the cats their AM feeding while Kate picked up Mark at the dock.  Then I went south and ran those beaches.  I had three nests, and learned, sadly, that the least tern nest had been washed away by the high tide.  The Oystercatchers are still there, and will hopefully have better luck.

Kate and Mark had 2 nests on North Middle, and caught up with me on the ATV at the tidal creek to their south.  We chatted for a moment, then headed off our separate ways.  I met them again on Bradley as they were working their way North, checking nests.  Kate informed me of some great news.  We had our very first emergence!  That's right, baby turtles left their nest last night and ran into the ocean.  This will soon become a regular occurrence, and hopefully we will be getting some pictures of them.  We won't dig up the nest for 5 more days or so.  There will be more to report then when we learn how many hatched, or didn't.  Mark counted 49 little turtle trails though, so that's something.  More may come out tonight, and another nest, NB4 is primed to go any moment.

When we were all done with the beaches, we came back to the house, hosed off the Mule, showered and headed down to the dock.  We found a care package waiting for us from Jim, whose dogs we watched all week.  He gave us beer, wine, a gift card to the grocery store, some Ossabaw note cards (stationary), and an awesome Ossabaw poster.  I'm sure his dogs are happy to have him back, but Bo is still putting his tennis ball on our front stoop.

Mark ran us into shore for some shopping, while he came back to the island to have a chat with the Hog Boys.  He returned for us after an hour and a half, and brought us home.  Hopefully some progress was made on improving our domestic situation.  We really can't take any more problems.  The work here is hard enough without stress at the house.  When we were done putting away our groceries, we headed out once again to feed everyone's pets.  Storms were brewing, and after a brief respite at Andy's, we had to rush to feed everyone without getting poured on.

Finally home, we cooked a dinner of whatever had to get out of the fridge, did our data entry, and caught up on the blog.

Normal Went Out the Window.

Things are crazy on the island... again.  Everyone is off the island except for the Hog Boys.  Kate and I are once again watching all the animals.  This includes: Jim's 2 dogs and fish tank; Eric's 6 dogs, 4 pigs, and dozen+ chickens; Andy's 2 cats & 2 birds; and Mrs West's 3 horses, 3 pigs, 1 goose and one pea hen.  It's a surprising amount of work.  Eric's house also includes watering a garden.  What do we get out of it all?  Well besides brownie points, we get free garden veggies, and chicken eggs from Eric.  Andy's house provides us with a temple of solace.  He has a big TV and a whole lot of movies.  We can get away from the Hog Boys there, have some food, and love on some kittens.

In turtle news, Kate has found a depression in a nest, NB4.  This means it could hatch at any time.  We were a little surprised, given that it isn't the earliest nest, and wasn't even on our list to remove the small screening on for a few more days.  We suppose it's just in a warmer spot, and the eggs have "cooked" faster (meaning they've incubated faster).

Yesterday, we had nest 100 on North Beach.  Another interesting thing that I failed to report was the rescue of 4 little birds.  I was kayaking from the pavilion on the south point to the ATV on South Middle when I found 4 small chicks stranded on a ledge off the marsh.  It appeared a section of the marsh had collapsed and the chicks were stranded by the water.  I was particularly worried because I had seen a small alligator there the day before.  With a bit of urging, and the physical moving of one bird, I got all the chicks back up into the marsh.  After talking with Tim, the DNR bird guy, it appears the birds were Clapper Rails.

Birds have been on our mind more and more lately.  We have a population of Least Terns nesting on South Middle.  Today I found a nest that they laid.  It only had one egg in it, but it's the first we've seen, and likely the first nest they've laid.  They're an endangered species here in Georgia.  We're so happy to have them.  We've even made some homemade signs for this area to discourage people from disturbing the birds.  Right near the Terns there is a pair of American Oystercatchers sitting on a nest of 2 eggs.  We are waiting for their eggs to hatch, and hopefully in the next few days we'll have little Oystercatcher hatchlings running around.

So, in nature news, things are going well.  We are busy with turtles, birds and the island animals.  In domestic news, things are not going as well.  Cobey, the hunter is great, but Hog Boy Josh is not, and we've been having some serious battle with him.  I don't know what will happen, but I do think we've reached a tipping point.  It may come down to him or us...

100 Nests on North Beach!

We had our 100th nest on North (Bradley) Beach today.

Another important event occurred today: the first Loggerhead hatchlings in Georgia emerged on Sea Island.  We are patiently awaiting ours.  I can't wait to see the cute little suckers.