what a morning, and DEBBIE THIS IS YOURS, COME HOME, After my walk I got a call from Dusty and he said he had found a nest, so I drove there and walk another 400 miles, or did it just seem like it. The tide was coming in this morning and our walker missed this nest, it was so low and by the time I got there, all tracks covered by water except the ones of her coming out of the nest cavity. Dusty found it when he tagged a gazebo, and walked over to tag another gazebo, water was up to these two gazebos and the nest hard to see, so walker please don’t feel bad, I took one look, saw thrown sand and started to dig, right where the eggs should be. Well, I dug and dug and then called Karen, and then Dawn called me as she had just marked nest #20 and came to help. We dug and dug and boy, was it hot, finally I found the eggs, all 135 of them, they were UNDER THE OUTGOING TRACKS, RIGHT WHERE YOU WOULD NOT THINK. They were all in water and this young man Mike helped us by digging a trench and counting the eggs as we got them out of the water, What a job. So we moved it straight back, We were so hot and tired but we had Debbie’s nest #21 As you can see by the picture this is all that was not under water but it was under water by the time we got done. Egg under only tracks visible.
UPDATE:
What a story, what a nest, this nest was found by Dusty and by the time I got there the water was up to nest, I called Karen and she came a running, and Dawn was at another nest and she came as soon as she could. We moved 134 egg as the water was sucking them down further and further. What a wet fun that was, so I was not sure just how this nest would go and then came the hatch and the lights, ugh, well, we dug it for evaluation last night and it was great news. I want to thank, Dusty, Mike, Karen and Dawn for their great work, what a group we are. I love you.
94 escaped from the nest, and we hope a lot got to the water
3 were alive in nest and released
1 was dead in nest
28 had no obvious embryo
8 were dead embryos
134 total eggs
73 % nest success rate for a nest we would have lost….WooooHoooo