This morning, the Snyders and their family were walking the upper end of the island. Just as they were checking Nest #2, they realized there were many small tracks leading in every direction from the cage with many of the tracks going away from the ocean and into the dunes. It seems that a fox must have gotten to them as they were hatching. Nancy and Barb came out to check the nest and found that a good number of the hatchlings were misoriented – they crawled out of the nest and went behind the primary dunes. They followed the backside of the dune line for a long way. Unfortunately, lots of fox tracks there too. Two dead hatchlings were found.
The rest of the tracks led toward the ocean – hope we had some survivors here!
On Thursday morning, we will be doing an inventory of this nest. Hope our Thursday walkers will be able to join us. Keep checking those nests; hatching season is underway!
Many thanks to Dick and Carol, as well as Beth and Bob Minut (their daughter and son-in-law) and their grandchildren, Melanie, Alex and Noelle.
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