Inventory results for Sept. 2, 2008

Tuesday morning September 2nd was a very busy morning on Waties Island. Karen Fuss, one of her interns Jamie and 9 volunteers met at 7:30 a.m. to Inventory 3 nests. Barbara Demusz provided the stats for each nest so I'll start with nest#3 and then go on to the NMB relocated nests#1 & #2. Nest #3 as some of you may remember was watched many nights without us ever seeing any hatchlings or footprints of hatchlings so the question in many of our minds was always did it or didn't it hatch? Well Barbara thought the nest had hatched and she was right. This morning was day 75 for this nest and the inventory results were that the nest contained 85 hatched eggs and 8 unhatched eggs. We were all concerned when Barnicle Betty nested at the top of the dune but it turns out those hatchlings made their way to the ocean one night all on their own. Now on to the relocated nests from North Myrtle Beach. NMB nest #1 hatched on Friday evening August 29th a date that will be etched in my memory forever. Matt his daughter Mary and myself ( Karen) were walking
down the beach returning from a nest check when those tiny baby turtles made thier way to the ocean right in front of us. Today was day 64 and the Inventory results for NMB#1 was 122 hatched eggs, 7 unhatched eggs and one live hatchling was set free to join the others in the ocean. Nest#2(NMB) had a large depression and gave us hope that several of us would witness that nest hatch but the baby turtles made their way to the ocean sometime during the night or early morning unnoticed .Today was day 62 and the inventory results for the nest was that the nest contained 141 hatched eggs, 7 unhatched and/or pipped eggs, 2 dead hatchlings and one live hatchling. To Date alot has happened on Waties Island but we have many more nests to hatch yet. So give Nancy or Karen a call to set up a night watch and maybe you will be as lucky as the Lucky 8 that were out on Waties Island and witnessed a Awesome site!Posted by Chuck and Karen Fox