Night Walk 7/18 - A SUCCESS!

Nest 261 all protected with a metal cage.

This was our first intern-led night walk and Lilli did a great job! As soon as we finished with the indoor portion of the program, we proceeded out on the beach only to discover two nests had already emerged! As we proceeded to walk down the beach there was an adult turtle crawl but it lead to a false crawl in the dunes. We were still hopeful that we would get the chance to witness some turtle activity. 

Not too much further down and there was a turtle ashore! After confirming with the night vision monocular that she was laying eggs, the group got a closer viewing experience. It was an incredible sight to watch as she finished laying the eggs, covered them back up and then returned to the ocean.

On our way back to the WIFI room, there was another turtle ashore up in the dunes. We quietly passed by near the ocean.

The following morning the team documented 4 new nests and 13 false crawls. Sadly, one of the new nests, nest 260, was entirely predated by raccoons before we arrived in the morning. The nest we witnessed during our program is marked as nest 261 on the state park beach. See below for a couple photos of the nest!

The body pit where the eggs hide below

The nest from the night walk turtle.