Night Walk 7/16 - A SUCCESS!

The first guided night walk by Christine, our sea turtle intern, was a success! The turtles had us a bit worried at first as there were signs of new nest emergences but the hatchlings had already made their trek to the ocean. Once at the inlet we saw a nesting sea turtle had already been ashore, laid her eggs and then returned.

On our way back, we were delighted when Christine told us there was a nesting sea turtle ashore. We waited as she dug her egg chamber, watching from a distance with our night vision monocular. We witnessed her laying her eggs and then as she threw sand to cover them back up. The moon had risen and the clouds cleared when she headed back to the ocean.

It was a late night but a successful one! The following morning we documented 4 nests, 1 false crawl and 6 nests that emerged. The nest we witnessed during our program is now marked as 322 on our state park beach. See below for pictures taken during our dawn patrol.