Night Walk 7/27 - A glimpse of turtle activity

We walked all the way to the inlet without a sea turtle sighting. Annie was ahead of the group to check potential hatching nests and to look for any mother turtle tracks. When we got to the inlet, Annie saw a turtle crawling up the beach! Unfortunately, the area she crawled up to had a steep 3 foot scarp and there was no going up that! We waited to see if the turtle would try to go elsewhere and find an area to nest. She did a couple circle and then decided it was a lost cause. We quickly radioed the group when she was turning around but she was quick! You don't always think of a sea turtle as a quick animal but after false crawling on the beach, they can hurry back to the water. A few individuals got a glimpse of this mother turtle as she left the beach.

On the way back we noticed one nest had hatched! The hatchlings had left by the time we got there but it was still neat to see the tracks they made in the soft sand. 

The following morning we found a new nest during our patrol! This marks 150 on our state park beach. Perhaps it was the same turtle that caused the false crawl earlier that night.