Isle of Palms/Sullivans Island

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Click on Island Turtle Team for nest Statistics

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Season Ends with the Inventory of Nest 23

(25 if you include Sullivans)

In the last nest of the season which hatched after 48 days, the
shortest incubation of all this year, there were 19 hatchlings that
were stuck in very hard sand in the wall of the egg chamber from the
recent heavy rain. They probably would not have gotten out if not for
the inventory. They were released and all swam away. The Hatch
Success was 84.6% and because so many did not come out the Emergence
Success was 68.3%.

See You on the Beach in 2011

10/03/10

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Nest #22 Inventoried at Sunset

The in situ nest at 20th Avenue did well with 101 eggs laid, 14
unhatched, 86 empty shells and one live hatchling still in the nest.
Most of the hatchlings emerged at about 11:45PM on Sunday night.
Hatch Success was 85.1% and Emergence Success was 84.1%

Earlier in the day a group of lucky beachgoers got to see one little hatchling make his way out of the nest and to the water.

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Nest #21 Inventoried

In Nest #21 which was laid at 6th Avenue, we were a little concerned
about the tide having overwashed the nest on two very high tide
events, once at a new moon with strong east winds and then as
Hurricane Earl passed by causing a very rough surf with extra high
waves. But today we were glad that we did not relocate this nest when
we only found 3 unhatched eggs and one hatchling who had died before
emerging. There was also one live hatchling still in the nest. We
counted 86 empty shells and this gives us a 95% hatch rate.

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Nest #20 Is Inventoried

Wednesday morning, Sept 15th, we inventoried Nest #20 laid by the turtle we called
Sharkbite who made so many false crawls. There was only one live
turtle left in the nest and this one had managed to get its head and
flippers out of the eggshell with its egg tooth. However, the whole
egg shell was still wrapped around the neck and the body making it
look a little like Humpty Dumpty with an egg for a body. We removed
the shell and saw that the turtle had absorbed the yolk sac and was
indeed ready to come out of the nest. So it was released and crawled
into the water. The Hatch Success was 86.4%.

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Nest #21 Emerges at 2AM

It was a beautiful night on the beach...a nice breeze and no bugs. Barb Gobien and Barb Bergwerf decided to stay out no matter how long it took. The nest was making a great deal of noise and with no moon they were concerned about the hatchlings ability to make it to the water. Their persistence paid off and at about 1:50 AM the nest erupted with 89 hatchlings coming out in a matter of minutes. Barb Gobien took a light down to the water's edge and was the "moon" for last night, while Barb Bergwerf tried her best to make sure all 89 went the right direction.

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Nest #19 on Isle of Palms Surprises the Turtle Team

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Nest #18 at 33A on the Isle of Palms

This turtle first tried to dig in a very root filled area and left an open hole there, crawled over and behind the dune, and finally laid eggs right on the high front edge of the primary dune before crawling back out to sea. We did not have to move the nest and marked it to incubate in situ. This nest yielded 76 empty shells, 16 unhatched & pipped eggs, 2 dead hatchlings, and only one live hatchling. Including the DNA eggshell the Nest Database shows that
this was an 81.7% hatch rate.

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Nest #15 on Isle of Palms Inventoried

There were 134 eggs relocated from Dunecrest Lane in Wild Dunes in this nest. Only four did not hatch and only one did not make it out of the nest over the last four nights. This hatchling was released and made it to the ocean. The nest database calculated that it was a 97% hatch success and a 96.2% emergence success. Can't get too much better than that!

This one little turtle got lots of attention........from a load of photographers and one precious little red head

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Sullivans Nest #1 Inventoried

This nest did not do as well as Nest #2 on Sullivan's. Out of the 68 eggs relocated 36 did not develop and hatch and 3 hatchlings were found dead in the nest. However, much to everyone's delight there was one lone live hatchling under all of these eggs who crawled to the water and swam away. The hatch success here was 47.8% and the emergence success was 42%. Thank you to all who helped on Sullivan's this season and especially to those of you who monitored these nests in the morning and at night for the last 7-10 days during their due dates.

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Nest at 6th Ave. Has Lots of Tracks on the Beach

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Where Do the Hatchlings Go????

We are asked where the hatchlings go when they crawl into the water. These pictures were taken by Nigel Bowers about 40 miles offshore while on a fishing trip. The floating rafts of sargassum seaweed are the first stop for the little loggerheads. While there they can rest, eat and hide from predators letting the currents take them on the beginning of their 10-15 year journey before they return to our waters.

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Nest #2 on Sullivans Inventoried

On Wednesday morning, August 25 Nest #2 on Sullivans Island we found that only 4 out of the 85
relocated eggs did not develop and only one lone hatchling was stuck down under all of those egg shells. He was rather cramped up but did crawl to the water and swim away. So this nest had a very good 95.3%
hatch rate in spite of all the sand buildup and ghost crab holes. As you can see from the picture the sand had built up again on the nest. All told, approximately 24 inches of sand had to be removed while waiting for the nest to hatch. If we hadn’t removed sand, on almost a daily basis, we would have lost track of the nest location since the orange sign and tape would have been completely covered.

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Nest # 13 on IOP Inventoried

The youngest(Maddie McCall)and the oldest members(Glenn and Grace Rhodes) of the turtle team came out for the inventory of nest #13 and they weren't disappointed! The nest had 144 eggs and ended up with a 77% success rate. There were 7 hatchlings still stuck in the nest so Jimi Gurley, mom of the nest, was able to release the 7 little guys and make sure they got into the water.

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Nest #15 on IOP and #1 on Sullivans Hatch

The first of the three nests at 6th Avenue which was found by Barb Gobien and Gillian Ellis at Dunecrest Lane in Wild Dunes boiled last night at 11:30. This was earlier than projected at 49 days. Fortunately Barb and Gillian were there to see their hatchlings emerge and go to the water. We were standing by with a lantern, but the clouds parted and the moon came out just in time. We counted approximately 96 of them.

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Nest #12 at 25th Ave. on the Isle of Palms hatches

Sunday night at a little after 10:00 Nest #12 at 25th Avenue boiled.
This nest was laid on the Cedar Creek spit in Dewees Inlet and moved
there. We are not required to count hatchlings as they come out
because we get the final results at the inventory. However, we did
this "just for fun." Out of the 73 eggs that we relocated it appears
that all 73 hatched and 73 turtles came out and went to the ocean.
They were all healthy and vigorous and the moon was peeking in and
out from behind some thick clouds.

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Last Nest at Ocean Point is Inventoried

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Nest #23 for Isle of Palms

Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for Caroline Stone & Alice Williams.
Just when we thought all of the loggerheads were finished nesting, Caroline Stone and Alice Williams found tracks and a body pit in Breach Inlet this morning - only two days before nesting season is supposed to end on August 15th. The outgoing tracks were about 30 yards longer than the incoming ones showing us that the tide went out quite a long way while she was laying her eggs. Because of the location in Breach Inlet with strong and dangerous currents for the hatchlings, we relocated 116 eggs to the middle of the 600 block of Ocean Blvd and marked the nest there to most likely hatch toward the middle of October.

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Nest # 9 inventoried

During the night some tourists in Wild Dunes watched this turtle lay her eggs near Summer Dunes Lane. Animal Control Officer John Keelan reported the tracks the next morning. The eggs were moved to a safer place in front of 2912 Palm Blvd. This nest hatched 4 days ago and an inventory was done this morning. All but 3 eggs hatched, so the hatch and emergence rate was 95.8%.

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Nest #22 for Isle of Palms

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Kathy and Erin were excited to find their first nest, but all in all Dylan was the most thrilled and wanted to tell anyone who would listen!

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We were told by a policeman on duty that a turtle had crawled at 5th
Avenue without nesting, so we were expecting her to return later in
the night. Then Kathy Kowalchick and Erin McCall found tracks in
front of the Beachside houses near 20th Avenue just north of the
County Park and pier. The turtle was probably the same one from 5th
Avenue and not Sharkbite. She made it high up onto the primary dune
and laid her eggs there, damaging some sea oats. We left the eggs in
situ and don't expect this nest to hatch until October.

At about 11:15 Saturday night 44 turtles came out of Nest #9. The tide was
low, there was no moon at all, so getting them to the water was quite
a challenge. We smoothed the nest over and drew an X because we
thought that perhaps no more were coming out. This morning the beach patrol
noticed what looked like a crab hole going into the egg chamber. Apparently a crab
had dug in but did not go all the way to the eggs.

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Nest #7 at 35th Avenue was inventoried and we found that 136 eggs were laid. There were four live hatchlings who crawled to the water and 22 eggs that did not hatch The overall hatch success was 83.2% and emergence success was 80%. A good size crowd took the opportunity to get a few snapshots of these cute little guys.

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This nest was very deep with the sand built up from the wind. The
first hatchlings emerged 10 days ago. When we tried to do the
inventory 3 days later, it was obvious that there were many turtles
that were just coming out of their shells & many unhatched eggs. So
we waited another week, following the DNR Guidelines. Today we tried
again and found 43 unhatched mostly discolored eggs that were
obviously never going to hatch as well as 17 live hatchlings who crawled to the water.

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Our early morning Ocean Point inventory showed a very successful Nest #6
with only 3 eggs unhatched, one dead hatchling in the nest, and 4
live hatchlings in the nest. This made a 96% hatch success and 89.3%
emergence success.

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Another Monday nest in the south section was laid this morning.
Sandra McLean and Beverly Blalock were walking with Bev's adorable
granddaughter Kali in a stroller when they discovered tracks in front
of 602 Ocean Blvd. The turtle had made one body pit and dug the
beginning of a hole a little lower on the beach, but then she
abandoned this site leaving the empty egg chamber and moved to the
base of the primary dune where she tried again and this time laid her
eggs. We marked the nest to incubate there even though it was close
to the side of the beach path of the rental house there.

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After at least 4 attempts (maybe 6) this turtle with quite a lot of
posterior damage who's been seen and photographed on the beach twice before finally laid her eggs at 45th Avenue last night. Her wounds are well healed and her rear flippers and cloaca look fine. The old wound is jagged and looks more like natural predator damage than a boat propeller strike. Bev Ballow spotted her about midnight crawling parallel to the ocean at 45th Ave. We got there in time to see her dropping just over 100 eggs in a flat washover part of the beach. We waited for her to finish and cover the nest, checked her for external and internal tags and walked with her back to the water at about 1:45 a.m. Sis Nunnally was patrolling the beach and found the tracks and body pit early this morning and we moved the eggs to a good location at 31st Ave. It's possible that she also laid Nest #16 about two weeks which is also located now at 31st Avenue.

After seeing "sharkbite" and her several false crawls it was great to see her actually stay in one place and dig a nest. We sort of held our breath until she actually started to drop eggs in the hole she had carefully dug. We waited for the morning beach patrol, Sis Nunnally to find the nest and located the eggs, and relocated the nest to a good dune at 31st Ave. This turtle wandered around the beach for several nights and our job was made a lot easier this morning since we had seen her actually lay the nest.

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Busy times for the Turtle Team...Turtles on the beach at night, nests hatching, and inventories in the early morning.

. This season we have seen the same turtle on the beach several times at approximately 2 week intervals. She has wandered all over the northern end of the island, but have yet to see her actually lay a nest. We know it is the same turtle because of the dramatic injury to the back end of her carapace. We do not know for sure what has caused this injury, but a good guess is she got attacked by a large predator such as a shark. The wound is totally healed and she looks healthy. She is chubby and her carapace and skin, for the most part are free of barnacles. We hope to see her again this time actually laying a nest.

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The first Ocean Point nest had been dribbling out hatchlings every
night and morning since Monday night. What a relief to find that only
11 eggs didn't develop and to find 13 healthy hatchlings still in the
nest who scooted into the water on the outgoing tide there. This
means 93% hatch success and 84% emergence success - darn good! As you may or may not know,
the current DNA sample eggshell we're collecting from each nest
indicates that this same turtle went on up to Bull Island in Cape
Romain and laid her second nest on June 5th approximately two weeks
after this one on our beach. Interesting that they spread their
nesting attempts so far apart. We hope to find out where her other
June & July nests were laid.

Click on the Island Turtle Team button on the top of this page for information on all of the nests.

Yesterday morning we were pleased that this summer Sea Turtle Hospital interns and a Turtle Hospital volunteer joined us for the inventories. They only got to see one hatchling, but seemed pleased none the less.

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Nest #5 continues to amaze us with its morning activity. When Barb Gobien checked it this morning, she saw a turtle's head sticking out. Shortly after 8:00 the turtles were coming out of the nest in the bright sunshine. This is so unusual for loggerheads who are supposed to emerge from the nest at night.

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This morning Elaine Schupp, Sandra McLean, and Beverly Blalock were walking and Elaine spotted tracks in front of 302 Ocean Blvd. near the 3rd Ave path. This turtle finished nesting before the tide was high around 1 a.m. She made her body pit below the spring tide line, however, so with September storms in mind we moved her 80 eggs onto a nearby dune. This is only the second nest to be laid in the southern section of the Isle of Palms.

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Just before dark last night thirteen hatchlings came out of Nest #2 at Access Path 35A. They got to the water without help because they could see the ocean in the daylight. But after that we discovered 6 more hatchlings at the surface that were dead. We are concerned about these and don't know what we will find at the inventory.

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Mary Pringle got a call from the morning beach patrol that there was a dead hatchling on top of the nest. Bev Ballow and Barb Gobien quickly got out to the beach to find the little hatchling was NOT dead. They helped it down the beach and into the water. By then another hatchling was on the surface. Mary Alice Monroe and Barb Bergwerf along with the "moms" of the nest made it out in time to see about 21 more hatchling come to the surface. It was getting later and later and the sun was heating up the nest and the hatchlings so it was decided to walk the little guys part way down the beach.

Once the hatchings hit the beach, they marched directly to the ocean...steering a bit toward the rising sun. In no time at all they were on their way to the gulf stream. This nest was not moved so we do not know the number of eggs laid, but we expect more to emerge over the next couple of nights.

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At 10:45 tonight Nest #1 at 2nd Avenue boiled over and 57 out of the
62 hatchlings made it to the water. Inventory will be held on
Wednesday morning at 7 a.m.

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We got a call that there was an egg sitting, on top of one of the nests on Sullivans. The turtle team went out to investigate and thankfully it was someone's idea of a joke placing a rock hard white ball, about the size of an egg, on top on the nest. We retrieved the ball and waited for Linda, a Sullivans Turtle Team member, to get out to the beach. We couldn't resist playing a joke on her....she made a great catch and is a great sport!

After having two false crawls on their Thursday walks, Sue Googer, Jane Powers, and Barbara Allen finally struck it rich this morning. Very long tracks led up onto the primary dune (and behind it) near Access Path 33A. The turtle first tried to dig in a very root filled area and left an open hole there, crawled over and behind the dune, and finally laid eggs right on the high front edge of the primary dune before crawling back out to sea. We did not have to move the nest and marked it to incubate in situ.

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I apologize for the website being down for these past weeks. Well, we are back and below is a sort of collage of what we've been up to. We have gone from a total of 4 nests on Sullivan's and Isle of Palms to a total of 19. There are about 5 weeks left in the nesting part of our season and from now on the site should be updated as the nests are laid. We are hoping to get to at least 25 nests.....if our "girls" keep coming back!

Photo Log: Island Turtle Team

Isle of Palms/Sullivans Island

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Click on Island Turtle Team for nest Statistics

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Nest # 4 on Isle of Palms

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Nest #s 2 & 3 for Isle of Palms

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NEST #3 Ocean Point

First Nest for the Isle of Palms

False Crawl - the body pit is not wide enough

Nest #1 The body pit is wide and there is thrown sand. You can see where the turtle turned and covered up her nest.

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Photo Log: Island Turtle Team

Isle of Palms/Sullivans Island

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Click on Island Turtle Team for nest Statistics

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Nest # 4 on Isle of Palms

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Nest #s 2 & 3 for Isle of Palms

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NEST #3 Ocean Point

First Nest for the Isle of Palms

False Crawl - the body pit is not wide enough Nest #1 The body pit is wide and there is thrown sand. You can see where the turtle turned and covered up her nest. Click on Thumbnails to Enlarge

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False Crawl - the body pit is not wide enough

Nest #1 The body pit is wide and there is thrown sand. You can see where the turtle turned and covered up her nest.

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