Mid-Season Sea Turtle Report
By Peggy Deneau
It is now nearing the peak of the sea turtle nesting season, which runs through
August. Occasionally, we will get a nest in September. If we do, it would most
likely be the nest of a green turtle, as they tend to nest later in the season than
loggerheads. Their nests look very different, and are much higher on the beach.
As of this writing in early July, we now have three new loggerhead sea turtle
nests, for a total of six in Pine Knoll Shores. All were laid before the end of June.
Nest #4 was found by the Turtle Patrol on June 10. Nest #5 was discovered on June
17 by volunteers Jayne Keifer and Marty and Terry McCabe. This nest, like Nest #2,
had to be moved due to its proximity to the high tide line. Marty and Terry moved
the eggs while I created the “new nest.”
Nest #6 was discovered by a tourist on the night of June 29. A man was headed
out with his sons for some night fishing, and ended up watching a mother
loggerhead nest. He took some photos and notified the police, who in turn notified
us. When we arrived the next morning, volunteer Barbara Prutzman located the
eggs and helped to mark off the nest.
By the time you are reading this in early August, we will have begun making our
runways and sitting the nests. We kept a watch on Hurricane Chris off our shore
in early July, hoping it would spare the nests from tidal woes, and also watched
Hurricane Beryl, hoping it wouldn’t come our way. Neither storm caused a problem
for the nests.
In the next article, weather permitting, there should be some good hatching
results to report from our first nests of the summer.
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Top: Terry McCabe carries eggs from Nest #5 to their new nest in a safer location. Below:
Marty McCabe (kneeling) measures the crawl from the same nest as Peggy Deneau records
the numbers.—Photos by Jayne Keifer
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18 . TJi^.Shofjeline I August 2018