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2005 Nesting
Season
Nest 1
•
Nest 2 •
Nest 3 •
Nest
4
End of Season Summary
The following is a
summary of sea turtle nesting in Georgia,
as reported by Mark Dodd,
Sea Turtle Coordinator with the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources. These are not yet official
numbers but an estimate only.
|
Island |
Loggerhead
Nests |
Leatherback
Nests |
Green Turtle
Nests |
Kemp's Ridley
Nests |
|
Tybee |
4 |
|
|
|
|
Little Tybee |
6 |
|
|
|
|
Wassaw |
104 |
1 |
|
1 |
|
Ossabaw |
217 |
|
1 |
|
|
St. Catherines |
115 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
Blackbeard |
197 |
1 |
|
|
|
Sapelo |
102 |
|
|
|
|
L. St. Simons |
38 |
|
|
|
|
Sea |
51 |
|
|
|
|
St. Simons |
2 |
|
|
|
|
Jekyll |
118 |
|
|
|
|
L. Cumberland |
21 |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland |
230 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
1205 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
|
Nesting on Tybee
Nest 1 - Relocated to 7th Street,
Hatched July 27, 2005
Rob McLellan found the first sea
turtle nest of the season on June 1, 2005. |
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|
Each morning starting
in May, a trained sea turtle volunteer walks the full
length of Tybee Beach at sunrise. "Dawn patrol"
volunteers are looking for sea turtle tracks, as seen
here, so that TIMSC staff can identify where nests are
located on the island.
The volunteer
reports back to the Sea Turtle Project Coordinator, Lara
Griffith. If tracks are found, Lara verifies if
the sea turtle nested or if it is a false crawl.
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Female loggerheads usually crawl
ashore during the night to lay their nests. On the
morning of June 1, Rob had the rare experience of not
just finding turtle tracks, but the female loggerhead
was still nesting at 7:45 am!
As Rob describes the experience, "I
was coming around a bend in an area with a lot of dunes.
It is not where you would expect to find a nest.
But when I looked at my feet all I saw was a huge eye
and a yellow beak." |
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|
 |
When
Lara Griffith and Kristin Bartoo, TIMSC Marine Educator,
arrived on site, neither expected to find a nest because
the "body pit" was in the dunes, practically on top of
the sand fence.
With the rain pouring down, Lara
quickly found the eggs. Although nests are
relocated as a last resort only, this nest would
certainly be washed out by the high tide if left alone.
If a nest is washed over more than three times, the eggs
will cease development. |
|
A total of 119 eggs were carefully
removed from the nest and transported to a new nest site
near 7th Street. Lara was careful not to change
the orientation of each egg because this could interrupt
development.
The new nest was created to be
similar in depth and size to the original nest created
by the turtle. Once completed, the nest is marked
off and a sign informs visitors that the area is a
federally protected sea turtle nest site. |
 |
|
 |
For the next two months, volunteers
will check this site for any signs of disturbance during
the early morning patrols.
The average length of incubation
is 60 days, so the expected hatch date for Nest 1 is
July 31. Possible hatch dates range from July 21
through August 15. At the end of this time period,
the nest will be excavated to record additional
information about the nest, including how many turtles
hatched. |
|
Update: On the morning of July 27, Linda
Wright excitedly reported seeing tiny turtle tracks
around Nest 1 during her dawn patrol. Following
the call, Lara Griffith carefully attempted to count
each individual track to estimate how many turtles
emerged. Twelve tracks were followed down towards
the ocean. These turtles appeared to find their
way to the ocean with little disorientation from
artificial lighting.
Unfortunately following this first hatch, some
unidentified predation occurred later that morning.
Six to seven egg shells were found scattered around the
nest. |
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|
 |
The nest was excavated approximately
5 days later. Each nest is excavated to count how
many eggs hatched and to record how many eggs didn't
hatch and the stage of development. This
information is important to the overall nest monitoring
project by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Twenty turtles hatched from Nest 1. All
but four of the eggs that did not hatch were at an early
stage of development. |
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Nest 2 -
Beachside Colony, Hatched July 29, 2005
|
|
 |
A lucky visitor witnessed this female
loggerhead crawl ashore well past dawn on the morning of
August 3. Remembering an article read in the Tybee
Breeze, this visitor tracked down Jessica Farthing, Sea
Turtle Project volunteer. She in turn contacted
Lara Griffith, Sea Turtle Project Coordinator.
Four TIMSC staff members, along
with a handful of people on the beach, watched as this
female completed her nest and returned to the sea.
|
|
The nest was located safely above the
high tide line. The challenge for this location,
however, is the placement in front of the numerous
condos at Beachside Colony and the new Sea Dawgs
Surfside.
By instinct, hatchlings follow
the brightest light to find the ocean. On an
undeveloped island, the horizon is always a little
brighter over the water. This is not always the case on
Tybee Island. |
 |
|
 |
TIMSC staff will work closely with
these two businesses on Tybee to educate visitors about
the importance of turning off their lights, particularly
during the end of the incubation period.
This nest is expected to hatch on
August 3, 2005. The nest, however, could hatch any
time between July 24 through August 18. |
|
Update: On the evening of July 29, two
volunteers, Tammy Smith and Monica Bailey arrived at
Nest 2 to find a small opening in the nest area.
With careful examination, they observed tiny sea turtle
heads just below the surface. Word spread quickly
and a number of volunteers and TIMSC staff were on site
when 42 hatchlings bubbled up from the sand. It
was about 9:45 pm and many lights were still on at the
beach front businesses. The hatchlings were
clearly misoriented, crawling towards the condos and
restaurant. The turtles moved quickly and were
soon spread out in all directions. Staff and
volunteers gathered the hatchlings and carried them down
to the ocean's edge. The instinct was so strong to
follow the brightest light, volunteers had to stand in
the ocean pointing a flashlight down to allow the
hatchlings to crawl at least a few steps into the surf.
The last hatchling was brought back to the beach after
some visitors found it in the parking lot! Luckily
volunteers were on site when this nest hatched or most
of the hatchlings would have been lost to predators or
exhaustion. |
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Nest
3 - 9th Street, Unknown
hatch date
|
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These tracks led to Nest 3 on Tybee
Island. George Anne Inglis, Roberta Chadwick,
Sandi Postle, and Lauren Davis reported the tracks to
TIMSC on the morning of July 11. Kristin Bartoo
verified the nest. A great big thank you to all of these
ladies for their great work!
The expected hatch date is
September 9, 2005. The nest could actually hatch any
time between August 30 through September 24. |
 |
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Update: Although TIMSC staff
and volunteers never observed hatching activity from
this nest, when Lara excavated Nest 3, she discovered 40
hatchlings out of 85 eggs emerged from the nest at some
time during the incubation period. |
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Nest
4 - Relocated to 8th St.,
Hatched September 13 - 19, 2005
|
|
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Can you see the tracks and body pit
in this picture? Kellie Lewis and Lara Griffith
verified Nest 4, following a call from the Tybee
Department of Public Works. Thank you DPW!
Another nest in front of Beachside
Colony, TIMSC staff and volunteers will watch this one
closely during the expected hatch range from September
13 through October 9. |
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As Tropical Storm/Hurricane Ophelia
sat off of Georgia's coast, Lara kept a close eye on
Tybee's remaining two nests to ensure they were not
washed out by the extremely high tides. Erosion
continued to creep closer to Nest 4 until on July 9, the
high tide finally washed over the nest. With
permission from GA DNR, Lara, Kristin, and Michael Hall,
Sea Turtle Volunteer, carefully moved this nest to a
safe location near 8th Street. |
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Update: Nest 4 both surprised
and excited TIMSC staff and volunteers by first hatching
on day 50! Sissy Farley, Sea Turtle Volunteer, and her
son were sitting with Nest 3 on the evening of September
13. At one point in the evening, they decided to
check on Nest 4 when they found sea turtle hatchlings
crawling towards them. Sixty two hatchlings
crawled into the ocean that night. Over the next
several days, a few turtles emerged each night. By
day 6, 75 hatchlings had safely emerged from the nest.
One single turtle was found still alive in the nest and
was released on the morning of the excavation.
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Would you like to
name one of Tybee's sea turtle hatchlings? Check out our
Adoption
Page! |
