Photo Log: Island Turtle Team
Isle of Palms/Sullivans Island
Click on Island Turtle Team for nest Statistics
Last nest hatches on Sullivans Island with an 88.5% success
Sept 17,2009
The nest at Station 23 has hatched. The hatchlings came out in a matter of minutes. This was a night with no moon and at low tide, so the turtle team transported the 100+ hatchlings closer to the water in order to get them on their way safely. Three days later the nest was inventoried. Out of the 122 eggs laid there were only 14 unhatched. There were also three live hatchlings that were escorted to the water by the turtle team. These little guys got a lot of attention.
The Two Nests at 6th Hatch
Sept 5,2009
The first nest at 6th Ave.started to emerge before the sun set. after about two dozen hatchlings made there way down the beach, it took hours before the rest emerged. The other nest emerged during a heavy rain and the turtle team missed this one
Both nests were inventoried together with great hatch success rates of 91.7% and 94.5%
Three Inventories in One Day
August 21, 2009
Three nests were due for inventory on Saturday. A group from the SC Aquarium travelled out to the Isle of Palms to observe and inventory. All of the hatchlings had made it out of the nest and the aquarium folks were invited to Sullivans to watch our second inventory of the morning. The nest at Station 28 was laid high on a dune and was difficult to find. The sand had built up and it was quite an adventure for the turtle team to find.
"Bill" causes high tides on the Isle of Palms and Sullivans
August 21, 2009
Beachside Nest Hatches
August 17, 2009
Our turtles at Beachside didn't come out until 12:30am. Sitting in the dark, waiting for the sand to move the turtle team waited for hours for the hatchlings to emerge. (Photos taken with an infrared digitial camera) The lights from Sea Cabins were so bright and the tide was so low that we made the decision to bag them and carry them up to 21st. Avenue hoping they'd go the right way. Even with this tactic, they didn't want to go to the light in the water. It took an hour to get those contrary little guys all in. We kept finding them in the dunes. It was very stressful. If we had not been there, We're sure they would have died in the dunes.
Last Nest Laid at 6th Ave.....Maybe
August 11, 2009
The turtle who did a false crawl in Breach Inlet on the IOP side on Sunday night came back and laid eggs at 6th Avenue last night. Her tracks were distinctive because the front and rear flipper claw marks were very close in the spaces between them - just like the ones at Breach Inlet - same neighborhood too. Barb Bergwerf, Barb Gobien, and the Diamond family from Chicago were out looking for her and saw her covering her nest and going back to the water at about 11:45. She found a good elevated spot right on the ocean side of the primary dune. We only wish more of them had done this in 2009. The nest is just NE of the 6th Avenue path and probably won't hatch until mid October. Carey Barati and Chaunci Pirhalla will help protect it.
Nests at 53rd are done
August 5, 2009
Starting on August 1st the nests at 53rd Ave. started to hatch
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On August 5 both nests were inventoried. A total of 279 eggs were laid in these two nests. Of those 279 eggs, there were a total of 250 empty egg shells and 28 live hatchlings were released unto the beach and protected going into the water. All of these little guys were caught under the hatched eggs and tangled in roots. They were all healthy and ready to go. It is doubtful they would have been able to get out of the nest without the inventory.
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Nest Inventories Start
July 25, 2009
Three days after the initial hatch, the Turtle Team conducts an inventory of the nest. At that time the team records the number of successfully hatched eggs for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resouces. Check out the Island Turtle Team Nest Statistics.
Nest Number 2 Hatches and Nest Number 21 for IOP
July 25, 2009
Lots of turtle activity during the night. The first thing that happened was that Anne Royall and Cheryl Burns found that a loggerhead with unusual sized tracks crawled under the boardwalk at 212 Ocean Blvd. These tracks were very old and windblown with rain on them as well, indicating that they were made early in the night just after high tide. We probed in the turnaround spot under the low boardwalk and determined that no eggs were there. Judy Ewing, Rita Oden, and Sis Nunnally called about tracks at 39th Avenue and these turned out to be the same unusual ones we had seen at 2nd Avenue (? same turtle). Bev found 92 eggs there below the very high spring tide line. The clutch was only a couple of inches deep and the turtle evidently broke two of them when she covered it up. This nest was probably laid just before 6 a.m. The broken eggs were not in a spot that was probed, but just next to it. So 90 eggs were moved to a suitable dune near the 38A path.
Judy also reported a large "turtle crater" at Nest #2 at 45th Avenue that has had active digging noise for several nights. It appeared that the hatchlings came out just before dawn. Many had travelled two blocks south in the soft sand in front of the primary dune toward the city's skyglow. But then at 43rd Avenue they began to turn toward the water as if the lightening dawn sky caused all of them to finally turn into the ocean. A man had seen several on the beach in the morning and had helped them get to the water.
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Nest Number 4 Hatches Early
July 22, 2009
The estimated time for nest #4 to hatch was July 28th - August 1. The turtles had other plans. When Tee Johannes went out with the sound machine to check the nest, what she found were tiny little heads poking up through the sand.
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Nest 20 on Sullivans
July 23, 2009
A beautiful morning on Sullivans Island and a very busy time for the Turtle Team. Danny Massie and Howard Stone both reported tracks 3 doors northeast of the Station 23 Access Path this morning. The large lagoon that had been there has mostly disappeared but still exists at Station 22, and the turtle was able to find a nesting spot. However, she did not make it above the spring tide line and the nest probably would have been flooded during incubation. We were able to find 122 eggs which were left at that location but moved to the primary dune. These will probably hatch in mid September depending on the weather.
Nest 19 for Isle of Palms
July 16, 2009
Marilyn Colen and Jan Tucker along with Marilyn's dog, Whitney, found a false crawl at about 55th Avenue and then more tracks at the north end of Beachwood East. Both looked like false crawls, but the one at Beachwood did have a disturbed area with thrown sand and the incoming and outgoing track lengths were different, indicating she stayed long enough to nest. Bev found 108 eggs which were just landward of the scarped dune in the wide and flat washover area of beach that was renourished last season. These eggs were relocated to a dune just south of Access Path 31A because of the suitability of the beach there for the hatchlings.
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Nest 18 for Isle of Palms
July 12, 2009
On July 12th tracks were found in front of 108 Ocean Blvd which is in Breach Inlet. Because of the very high spring tide line there and the dangerous inlet currents, we moved 147 eggs to the site of yesterday's nest in front of 606 Ocean Blvd to a safe dune. We believe this was the same turtle who false crawled twice at Station 26 1/2 and Sta. 27 on Sullivan's one day before this. Her flipper claw marks were very indistinct. Pam Jones and Elizabeth Rast will be in charge of protecting this nest.
Nest 17 for Isle of Palms
July 11, 2009
Another nest was laid right at the 18th green near Ocean Club Villas last night (July 10). This turtle laid 121 eggs that needed relocation because of the unstable dune and erosion/scarping that is taking place on that point of land that was renourished last season. Perhaps that sand fencing will create some dunes in the future. Nancy Evans and Allyson Lutz really served their time in 2008 (their first season) by agreeing to patrol the north end during the renourishment work. This was a real chore and the turtles did not nest there last year. However, Nancy and Allyson, both from Mt. Pleasant, have persevered and were rewarded today with their first nest. Because we have used up just about all of the suitable sites at Ocean Point for relocating eggs, we moved this one to 606 Ocean Blvd. where there are good dunes but no nests yet this season.
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Another nest for Sullivans Island .
July 9, 2009
Caroline Nordquist and Marti Lupinski found tracks near Station 25 on Thursday July 9. At first they thought it might be a false crawl, but it was confirmed by the Team that there were indeed eggs in it. Since they were on a high dune, they were not relocated. Caroline was thrilled because after 6 years on the Team, this was her very first nest! Meanwhile, her husband, Don, found another set of tracks that were different in size and appearance in front of the Lighthouse. These tracks did not go above the spring tide line and the turtle did not do any digging, just turned around and went back to the ocean. These tracks appeared to be from the same turtle that crawled at Station 22 on June 23rd - 16 days earlier without laying. This is the 5th false crawl for Sullivan's and the 16th for our two islands. The Nest at Station 25 is marked as #16 (for both islands) even though it is #3 for Sullivan's
IOP Hatchlings About Year Old.
July 4, 2009
Last summer the Island Turtle Team was asked to collect 4 healthy hatchlings for the SC Aquarium. Since then I have been photographing these little guys every month or so. These pictures were taken on a 1 inch grid paper in order to compare their growth over time. They are not yet a year old but the comparison of one of the cute little guys is amazing. I'm sure their rapid rate of growth in the first year is nature's way of giving them a chance at survival.
Another nest in Wild Dunes.
July 3, 2009
Another Ocean Point nest this morning. This one was found by Susan Garcia along the 17th fairway in front of #58 Ocean Point Drive. The turtle was blocked by the new sand fencing but managed to find her way to the opening between sections and crawled up against the old scarp to nest. Because of the recently added renourished sand, we felt that this nest was far enough out of harm's way to be left where it was laid. So it was marked and an extra piece of orange tape was put at the edge of the fairway to keep golfers from stepping on the nest if they should come down onto the beach to look for golf balls.
Nest #14 for IOP
June 29, 2009
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Suzanne Geraghty and Linda Faia found tracks and a body pit in front of the houses near the Ocean Point pool and 18th fairway of the Wild Dunes links golf course this morning after having false crawls in that same area before. This one yielded 135 eggs that were moved a little higher at the same location because they were in the erosion and flood prone area of last year's renourishment project right at the north point of the island. The nest is now right next to the sand fencing that was put up along the golf course.
Loggerhead False Crawls at the County Park
A 300lb. Loggerhead was in the dunes for hours.
June 26, 2009
We usually don�t include false crawls on the website, but this one was really amazing. Last night just after high tide, a big loggerhead crawled over the primary dune at the first Beachside house north of the pier and went behind the primary dune into the thick vegetation. This morning Glenn Rhodes and Lois Klein were the first to find a SINGLE track there, showing that she had not returned to the ocean. Mary Beth Heeke and Allyson Lutz also came upon the scene along with Kathey O'Connor and Grace Rhodes. When we got there, we followed the broken and mashed trail way back behind the tertiary dune line and found the huge female under the deck where the County Park showers are.
She seemed lethargic and exhausted after being there most of the night. We called the IOP Fire Department for help to carry her over the dunes, but by the time they arrived Nicholas Johannes had poured several buckets of ocean water over her back and this seemed to revive her. She started crawling, went over all of the vegetated dunes, and finally made it back out to the ocean! There was only one possible spot where she could have laid eggs, but it was determined to be a false crawl. It was marked and we will check it for hatchling digging noises starting on August 17th just in case.
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Second Nest for Sullivan's Island
June 25, 2009
A turtle nested on a beautiful high dune at Station 28. Eve Gentieu heard about the tracks third hand and reported them to us. This one did not have to be relocated and was marked where it was laid. The body pit was rather flat and strange looking with no mounds that are usually made when a turtle covers her nest, but the eggs were found. The outgoing track was much longer than the incoming one, showing us that she was there for a rather long time laying those eggs.
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Nest #11 and #12 have to be relocated
June 23, 2009
Looks like the same two turtles who laid Nests #1 and #2 are still synchronized. They waited 15 days to make their first return visit (Nests #7 and #8) and 16 days to make their second return trip for Nests #11 and #12. The very high perigeal spring tide last night came all the way to the dunes and then a turtle laid her eggs near Sand Dunes Lane at the Beachside houses. John and Anne Bauer and Elaine Griffeth were patrolling the beach this morning. It's a fitting birthday present for John to find his first nest today! There were 108 eggs that were relocated from within the sticks at the spring tide wrack line to a higher dune two doors north of the nest location.
Cindy Bergstrom and Courtney Edwards (Dina's daughter) also found tracks on the beach near the 18th green of the Links Course in Wild Dunes. This turtle tried to nest on the previous night - same track abnormality, but ran into a sand fence and stopped. This time she laid 109 eggs which were quickly located by Tee Johannes. Since the sand fence has not produced any dunes yet, and the area is flat and washed over from time to time, these eggs were placed near the other nests in the dunes at Ocean Point.
A third turtle came ashore at Station 22 on Sullivan's Island. Her tracks went a long distance and through a gully of standing water there before she wandered back to the ocean. Let's hope she'll return. We've had 4 false crawls on Sullivan's since the first nest was laid there on June 2nd.
Turtle lays nest in Dewees Inlet
June 18, 2009
This morning we got a late call from someone in Wild Dunes that there were tracks near the power lines that cross over to Dewees Island. We found tracks very close to where Nest #3 was laid on May 24th. This turtle probably nested on Dewees Island two weeks after that and then this could have been her 3rd clutch of eggs laid last night on the Cedar Creek Spit. After the heavy rain at around 7 a.m. the field signs were very hard to read, but we managed to find the nest of 141 eggs. They were moved to the dunes along the 18th fairway at Ocean Point near the boardwalk where Nests # 3 and #9 are located. The spit where they were laid is a narrow strip between the inlet and Cedar Creek and has been washed over in the past. Another problem is that hatchlings emerging on an incoming tide would have a hard time finding the ocean and would be swept behind the island into the marsh. Many thanks again to Nancy Houser for transporting us and the eggs on her golf cart. Brenda Uttaro and Diane Goff will be in charge of protecting this nest.
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A Tale of Nests #7 & #8 Found before the Storm
June 7, 2009
We believe the same two turtles who laid Nests #1 and #2 fifteen days ago came back last night and laid eggs again in the same general area but just a little farther north in Wild Dunes. Track measurements were in the same range and normal for loggerheads. One did a false crawl at the south end of Dunecrest Lane before coming up again in front of #6 Dunecrest and laying 149 eggs behind the high berm of renourished sand. Susan Daley found tracks that wandered over 300 yards because the turtle could not see the ocean from her nest and went the wrong way. She went behind the small primary dune line almost all the way to the Property Owner's Beach House before finally going back to the ocean. These eggs were relocated to a suitable dune at 53rd Avenue.
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Jeanne Robinson was also patrolling this section and found tracks at 54th Avenue with a body pit below the spring high tide line. Just as the sky opened up and heavy rain soaked us all, this nest was also relocated to a suitable dune at 53rd Ave. and the count was 130 eggs. These two nests will likely hatch at the same time just as these same two turtles' previous nests which are at 45th Avenue. The nests were placed about 15 yards apart just south of the 53rd Avenue beach access path.
It will be interesting to see if the turtle who laid nest #3 in Dewees Inlet one night later comes back on schedule tonight. She might nest on Dewees Island instead. Time will tell.
First Nest for Sullivans Island
June 2, 2009
Sullivan's Island has its first loggerhead nest of the season. Hannah Heyward was on patrol and found the tracks near Station 14. Then Ruth Baldwin and her children Rhett and Merritt came along as well. The turtle laid 139 eggs right at the tide line where there are plenty of spartina sticks. Erene located the clutch and she and Mary Alice moved the eggs to a dune close to that spot. One egg was found broken in the middle of the clutch but the other 138 are due to hatch early in August. We left the tracks on the beach since the nest is still in that general location.
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Nest Number 5 at 41st Ave.
May 29, 2009
Bob Clarke, out on his bike before 6AM this morning, found short tracks from a turtle who nested near high tide three doors south of the 41st Avenue path this morning. She had crawled on a nice high dune and laid her eggs. She laid so many that they were almost at the surface, but then she mounded lots of sand on top of them, so we did not dig them up to relocate the clutch. We marked the surrounding sticks with dotted lines showing the height of the sand in the mound and will need to monitor the sand level during incubation to make sure it doesn't get low and expose the eggs.
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Nest Number 4 at 27th Ave
May 28, 2009
The first nest was laid in the 9th to 30th Avenue section at about 1:30 this morning. Sgt. Jimenez of the IOPPD called to say that a turtle was just coming out of the water. She crawled up onto the primary dune facing the water very close to the 27th Avenue Access Path. She dropped so many eggs that we feared she would overflow the egg chamber and break some. However, she stopped just in time and spent quite a while covering before crawling to the water. Her shell measured 108 cms and was 101 cms wide. It took her 1 1/2 hours to complete the process. Grace Rhodes was first to come upon the tracks in the morning, followed shortly by Emily Dziuban and Amy Wilkerson. We did not use probe sticks because we were afraid of puncturing an egg since there were so many and so close to the surface. We put a little extra sand over them and marked the nest to incubate in situ.
Nest Number 3 at Ocean Point in Wild Dunes
May 24, 2009
The first nest at the north end this morning. A turtle nested farther into Dewees Inlet than any that have been documented by us. She was well past the Seagrass Lane boardwalk where our walkers usually stop looking, but fortunately Mary Owczarek of 14 Seagrass Lane spotted the tracks and called. Since the nest was in a dangerous spot too far into the inlet as well as on a narrow spit between Cedar Creek and the ocean, the nest of 140 eggs was relocated to a dune near the Ocean Point boardwalk and will be protected by Nancy Houser and Andrea Roth who patrolled that section today. We appreciated Nancy's help with the golf cart in the pouring rain during the relocation process!
Nest Number 1 at 45th Ave and Number 2 in Wild Dunes
May 23, 2009
Judy Ewing, Sis Nunnally and Rita Oden
The first call came from Rita Oden when she, Sis Nunnally, and Judy Ewing discovered tracks at the 45th Ave. access path that went over a palmetto log and continued up into the dunes. We found the body pit with confirmed eggs in the path from one house just beyond 45th Ave. but since foot traffic will be low, we left the nest alone and marked it there. Then another call came from Cara and Tom Brown who had also found tracks and a body pit in front of the first house at the Seagrove end of Beachwood East in Wild Dunes. The sand here was pumped in from offshore last summer, so the consistency was courser and looser than normal, but Barb probed and quickly found a huge clutch of 145 eggs! Since this area is likely to be washed over by high tides, Bev and I relocated the eggs about 100 feet from Nest #1 near the 45th Ave.
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