Wow! Nests 13, 14, 15 & 16

Wow! A busy morning as nests 13, 14, 15 and 16 were found along with some false crawls.

Turtle Patrol member Charlane Faught, who was out taking an early morning walk with friends, reported a crawl near Boardwalk 6. Bill and Eileen Middleton were called to probe and found Nest  13, which was moved to higher ground. Eileen Middleton dug the new nest for the 124 eggs with the help of Charlane and her friends.

Walkers Chris Palmer, his niece and Lucy Hoover located a crawl with distinct in and out tracks and a large body pit near the old Danger sign just beyond the Camp St. Christopher buildings. Bill Greubel was called to investigate and quickly found the nest. He determined that Nest 14 would not need to be relocated.

Walkers: Terry Fansler; Callie and her father Mike Bobbaccio; Brenda Zach; Chris Czander; Gloria Reynolds & Anna Wechter  turned the corner at the Club pool to the view of three new crawls. About 300 yards yards up the beach a crawl probed by Bill Nelson resulted in Nest 15 which was buttoned up by Linda Nelson and the Walker crew and left in situ.  A little farther up the beach at the south property line of the yellow house the third crawl resulted in Nest 16. Bill Greubel came to help Bill Nelson and found the nest way up on the hill in the middle of an ants nest.  Bill Greubel quickly extracted the eggs and exited to the water to eliminate the many ants attacking him.  Bill Nelson, with the help of Brenda Zach, placed the eggs in a new nest about 10 yards towards the water and away from the ants.  Callie Boccaccio (age 8) joined Brenda and, with the supervision of Terry Fansler, they finished placing the last 25 eggs in the new nest. 

There were also 4 false crawls that were investigated. A busy morning and hopefully we will have more days like this! Thank you to all the Walkers, Probers and friends who helped.

Nest 13

Nest 14

Nest 15

Nest 16

Nest 12

Walkers; Paula Baram, Heather Fife, Charlane Faught and Brad Masteller reported a crawl near the second house under construction north of the Pelican's Nest. Bill and Linda Nelson probed and found the nest with 123 eggs. Two of the eggs right at the top were broken by crabs which had dug a hole to explore this brand new nest. One of these eggs was used for DNA testing and 121 were relocated to a designated spot about 100 feet away.

 Walkers, Lesley and Tony Gore, Carol Lovejoy, Bill and Susan Miller called about 2 crawls. One was near the vehicle entrance at Camp St. Christopher, the other about 200 yards down the beach. Terry Fansler, Jane Magioncalda and Mike Vincent probed. Terry said both areas look like Swiss Cheese; but no eggs were found at either crawl. They speculate that the wrack in both areas could have deterred the mamas.

 Jim and Jo Eisenhouer and Kathy Hanson called in with a crawl between Boardwalks 4 and 5.   Bill and Linda Nelson responded but as was their first impression, this was a false crawl that never went above the super tide high tide line.  

Nests 10 & 11 !

The morning started with a promising call from Walkers Pat & Val Luzadder, Christine Dudzik & Tom Lamb. There was a crawl (just like last Tuesday) right up the access road to Camp St. Christopher. This time the mama dug right in the center of the road. Terry Fansler, Jane Magioncalda, Mike Vincent and Bill Greubel investigated and Bill found the nest on his first probe! Nest 10 contained 118 eggs; 117 were relocated to a new site 50 yards north of the vehicle entrance.  

Walkers Ruby Jenkins, Lori Porwoll, Pam Salvestrini, Francie Segal & Lynda Zegers called in a crawl about 125 yards north of Boardwalk 1. In a few more minutes they called in another crawl 20 yards north of the first dog sign. When the probers arrived, they decided the first was a false crawl and the second turned out to be Nest 11. The nest was left in situ.

Nests 8 & 9!

It was a great morning on the beach.  We have Nests 8 and 9!

Joleen Ardaiolo, Bev Stribling, and Nancy and Joel Pondelik's long walk was rewarded with a crawl near the old pier at Camp St Christopher.  Valerie and Mark Doane responded and found Nest 9.  It was left in situ.

Catherine Scully, Sue Thomas, Gary Holtz, Rob Jerome and Mike Vinson had the real treat of the morning.  As they got between Boardwalks 2 and 3, they noticed an “in” crawl but no corresponding “out” crawl. Walkers along with other people on the beach were able to watch a mother turtle finish laying her eggs and return to the water. Judy Morr called out Bill Nelson who found the nest where the earlier observers said it would be and the team went to work.  Rob Jerome found the top egg in the nest only a couple of inches from the surface and the team (Mike Vinson, Gary Holtz, Sue Thomas, Rob Jerome and Catherine Scully along with Rob’s sister Ruth) went to work moving the 141 eggs to an area about 40 yards below Boardwalk 4.  

Nest 7

Walkers on North Beach reported a crawl just north of Boardwalk 1.The Doanes were called to investigate. They probed the crawl with the assistance of Jane Magioncalda and our 7th nest was found. The 115 eggs were relocated to a safer area. Walkers today were Jane Magioncalda, Joe Ficarra, Laura Logan, Amanda Shilko and John Woychick. They also enjoyed watching at least 50 Pelicans "fishing" in one of the large tidal pools. It was a great morning for this group!

Amanda Shilko, Laura Logan, Jane Magioncalda, John Woychick and Joe Ficarra