Last summer, I wrote about sea turtles and their role on the islands here. It’s nesting time again in the Carolinas, so when I was walking the beach the other day, I stumbled across three nests all within a short distance of our house. I love seeing those nests, nests that remind me that it’s summertime on the island.
Here are two of the nests I found, taped off to help protect them until the eggs hatch.
On many of the islands, like ours, workers or volunteers walk the beach in the mornings, looking for signs of nests that have been laid over night.
Signs include tracks, like the ones above, the mother leaves after depositing her eggs in the sand. If evidence of a nest is found, the area is marked so people are especially careful about not disturbing it.
We stumbled upon a fourth nearby nest at night while walking the next night, and we noticed the sand in front of the nest had been raked down to the ocean. This means the nest is getting ready to hatch, so a path is cleared to encourage hatchlings to move toward the sea rather than getting disoriented or distracted by lights and moving in another direction.
The boys and I went back the next evening to take these pictures. I’m told nests often hatch at dusk, so we lingered for a while, in case we could capture a hatching. We once had a nest one house over from ours, and the nest hatched while we were out of town, a disappointment I’ve yet to shake. Unfortunately, these hatchlings didn’t cooperate with my schedule either.
One of these days, it will happen. I might be an octogenarian before I get my timing right, but it will happen. And then, all the world will know that I’ve witnessed a hatching.
Be prepared.
Very interesting – I’d like to see that, too 🙂
Everyone says it’s incredible – 100+ tiny turtles all making their way out to sea.