Spectacular Sight Saturday Morning!

posted: July 9, 2018, 8:55 PM

Just after 5am on Saturday morning, our ATV rider came upon one set of turtle tracks - tracks heading away from the water but no tracks going back out. So, he followed the tracks away from the surf and came upon the mother turtle facing towards the houses which was a bit surprising given that one of the houses had three big lights on. The rider watched the turtle drop her eggs and then finished searching the remaining section of the beach for other crawls. When he returned to the mother turtle he was able to watch her head back out to the water. In his words, "It was a great sight and one of the reasons that I ride the beach. Mother nature at her best."

Since the nest was laid below the high tide line, a team from the Turtle Patrol moved the 121 eggs to a location above the high tide line.

This week marks the beginning of hatching season on Holden Beach. The average incubation period for Loggerhead turtles is 50-80 days so we begin checking the nests nightly for signs of hatching on day 50. Today is the 50th day since nest 1 was laid so it will be "collared" or prepared for hatching tonight by the nest "adoption team" of Turtle Patrol members. For the next several weeks there will be both new nests laid and nests hatching - an exciting and busy time on the beach!

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