Gulf State Park again!
For Friday 5/28/16 – It looks like momma turtles were looking for seclusion today. Dauphin Island had a false crawl near the west end of the island.
While Dauphin Island had their false crawl, the Gulf State Park team got their first nest of the 2016 season. Here’s the play by play from Team Leader Joe Spafford:
” Yea Team!
We are on the leader board with our first nest of the season. Momma turtle appeared to be strictly business on this trip, straight in to nest and straight back out again. Congratulations to new team members Shanna Smith and Aimee Krueger for finding the tracks. They found a false crawl at the start of their patrol and pressed on to find the nest tracks at the end of their patrol.
I think momma saw something she didn’t like (coyote) at the first site and quickly moved on. She selected a site right in front of the vegetation line, well away from the high water line. Mother nature guided her well! The one call now went out and the team gathered to process the nest. Neal Shults guided the search for the eggs and Cathy Bell found them after much exploration by the team.
Everyone helped collect the data and mark the nest to finish the task. A team picture was taken with everyone indicating nest one of many for this season! Congratulations team!
Thanks to team members Cathy Bell, Doug Caudil, Lynn Doerr, Aimee Krueger, Susanna Lax, Bob Parris, Eva Pendley, Suzanne Pendley, Darla Rice, Fran Shults, Neal Shults, Shanna Smith, and Kim Wade. We also had guests Emily, Marie, Sandra, and Walter from Oklahoma by way of Texas observe all the team activities. They had lots of questions and Sandra said she was bringing this experience back to her 3rd grade class for a project. Who knows maybe we will get a nest sponsor or some new team members one day.”
And of course the day wouldn’t be complete without another Way to go Ft Morgan, keep those turtles nesting!
A few photos from their Friday find:
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Have the G-1 babies emerged yet?
Next Wednesday is the 55th day after momma laid her eggs. I believe the GSP team will start monitoring for sounds on that say. The first nest of the season for Alabama was in Ft Morgan and it hatched on day 60. So the G-1 nest should hatch somewhere near or right after the 25th. That being said, they never tell us So we keep a close eye (ear actually) on the nest so we can be ready when they decide to emerge.