Aug 26th: From Sara Johnson( DI Team Lead)
Last week and weekend was crazy! I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for your unwavering dedication when we had so many nests needing monitoring, sitting, and hatching and excavation assistance. DI Turtle Team rocks!
J-20 and 21 hit day 50 yesterday. Unfortunately, they were ahead of the game. Both hatched Tuesday/Wednesday. J-20 had a large number of hatchlings that wandered and were predated or died from being worn out. Some were saved as well. These weren’t tarped, since we weren’t prepared for them to hatch. “Sky glow” on the west end is a problem, and I’m sure the light affected their journey. We’ll need to excavate both on Saturday afternoon/evening.[…clip…]
I would also like to tarp J-22 while we are all out at the excavations. It is on the west end as well, and will be hitting day 50 on Monday. Always a possibility of it going early, since these others have!
We’re also continuing to monitor J-19 on Sand Island, which was discovered after heavy predation by ghost crabs. J-23 on Sand Island also hits day 50 next week. It’s a hike, nearly to the tip, but still needs to be checked on regularly.
We also hit J-35 earlier this week with the nest I responded to just east of Sehoy! We’ll be working nests through October!
Sara Johnson
Team Leader, Dauphin Island