Follow-up on the turtle nest
A blogpost by Lisa Williams Kline
For a couple of weeks we’ve been watching a turtle nest on the beach near us. The other night we went down to the beach to walk our dog and there were several turtle rescue volunteers in beach chairs around it. They’d rolled out the little green fences to help guide the turtles on their march to the sea.
“Is tonight the night?” I asked them.
One woman shrugged “Who knows. The hurricane washed so much sand up that the eggs are covered in an extra ten inches or so and we’re concerned they may not be able to dig their way out. Lots of nests were lost over on Oak Island.”
Hurricane Isaias hit a beach about four miles south of us, spawned some tornadoes and did heavy damage to the beach and property. This beach miraculously escaped the worst of it. But the storm surge still washed up a great deal of sand.
“Someone saw one little turtle pop out of this nest a few nights ago. Just one, and he started for the water. But there haven’t been any more since.”
Later that night we saw the volunteers leaving the beach. Nothing had happened with the nest.
The next night, the volunteers only stayed for about a half an hour. This morning, the green fences and the nest marker were gone. I guess they gave up on it.
Last year, when our daughters adopted nests for me for Mother’s Day, one nest made it with close to 100 live hatchlings scrambling for the sea. The other nest was dug up by a fox. So these little guys face so many predators and obstacles, it’s truly miraculous that the species has survived for all these years.
My husband found a tiny dead turtle in the sand yesterday. We examined his miniature legs and the beautiful symmetrical pattern on his shell with awe. He doesn’t have flippers, so he’s not a sea turtle. But, like many other baby turtles this harsh season, he didn’t beat the odds.
Still, I hope that one little guy who popped out of that nest made it.