Daily Observations for Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Posted on May 31, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal
Observers: Katy and Gale
Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:30 A.M., Katy monitored North Beach and I monitored South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 6:35. North Beach was monitored by running Seaside Spit, then driving the north end of North Beach by Katy. One crawlway was encountered on North Beach by Katy [31.68216 N, 81.13624 W], but the turtle did not nest and left a non-nesting crawl extending above high tide level.
South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance southward to a backbeach tree blockage at Flag Lagoon as high tide was approaching (6.3 ft; 7:10 AM). I turned back northward toward McQueens Inlet and monitored northward. A series of deep hog rootings on the beach were encountered at [31.59386 N; 81.15058 W] between Flag Inlet and South Beach Entrance. These were photographed and documented. After being turned back by the tide at Airplane Hammock, I then drove to Jungle Road Entrance and monitored a few hundred meters of beach there, then returned to South Beach Entrance to meet Katy and we continued to monitor toward McQueens Inlet.
We waited for the gate to McQueens (a log jumble obstructing the beach) then monitored to McQueens Inlet (09:35), then headed back south along the beach. A class from the Island Ecology program was passed at South Beach Entrance heavily involved in a field lecture. We left the machines north of the mud bank on the south end and crossed Beach Creek and monitored SW Beach on foot, returning to the Turtle House at 11:46.
After a lunch, we hung six Venetian blinds in the west porch; it now looks so good we have renamed it, The Beautiful Sunset Suite.
A Word about Hogs and Sea Turtles
Feral hogs inhabit many beach areas of the world, and can become a problem predator of sea turtle nests. St. Catherines Island is no exception, we have an abundance of feral hogs living on the Island. Some of these hogs cruise the beach on a routine basis foraging on dead horseshoe crabs and edible flotsam. Because they may encounter nesting turtles on their nocturnal patrols, they must be closely monitored on a daily basis to determine if and when depredation on sea turtle nests begins. The day such activity is learned by the hog, it must be eliminated from the population or it will apply its learning to all active nests on its beach, decimating the nests by its depredations.
Rooting behavior of hogs is especially troublesome, as it can easily lead to the discovery of the food resources provided by sea turtle nests as the hog roots along the beach. The picture below documents this behavior in a South Beach hog; a behavior we must stop, before nesting begins in earnest.
Hog Rooting on South Beach
Rooting by a feral hog along South Beach Entrance is a behavior that will lead to discovery and exploitation of sea turtle eggs buried in the beach sand. These “hog craters” represent a depredation “time-bomb” for threatened and endangered loggerheads nesting on South Beach. What are the options to eliminate this behavior from this rookery? What balance needs to be maintained between hogs and sea turtles utilizing our beach habitat? Answers to questions like these are often not easy to formulate and execute. What would you do about this problem?
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Daily Observations for Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Posted on May 30, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal
Observers: Katy and Gale
Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:30 A.M., Katy went to North Beach and Gale drove to South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 6:00. North Beach was monitored by running Seaside Spit, then driving the north end of North Beach by Katy. South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance southward to a backbeach tree blockage as high tide was approaching (6.3 ft; 7:10 AM). Gale turned back northward toward McQueens Inlet and monitored northward. A non-nesting crawlway was encountered at [31.60753 N; 81.14397 W] between South Beach Entrance and the Big Washover. The loggerhead aborted this attempt after crawling over two palm logs on the backbeach.
A second crawlway was encountered at the middle of the Big Washover [31.60753 N; 81.14397 W] and appeared to be a nest (1.9 m x 2.1 m elliptical disturbed area, thrown sand, and disturbed wrack). The entrance and exit crawlways were very short (18 m) as the tide was flooding to its maximum. The loggerhead sea turtle had crawled into the heavy wrack on the backbeach, hit a small 10 cm scarp, then looped around and nested in the wrack zone. The nest was measured, sketched, and photographed by Bishop awaiting the arrival of McCurdy to help dig this nest.
The nest [007-003] was a complex, obstructed, backbeach nest deposited within two rows of wrack marking the last two storm high tide lines. The nest was dug unsuccessfully using a palm frond and a steel trowel. Then the magic Ti shovel was brought into play and the turtle’s track followed into the nest area along the entrance crawlway. The egg chamber was found with the tried and true left foot of GAB as it sank into the neck of the egg chamber (digging time = 18 m 09.75 sec). A new egg chamber was constructed 4.65 m immediately behind the original nest location [ 31.61279 N, 81.14123 W] to get the eggs a little higher and behind the highly erosional shoreline (where we successfully hatched many nests last year). Eggs were removed and counted by Katy into a relocation bucket The clutch of 127 eggs was placed into the new egg chamber with four data loggers [one at the bottom, one in the middle and one on the outside after 60 eggs were replaced, then one on top of the clutch] before it was covered at 8:59 AM, lightly tamped, then covered with a plastic screen and marked with an orange-topped stake [007-003a]. Katy then finished monitoring South Beach while Gale rode north on Jungle Road to monitor hogs (n-1).
Overview of loggerhead Nest [007-003] on South Beach, St. Catherines Island, Georgia. This nest was deposited the night of May 28-29 in heavy Spartina wrack; a simple, obstructed, backbeach nest. Because the nest was deposited in front of the storm high tide line on an erosional beach, it was judged to be in danger of inundation and doomed; the nest was set back 5.65 m to improve its chances of success from ~ 10% to ~ 90%.
We stopped by the house for lunch, then continued monitoring Middle Beach, entering by wading Seaside Inlet at 13:15, monitoring southward to McQueens Inlet and turned back north. The length of Middle Beach as measured with the odometer of a Garmin CXS 76 was 2.75 km from inlet to inlet. The 6 km walk took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. After wading Seaside Inlet, we drove back to the Turtle House at 15:30.
Gale A. Bishop
5/29/07
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