Half way through the nesting season

posted: July 2, 2018, 7:01 PM

**REMINDER: No Children's Turtle Time this Wednesday, July 4. Turtle Talk, however, will take place on July 4 at 7Pm at the Town Hall**

Following a period of 9 days without a new nest, we had 7 nests in just 5 days last week bringing our current nest count to 20! Given that we're half way through the nesting period it appears that our final number of nests this year won't be as high as the previous 3 years when we had between 50 and 53 nests. The number of nests across the state is also not as high as in the past 3 years which is representative of the typical nesting cycle. The mother turtles only lay nests every 2 or 3 years so it's common to have a lower number of nests every few years.

Should you come across a mother turtle on the beach, please don't approach her and give her plenty of space to come up onto the beach to prepare and lay her nest. Noise (from people and fireworks) and lights can frighten the mothers so please watch the process quietly; you can take pictures as long as your don't use the flash. Give the Turtle Patrol a call at 910-754-0766 so a team member can come and mark the location of the nest.

Enjoy the 4th of July! Don't forget to turn out your porch lights and close the blinds on windows that face the beach. Thank you!!

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