Loggerhead Sea Turtle

In June we spent a week in Nags Head, NC (Kitty Hawk to be exact). The first morning we were there we woke up to this right in front of our deck.

It was 5:30 in the morning and I was in the kitchen heating Cooper's bottle. I was half asleep and was trying to keep Cooper quiet and be quiet myself so that we did not wake up the rest of the house. My dad was the only other person awake and he was getting ready to go down on the beach fishing. He came running in the house and said "Michelle, come look at this huge sea turtle outside. I think she might be hurt". My immediate response was "Dad, it's 5:30 in the morning, and I'm not falling for your jokes". He insisted that he wasn't kidding so I gave in and walked out on the deck and sure enough there was an enormous sea turtle staring up at us. I told Dad I was pretty sure that sea turtles come up on the sand to lay their eggs but, that I thought they did it at night. Just as he went inside to find a number of who to call to report it an older gentleman on a 4 wheeler came driving up. I asked if she was hurt and he told me that she was laying her eggs. I was right! He said that it usually takes them 2-3 hours to complete the entire process. Not long after he arrived she finished up and made her way back into the ocean just as the sun was coming up.

It took her what seemed like forever to make it back down the beach and into the water. She was so big that she would go a foot or two and then stop for a break, go another foot or two and stop again.

She finally made it back down to the water and into the ocean she went!

Her nest

Her tracks out of the water and then back into the water.

Soon after she made her way back into the ocean a group of volunteers and researchers arrived. There was so much excitement. They staked off her tracks and nest. They measured the distance she traveled out of the water to where she layed her eggs. Then, they dug up her nest and removed one egg. We were able to see the egg. It was the size of a ping pong ball and had a leathery shell. They took the egg down to the water, opened it up and took DNA on the turtle from the egg. The researchers were very informative. They told us that sea turtles are endangered and only 9 reported nests were found last year on the entire Outer Banks. A lot of the volunteers have been doing this for many years and have still never seen the sea turtle in action laying her eggs. We were really lucky to have been able to see her laying her eggs and then make her way back into the water.

Obviously these pictures have the wrong date on the bottom. They were taken with a different (very old) camera. Not sure why the date is Dec. of 2003!!

When they were done with their data collection they staked off the turtles nest. The eggs will take 55-80 days to hatch. On day 55 the volunteers and researchers will start sitting around the nest at night waiting for the eggs to hatch and the baby turtles to make their way into the ocean.

Fun Fact: the sex of the turtles is not yet determined when the mother lays the eggs. The sex is determined by the climate when the eggs are layed and since it was a really hot morning most of the turtles will most likely be male.

You can find more information on sea turtles and nesting on the Outer Banks of NC at

www.nestonline.org

Our turtles nest was nest #5