As we started the survey last night, Sandy and I sat at the ATV acces ramp and had to decide which direction to go first. We chose south (we usually go north first) and not more than 15 minutes later we came across a turtle as she was just starting to dig an egg chamber. It was Molly! We waited for a few minutes and removed her transmitter and harness.
We were expecting Molly to nest on Saturday night and it seems that she tried. I offloaded the GPS data from her transmitter and found a GPS point that was collected at 10pm on on the beach a few miles north of our survey area near the Hobe Sound Wildlife Refuge. She likely crawled out of the water and encountered a scarp or something that made her turn around. A lot of the beaches here have been eroded quite a bit over the last two days with the crazy winds and swells we have been having. The Argos data show that she ventured south overnight and spent the day just off the beach here near the Marinelife Center. I had been hearing her signal all morning, and was a bit concerned she would nest sometime during the early evening hours. But, we found her and her transmitter is on it's way to be repaired.
There was a turtle that nested in MacArthur Park last night, but we were unable to make it to the area due to the waves. Niki reported no turtles on Hutchinson.
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