It has been a busy 10 days on the Hunting Island beach for loggerheads - 37 nests over that period. Over the same 10 day period in 2022, there were only 27 nests.
What is interesting is that in 2022, there were 6 days when the loggerheads laid 6 nests each day. 6 was the most in any one day that year. In 2023, we have had 1 day with 7 nests and only 2 days with 6 nests so far.
2023 is now ahead of 2022 in terms of nests year to date by whatever measure you want to use. As of today, there are 148 nests on Hunting Island. The same date in 2022 there were 139 nests. If we use DSFN (days since 1st nest; now at 65) there were 144 nests in 2022. There was one more 6 nest day yet to come in 2022 at that point.
2023 is already ahead of all recorded years in terms of number of nests, except for 1984, 2019 and of course 2022. Our mother turtles need to lay another 10 nests this year to pass the nesting totals we saw in 1984 and 2019.
Happy nest locating!!!
Keith
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