by Elaine Burgin

Created on: January 25, 2009

In the summer of 2005, I moved from the Northeast to coastal North Carolina. One day while chatting with one of my new neighbors, I learned that the beach nearby is a nesting area for loggerhead turtles from May until September each year. Newly retired and with time on my hands, I decided to find out more about loggerheads and how they reproduce. I contacted town hall, and a nice lady named Linda, who is in charge of the turtle nest program, gave me lots of information on "nest parenting".

Loggerheads are protected species. Each morning just after sunrise, town employees patrol the beach looking for signs that a turtle has come ashore during the previous night to lay her eggs. The mother turtle (adults can reach 800 lbs.) leaves a trail in the sand, a distinctive herringbone pattern, up to the point where she digs a hole in the sand and deposits around 100 eggs the size and shape of ping pong balls. The nest is generally between the high tide line and the sand dunes. When a nest is found, it is marked off with stakes and string, and a sign is placed there, giving the date that the nest was discovered, and warning people that there is a hefty fine for anyone caught disturbing the nest. In some areas, where foxes are a problem, metal fencing is erected over and around the perimeter of the nest.

Around 55 to 60 days after the eggs are laid, they will hatch and the baby turtles make their way to the sea. This usually occurs at night. The nest parents sit at the nest site beginning around 5 days before hatching is expected, to make sure the baby turtles are safe from predators and make their way safely down the beach to the surf. Large Ghost crabs can get the baby turtles, so it's important to keep them away.

My husband and I signed up to be nest parents for a nest that was scheduled to hatch around August 31 of 2005. Another couple, Charles and Nancy, also volunteered for this nest and we decided to take turns, the early shift one night, and the late shift the following night. About a week before the "due date", we dug a runway in the sand and edged it with a wall of sand about six inches high, from the edge of the nest down to the surf, to keep the hatchlings from wandering off as they make their way to the sea.

On the third night of our "nest sitting", we arrived at the beach around 9 pm for the early shift, with our lawn chairs, mosquito repellent, and flashlight. When we arrived, the nest looked just as it had the day before. After about a half hour, though, I

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