The sea turtle nest count continues to rise but the question is will the Anna Maria Island nest count exceed 2019?
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers logged 544 sea turtle nests in 2019. They are less than 20 nests shy of reaching that number this year.
Loggerheads tend to stop nesting by mid-September so identifying new nests when surveying the beaches is still likely. But while the volunteers hope they log a new record, they are in full excavation mode.
An excavation occurs three days after a nest hatches.
Debbie and Bob Haynes excavated three loggerhead nests Aug. 8.
An excavation near the 800 block of North Shore Drive in Anna Maria yielded 67 hatched eggs and two unhatched.
Nest two was located near the 700 block of North Shore Drive in Anna Maria and had 54 hatched eggs, 51 unhatched and one live loggerhead hatchling.
The hatchling was observed to determine if it was healthy enough for release.
Three families — the Regans from Indiana, the Lamonts from Iowa and the Gilers from New Jersey — cheered the hatchling on as it got swept back several times by the waves.
As it swam, the hatchling poked its tiny head out of the water and the beachgoers gasped because seagulls swooped overhead.
The hatchling passed its first survival test — getting out of the nest and to the water, albeit with assistance.
Now it’s on its own and must evade birds and fish and swim to sargassum, a seaweed that offers nutrients and protection.
The volunteers excavated a third loggerhead nest Aug. 8 near the 5800 block of Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach.
That nest yielded 83 hatched eggs, three unhatched and one pip, a hatchling that partially broke through the egg but didn’t survive.