Turtle Hatch

Last night about 9:30 p.m. 6 of us went out to watch the hatchlings emerge from a turtle nest. Tammy had marked 2 nests that were close to the barracks and were ready to emerge. One of the nests had 2 hatchlings on the surface and the other had 3 or 4 little turtle heads sticking up out of the sand. We sat for about 15 minutes and saw little movement. Tammy then gently moved one of the hatchlings an inch or 2 and the movement underground increased. Within 2-3 minutes the ground in an area about 12 inches in diameter looked like a bucket of worms. There were turtle hatchlings everywhere. They crawled over each other and continued to boil out of the sand for about 5 minutes. When a good portion of them were out of the ground there was a slight pause in the movement and it seemed like they were getting their bearings. When the movement resumed almost all of them were headed toward the water. They crawl quickly and within 10 minutes all 100 plus hatchlings had disappeared into the small surf about 25 feet away. The action at the second nest was very similar. I'm happy to still be experiencing new things after 4 months here on Tern.