AMITW Nesting Numbers
Here’s the update for this week:
Sea Turtles
5/10/2025 – 5/16/2025
Nests this week 35
False Crawls this week 58
2025 Total Nests 42
2025 Total False Crawls 68
2025 Adult Disorientations 1
Nests remaining on the beach 42
Sea turtles have started pouring in this week and keeping us busy. People have even seen a few mama turtles on the beach at sunset and sunrise. This week we have noted at least 3 false crawls where the turtle had dug an egg chamber but had abandoned nesting without laying any eggs. Abandoning her nest at this late stage is rare and may indicate that the turtle was disturbed. AMITW conducts patrols at dawn and does not recommend walking on the beach at night to prevent people from inadvertently disturbing nesting turtles. We remind people that if they do see a sea turtle on the beach to keep at least 20 feet away from the turtle, out of her line of sight and use absolutely no light or flash photography. If you see at turtle during the day, please call AMITW (941-301-8434) immediately so we can get a good ID of the species – the rarest of the sea turtles, the Kemp’s ridley, is a daytime nester.
Attached are some photos from patrol this week (photo credits are the last names on the file name):
- Loggerhead at Sunset – sent to us from Tabitha Lambert Stone (we were given permission to send it on to the press) – a concerned citizen that was fortunate to see a loggerhead turtle emerge at sunset in Holmes Beach
- Volunteers Lisa Picciano & Abby Coller after a rainy patrol on Monday
- An abandoned egg chamber left behind by a loggerhead this week
Shorebirds
This week, the numbers of black skimmers courting and mating inside the closure dwindled indicating that the birds had likely found another location to nest. Therefore, we removed the bird closure. We will continue to monitor the beaches of AMI for courting and nesting behavior by Black skimmers, Least terns, Snowy plovers and American oystercatchers and educate people about how to protect all shorebird species on the island.
