Another relocation!

Some of you may recall the Portofino nest which had to be cleaned on July 2 due to a large amount of oil which washed over it. You may click HERE to look at the before and after photos of that nest that day.

Yesterday evening, on day 53 of its incubation, the Portofino nest (PB6071) was excavated like FP6041 last Friday, only without all the fanfare. I thought you would like to hear the amazing results!

The biologist and biotechs were happy to find 112 eggs in the nest. But, they were surprised to discover eight little hatchlings already working their way toward the top and thirty more of the eggs pipped (meaning working their way out of the shell)! The rest of the eggs, with the exception of one which was obviously bad and another 'questionable' egg at the bottom of the clutch, were in perfect condition. This was a great result for PB6071, now on its way to the NASA facility at Cape Canaveral.

Now for another bit of good news -- keep your fingers crossed -- we've heard that considering the state of our beach and Gulf water, we may be able to keep some of our later nests here instead of shipping them to the east coast! Nothing is set in concrete at this time, but if we continue to see an absence of oil and get good water sampling results, perhaps we'll have a few nests to sit with this fall!