Update 21st August
Both nests 5 and 6 were excavated yesterday. Fortunately all 88 viable eggs in nest 6 had hatched and the hatchlings had got to the sea under their own steam. Whilst this doesn't make for exciting viewing it did mark the nest out as being extremely successful.
Unfortunately the picture in nest 5 was less rosy. 60 hatchlings made it into the sea unhelped but unfortunately the excavation came too late for 30 hatchlings which had been blocked in the nest by a large stone.
We are now actively watching nests 7 and 8 on Curium and nest 9 on Tunnel, all of which are close to hatching!
Update 19th August
Nest 6 on Tunnel Beach has beaten number 5 and started hatching on Thursday night. The excavation will be on Sunday the 20th and back at the normal time of 6pm. The nest is at the eastern end of Tunnel beach and so you should allow around 15 minutes walking time.
Update 16th August
Nest 13 was discovered by Jim on Long Beach on the 14th. This is 4 more than we've had before and rather better than last year's total of 2! Nests on both Curium and Tunnel Beach are due to hatch soon and volunteers for vigils on both are still needed!
Update 12th August
Nest 4 was excavated yesterday. 4 hatchlings were freed making a total of 91 with just 8 eggs infertile - an excellent result. Both nests 5 and 6 are now showing signs of actvity so for those of you who missed the excavation don't worry there will be more coming soon at the usual
time of 6pm rather than 5pm.
Update 9th August 2006 - 2 excavations down, one to come and a new nest!
Nest 3 was excavated yesterday after sporadic hatching. A total of 8 hatchlings went down to the sea and 18 eggs are now hatching!
Unfortunately 50% of the eggs were infertile but in total 47 hatchlings will ultimately have made it to the sea. The sea level itself was a concern yesterday in respect of nest 1 which had also started hatching (after we'd almost given up hope)! Some sterling dam building by Jeff and
Tony stopped the nest being washed away overnight and an emergency excavation was carried out by Linda this morning. Some 24 hatchlings were released which would otherwise have drowned and an evaluation
of the nest contents showed that some 51 hatchlings in total had made it to the sea (25 of which had managed to evade the night vigils!) . The total number of eggs was 84 giving a 60% success rate which was a pleasant surprise.
The night of the 8th also saw an outbreak of ninja turtles from nest 4 on Tunnel beach. Donna, Georgina and mates were swamped in a very short time period. The excavation for this one will be on Friday the 11th at 5pm. Finally, at the third attempt Linda established that a track
left on the 25th was actually a nest so now we are up to a grand total of 12! Tunnel Beach is obviously the in place this year!
Update 6th August 2006
Nest 3 started hatching last night. This was day 60 and 9 hatchlings came out. Excavation details will be posted here and emailed/texted to all volunteers. Anyone wanting to cover night vigils over the next few days please get in touch otherwise we'll have all the fun!
Update 5th August 2006
We now have a nest 11 which we found on Tunnel beach earlier today - so early morning patrols will be continuing for the foreseeable future! This is a new record for our group.
Nest 2 turned out to be both an enormous and an extremely successful nest. The total number of eggs was 116 with 111 of these producing hatchlings which made it to the sea (including 25 which hatched in a cool box in our kitchen!).
Vigils continue on nests 1 and 3 despite both nests now being beyond 60 days. We are following the advice of the Lara Project team on this. Many of their early nests are also taking significantly longer than 60 days to hatch because of the ground temperature at the time of laying. Anyone who would like to participate in a vigil please shout up if you haven't already done so.
Update 27th July 2006
Nest 2 started hatching on Monday night (24 July) under the watchful eye of Jim Halliday. Vigils continued on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and more hatchlings made their way to the sea. Thanks to Danni, Donna, Gordon and Frank and Gail for nest-sitting. We shall excavate the nest on Thursday evening. All volunteers should have received details, but if we have inadvertently left you out, please call David on 99 347296.
Update 16th July 2006
Nest 10 was laid on Kourion Beach on 13 July. Donna was lucky enough to see the mother covering the nest and heading for the sea! See below for up to date starts of night vigils and please if you haven't done so yet volunteer for all or part of a night.
Update 10 July 2006
We now have nine nests. Nest 9 was found yesterday by Jim on Tunnel Beach (Fusiliers side). Vigils on that will start 22 August! This equals our previous best and we are expecting more.
Update 7 July 2006
More nests and volunteers for night vigils please!
We now have eight nests in total and there are more to come! Nest 6 was found by David on Tunnel on the 24th , John and Hilary found Nest 7 on Kourion on 4th July and two days later Nand found nest 8 also on Kourion. We also had some Green turtle tracks on Kourion in the same week but she has yet to reappear. To date Pissouri group also has three nests and Akrotiri has nine. The rota for July and August is now posted. Please check for your name and let us know if there are any problems with the dates that have been allocated to you. Also please try to remember to text us when you have completed your walk - even if you don't find anything. Thanks!
Astonishingly enough we are also now only a week away from starting night vigils on the nests laid at the beginning of the season. We generally start vigils 44 days after the nest was laid and will keep running them until the nest hatches or 60 days. The average time seems to be 46-48 days. Vigils start at around 7:30pm and keep running until 6am the following morning. Many people do stay all night but it is possible to do them on a shift basis eg one team does until 12 midnight and another until 6am. If this is of interest to you please do get in touch as there will be a lot of nests to cover this year. The scheduled start dates of vigils for the existing nests are shown below
| Nest | Location | Vigil start date |
| 1 | Long Beach (mid) | 15 July |
| 2 | Lemmings Beach (east) | 17 July |
| 3 | Long Beach (mid) | 20 July |
| 4 | Tunnel Beach (west) | 27 July |
| 5 | Tunnel Beach (east) | 07 August |
| 6 | Tunnel Beach (east) | 14 August |
| 7 | Kourion Beach (mid) | 17 August |
| 8 | Kourion Beach (mid) | 19 August |
| 9 10 | Tunnel East Kourion Beach (Chris Taverna) | 22 August 26 August |
Our first nests!
In the first week of the rota we have had an astounding three nests so far. Last year we only had two in the whole season! All are loggerheads and each one is from a different turtle. If the season continues like this we'll be on for a record year so fingers crossed.
Nest 1 was found by Jeff Watson on Long Beach on the 4th
Nest 2 was also found by Jeff Watson on Lemmings Beach on the 5th (David and I are thinking of stalking him for the rest of the season)
Nest 3 was found 6 june on Long beach by Christina Combe
Nest 4 was found by Linda on Tunnel on 13 June
Nest 5 was found by Jim on Tunnel on 24 June
Nest 6 was found by David on Tunnel on 1 July
Here is Christina with nest 3. 
