Loggerhead sea turtles shattered a nesting record in Georgia this week. By the time the dawn patrols that scour Georgia's beaches daily had logged in Tuesday's numbers, the count was up to 3,405 nests, blowing past the previous season high of 3,289 nests set in 2016.

And they're not done yet, with nesting that began in late April expected to continue into August. Georgia Sea Turtle Coordinator Mark Dodd, a biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, previously predicted the final season count could be as high as 4,500.

Loggerheads, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, are the most common species of sea turtles in Georgia. Weighing over 300 pounds, the adult females nest every second or third season near the area where they hatched, emerging at night to dig a nest above the high water line or up into the dune face. They lay an average of 120 eggs per nest, making about four attempts each in a nesting year. Hatching occurs after approximately 60 days of incubation, beginning in mid-July and continuing through early October.

On Wassaw, volunteers with the Caretta Research Project have recorded 431 loggerhead nests, almost a third more than the previous high number of 333. Project Director Kris Williams is rethinking her impression that Wassaw's nesting was tapering off.

"Last week we only had 35 nests," she said. "Now we're back to 26 in three nights."

On Tybee, where 18 nests have been recorded so far, it's a good but not record year, said the island's sea turtle coordinator, Tammy Smith. Still, the island is well above its long term average and is beating out its rival, St. Simons, despite the fact that Tybee is the coast's most developed beach. Tybee encourages a turtle-friendly beach with a "lights out" campaign to keep turtles from becoming disoriented and reminders to beachgoers to knock down sand castles and fill in holes that could be obstacles to nesting turtles.

Even so, one loggerhead managed to get stranded on the beach Friday after it crawled up near a newly constructed dune near the pier.

"The turtle found its way up into this area but couldn't find its way back to the water," Smith said.

Department of Public Works staffer Daniel Imler spotted the stranded turtle that morning and with the help of co-workers carried it to the water. The turtle had not nested, but made what's called a "false crawl."

Across the coast hatchlings have begun emerging from their nests. They typically incubate 50-70 days. The web site www.seaturtle.org, which tracks nesting numbers and related statistics indicated that 1,479 hatchlings had emerged by Tuesday.