Tourists warned sea turtles may nest in broad daylight — that's rare at Cape Hatteras

North Carolina's famous loggerhead sea turtles are notorious for their sneaky approach to nesting, coming ashore after sunset and laying eggs under cover of darkness.

But a strange nesting caught on camera this week at Cape Hatteras National Seashore has prompted a warning that things may be different this summer.

"Earlier this week, staff came across a loggerhead sea turtle nesting during daylight hours," says a notice posted Thursday on the National Park's Facebook page. "This unusual sighting occurred north of Beach Access Ramp 25 on Hatteras Island."

Park officials offered no explanation for the sighting at a typically busy section of beach, but they are asking tourists to call a park ranger if they sight other loggerhead turtles nesting in the day. Loggerhead nesting season coincides with tourist season: May 1 through Aug. 31, experts say.

Loggerheads are a threatened species, known for being nocturnal in nesting habits, according to The Sea Turtle Conservancy. Much of the threat is blamed on loss of nesting habitat due to development and the lighting created by homes and businesses, which disorient the nesting turtles at night, the conservancy says.

The females (which can weigh 155 to 375 pounds) make a slow, awkward crawl out of the ocean under cover of darkness, find a dry part of the beach and use their flippers to create a pit in the loose sand, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission says.

Once an egg chamber has been carved out, the turtles produce a "clutch" of 80 to 120 eggs, which are then covered with sand for incubation in the summer sun, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says loggerheads have been spotted nesting across the entire of the North Carolina coast over the past 20 years. Loggerheads are considered the most common sea turtle in the state.

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Tourists warned sea turtles may nest in broad daylight — that's rare at Cape Hatteras."