I have hatchery duty again--8:30 am to 11. Nothing exciting to report. I wander down the path from the house to the beach. As I do, I hear the usual rustling of crabs scurrying through the underbrush. I, of course, do not see them. (they are so sneaky...haha) The sand is not so hot yet and I flip-flop to the hatchery path.
No predators threatening the eggs...just me and the beach.
I am relieved at 11:00 and go to breakfast. Everyone waited so we could eat together on our last day. Before I go, I check the daily schedule and see that I am on North tonight--yeeeha! I will be with BiBi and Doug. We stroll back from Kike's through the blistering sun and I start to pack. We have a busy schedule today and an early start tomorrow. We have Crittercam this afternoon, sunset vista, then dinner.
While packing, I leave behind some stuff for other volunteers (in an attempt to lighten my luggage)
We watch Crittercam (National Geographic). Bryan narrates it as it goes along. They basically strapped a camera to the back of a Leatherback and let it go. Very neat stuff.
Sunset vista was a last time for the group to get together. We watched the sun set from a high point near Kike's. It was nice.
Got back to house. Finished packing--we will be leaving tomorrow at about 7:30 am. We are to be out on the beach at 10:45--4:15. I scarf down a quick cup of coffee, fill my water bottle, layer on the bug repellant, and off I go. We get to the beach via the usual bumpy trail. The Gemini meteor shower is tonight and should be great since it is so clear here. (7/minute)
We head North toward the hatchery. There will be a high, high tide tonight. (near new moon). We rest for awhile at the hatchery and start towards South beach. We hear on the radio that there is a turtle at 21. We hoof it down the beach in an attempt to get set up before the tourists arrive. We get there and she is making her egg chamber. We set up our plastic sheet to the left of her --(30 meters away) The tourists are on their way.
I get to count since I've only done it once so far. The turtle has aborted her first nest and moved up higher. Sometimes the sand is too dry to make a nest. BiBi says that it is common, but usually farther into the dry season. We move our equipment again and write on the data sheet the location of the aborted nest (Zone 1--below high tide, Zone 2--above high tide, Zone 3--in vegetation)
BiBi tellls us that it takes about 20 minutes to make the chamber and 10 minutes to lay eggs. She hands me the counter and we head to the rear of the turtle. We carefully make a body pit behind the turtle's egg chamber. (every biologist has a different approach)
I lay down and tourists herd around my feet. I watch the turtle and notice a bumpy barnacle on her right flipper. Bibi tells me to move the flipper aside when she begins to lay eggs--the tourists can see better then. Her tail moves to the side and out plop two eggs. I hold her flipper back with my left hand and count the eggs as they fall. (the clicker is in my right hand)
photo by Matt Godfrey--See how deep her behind is in the sand?
I notice different things this time. I feel her push everytime she lays eggs. Mucous is dripping from her onto the eggs. SAGS occasionally fall into the nest. The eggs are beautiful, white and smooth. She begins to push with her flipper and I let go. She immediately uses her right flipper to begin filling the nest with sand. (66 eggs in all). In the above picture, you can see all the sand she throws as she moves her front flippers.
I crawl out from under the tourists, zero the counter and we begin to pack up equipment.
We packed up and headed back to the hatchery. The surf was really pounding and the tide was quickly rising. We had to continually dodge the water. Eventually, it caught up with me and soaked me from the knees down. We had all gotten wet, so we tromped with our squishy shoes and wet pants into the hatchery and sat down.
We hike back to 20.5 and dig up the thermocouple and put a ISB number in it. We then mark the vegetation with pink tape. (vey helpful when looking for nest temps)
We walk to 23 and meet Jack and Ilene. We all lay flat on the sand and watch the meteor shower. Spectacular!
Doug says,"It can't get much better than this!" We all have to agree!
We get up about 20 minutes later--high tide is about now and we have to walk single file along the beach.--lots of driftwood is being brought up on the beach. We get to the hatchery--no turtles. I fall asleep in the chair...
BiBi let's us go to the house a little early--we are soaking wet! Another terrific night on Playa Grande!
End of night--I take a shower--talk to Suzanne and fall into bed!
We are leaving tomorrow! Miss my family and BUFFALO!!
Isn't he the best?
That's why
we all came...
What would it
be like
if there were no
Leatherback Turtles...?
(photo by Matthew Godfrey)
Here's a picture of the path to the house!