A Funeral for a Hawksbill

As many of you know, it is a dream of mine to see every species/subspecies of sea turtle before I die. Left on my list are the Kemp's ridley, flatback, and hawksbill. I would like to say that I crossed one of those species of my list today, but it was dead, and I really want to see them all alive. This is also the first turtle since the day nester on Saturday, they have managed to avoid Tera and I like the plague.
We received a phone call at the station about an olive ridley that had washed ashore, dead, at marker 17.4. The kiddies, Tera, and myself decided to go investigate the cause of death. After limping down the beach (due to some horrific blisters on my left foot) we came across a turtle lying in the water table. Tera looked and said it wasn't a ridley so it must be a black, but then I noticed the overlapping scoots of its shell, a characteristic found only in hawksbills. Tera was talking about how beautiful she was, but then I felt the need to point out the penis which is normally inside the turtle and only comes out when mating. He also had large claws, unlike females. He was so much larger than I had expected him to be, and we could find no obvious signs of trauma even after flipping him over. It really was an incredible sight, I only wish I could have seen him alive. I feel like it is unfair to cross off hawksbills from my list of turtles left to see since it was dead, but males never come ashore (does that cancel out).  I think I better find a live one just in case.

It really was an incredible sight so I am posting some pics, however, consider yourself warned that they are of a dead turtle. It makes me so sad that they couldn't be pictures of an alive one, but still an incredible sight to see.

On an up note, tonight was our night off and we had hot fudge brownie sundaes...I don't know if I've informed you that there are no desserts where I am in Costa Rica. The closest we get is the German bakery that delivers baked goods to our door step.

Showing them it was a boy (PS I'm holding his tail).

Overlapping scoots

 

Checking for trauma

 

Not sure

 

The beak is another way to tell that it is a hawksbill.

A Daytime Ridley!

Sorry I have not been able to write for several days even though some exciting events have occurred! My computer is busted and won't let me start it up 85% of the time. When I can get it going I have 15 min before it shuts itself down.

Last Saturday I was walking back from Kike's with the kids (Rachie and Kevin) and saw a juvie (what we refer to juvenile iguanas as). Needless to say, Kevin and I spent 1hr trying to catch this one little guy with some makeshift grass nooses. I got the noose around him 11 times, but twice he broke my noose and the rest of the times he slithered right through it and I can't even explain how. He was just very curious and kept looking at us and trying to eat the noose. Anyhow, the kids and I went back out 15 min later with the real nooses (still made from grass but stronger) and within 45 we caught 2. Well, they each caught one while I was attempting to make a noose...not bad for a day off.

Here I am releasing the little guy I spent an hour chasing (#10)

After that I had to go take nest temperatures, but the reader broke and I spent an hour trying to fix it. Instead I decided to just go ahead and go on the morning walk which had been delayed until temperature time because we spent the morning reforesting Playa Carbon with some little (boy/girl) scouts from town. I asked Kevin if he wanted to come with, and he was bored so he agreed to take the 2900m walk with me to look for nests from the previous night. No sooner had I started complaining about how I never get turtles when I patrol with Kevin (and he was to be patrolling with me that night) that a ridley walked out of the water right in front of us and charged up the beach. Kevin volunteered to run all the way back to the house (1600m) and get Tera so she could come with the patrol bag and cameras. The turtles was on egg 57 when Tera caught up with us, and we were able to collect all the samples. She laid 104 eggs and it was incredible to see the whole thing during the day, not to mention it was a million times easier to collect data.

The eggs in the nest (and a tiny bit of fluid I'm sampling).

 

Holding a thermocouple in place while she buries the eggs. Thanks for the shot Kevin!

 

So beautiful, and heading back to the sea.

 

Classic! So excited about this shot.

 

 

Some overly enthusiastic biologists and an exhausted Kevin after a 2mi beach run, but a daytime turtle was worth it!

UNA NEGRA!!!

Last night we had two more turtles come onto our beach. It was supposed to be our night off, but the iguana assistants (Kevin and Rachael) and Chris (the German girl who works in Gandoca and Ostional and worked for our project last year) are around and willing to help...so why not continue collecting some data? We would be so lost without the iguana assistants and other wayward travelers volunteering to help.

Last night after dinner Chris called to tell us that there was a black turtle on the beach and we would have to run to catch it. Kevin, Rachael, and myself all ran upstairs, threw on socks and long pants, and went running1200m down the beach to see this turtle (with completely stuffed bellies might I add). We were greeted by her laddered track which we followed up into the vegetation. She had just stopped digging and began laying her eggs when we arrived. She was soooooo beautiful. Her dark shell glistened from green bioluminescent algae, with a beautiful black and brown patterning. She was so much larger than the ridleys I have been used to seeing. Since we are not permitted to work with black turtles currently, I was able to just sit back and enjoy watching her nest rather than collecting samples and stumbling around to take measurements and tag her. About killed Matt (the kid working on his master's with iguanas) when he magically appeared 30m in front of the turtle shining his phone light to try and find a marker...He didn't feel like running with us. And yes, mom, he went out with Bibi once so I know he knew better than to shine a white light and ask if he could take pictures. The turtle fortunately did not get scared and laid her eggs. She camouflaged her nest FOREVER by throwing sand all around, even drilling Rachel,who was sitting right behind her, in the face.

Tera and Chris continued their patrol. Maybe 400m down the beach they gave us the 3 flashing red lights signal...another turtle!!! Hoping it was a leatherback, which are supposed to pop up soon, Kevin, Rachael, and myself took off in a full on sprint down the beach. It was a ridley, hard to be disappointed when it means another sample to my limited collection in the freezer. It, of course, decided to downpour as I was taking my samples, but everything went beautifully. Rachael and I got back to the house in time to get ready for our actual patrol, but a storm rolled in. We did get one run of the beach in later, but no turtles and the tide was SUPER low. Nothing was missed last night on the upside!

In other news, we have been without internet for 4 days now, so we have had to pack ourselves up and head of to Kike's place to borrow theirs. On an up note, Jorge comes tomorrow. Last time he was here we got our first night turtle. More importantly, tonight is Friday, fun day (and night). So we have a night off. Though I'm not sure I really deserve a night off until I have collected all my samples. Sorry there are no pics. I promise to post some soon.

And My Project Begins...

Well the past couple days have finally been eventful! The workers at Kike's finally found a descent iguana for the iguana project and took it upon themselves to catch it, and catch it they did. Kevin got on the roof with a makeshift noose, the iguana jumped off the tree, ran by the pool, and then the chase was on. With 7-8 people chasing this iguana, we managed to chase it onto the tiled porch where it just slid around and was an easy catch. The next day (yesterday) they found a juvenile iguana for the team which was easily caught, weighed, measured, marked, and safely released back into the jungle that is Kike's place.

Now on to our project. So after a week and a half of missing a turtle or more a night because we patrolled at the wrong time, or the wrong section of beach, we finally got 3 turtles last night! Rachael and I were so jealous when Tera and iguana assistant Kevin came in saying they got a turtle, but quite relieved when Tera informed me she also got my samples from it! The first turtle I spotted was towards the end of nesting, I wanted to sample it anyway, but was unable to. However, the second turtle was golden! We saw her emerge from the water, so there was plenty of time to get ready (after running back to the house and getting more of my sample vials). Lots of coincidences occurred to reach that turtle at the perfect time, but it happened. Everything was going gloriously until the last second when the flipper tag bent and it was our last one! So needless to say, it may fall out, so I desperately made an attempt to find distinguishing markings so I can use the data. But honestly, I may use the data anyway and chalk it up to flipper tag issues. It's doubtful that I will get to sample that turtle again and it is such a beautiful sample!

That's it for now, maybe I can post some pictures here in a bit; like the one Rachael (another iguana assistant) took of the boa constrictor downing a hawk. Chao!