Navidad y Nicaragua

A Christmas Sunset.

My favorite snowflake, made from recycled paper.

 

Nativity scene made from beach treasures (garbage)...created by Jacob Hill.

So things have been crazy around here with the other biologists' families around, volunteers, and a trip to Nicaragua to renew my visa. It's nice that the holidays are finally starting to wind down, but that means season is much closer to an end and I have much more work to do before I leave! AHHHHHHH! I'll try not to bore you too much with details and instead just show you pictures. Unfortunately, I was too nervous to bring my new camera, but I did take a lot of pictures with the old one, which does not have as good of quality.

The night before I left for Nicaragua I got another new mother on the beach. I'd like to think it was a nice little bon voyage present for me. It definitely made up for the almost 2 hours Avalone and I spent at the border trying to get into Nicaragua bright early the next morning. San Juan del Sur was an amazing little city full of brightly colored buildings, great places to eat, and scenic views. It was so windy that it was hard to enjoy the beach, but we tried. By the time I got to the shower I looked like someone had dropped a bucket of sand on top of my head. We spent most of the time catching up on some much needed sleep, eating, and the last day we went to a little surf beach via water taxi. The ride over there was amazing!!! We saw a pod of dolphins (about 20 or so) jumping out of the water like they were at Sea World with many magnificant frigate birds all feeding on the same couple schools of fish! Made me wish I had the other camera...

Some paintings in the market.

 

Bridge to Jesus

The Bay

The road to Jesus is paved with many stones

The stairway to heaven and Avalon.

Even getting into heaven costs money!

View at Jesus' feet.

Apparently we missed quite the beach night the night before we got home. There were 3 leatherbacks, 1 ridley, Jacob's scanner broke and he had to run down the beach to grab someone else's, tourists built a bon fire on the beach, and a tourist coming to see turtles had a heart attack on the beach. Of course the guides told us that it was Jacob due to his run...Fortunately, the tourist was fine. Other than that, only one turtle was missed while we were gone, and only one of my sampled nests hatched but no samples needed to be taken because there was 100% hatchling success...and the sample was contaminated to begin with (sigh of relief). Last night was our first night back and there was 1 leatherback in the south, and I was able to show my volunteers a black turtle on Ventanas.

Our Hostel:

The Earthwatch expedition this weeks is a family expedition, so we have 3 kids that are 11 years old and another about 15, plus their parents. Needless to say it is pretty packed around here. I was so excited to be able to show the little girl I was walking with the black turtle! She has now seen all 3 species that nest here and she was so excited! I love showing people their first sea turtle, or first turtle of a particular species, especially kids. Afterall, a marine biologist taking the time to show me my first turtle was all it took to get me hooked...Now here I am 17 years later hoping to do the same.  (Goodness, I am getting old!

Not much else to talk about. Catholics vs Convicts take 2 on today (insert thrown up U here) and I am decked out in Cane's gear...As I should be!  Tonight we have the night off for New Years.. So that should be a fun fiesta for all.

Biologists at an excavation.

Roseate spoonbill

Large sail boat off Grande.

Some ridleys



Crazy times

Parakeet at the station

Things around here have been very strange lately, and for the most part, none of it has had to do with the turtles. We are now in the peak of season, but we are not finding as many turtles as predicted, but they are laying far more eggs than anticipated and the hatchlings are hatching in full force (up to 5 nests a night). These are mostly ridley nests, which has hit its peak and now there is only a small trickle of olive ridleys females nesting these days. Next month I imagine there will be far less of their nests hatching. The baulas are holding steady but we are still waiting for the December spike.

A leatherback hatchling

I was sitting on break with Nathan (a former biologist with the project and Frank's PhD student)three nights ago and we watched a leatherback break through the waves and emerge out of the water. For those of you unfamiliar with turtle work, this is a rare site! Typically, by the time we find a turtle she is almost all the way up the beach or starting to body pit, but to watch her emerge from crashing waves is something truely spectacular which I have only seen 3 times at most and to get a turtle while on break is just as rare. I was suprised when I woke my volunteer up and she watched for a mintue then rolled over and went back to sleep uninterested. Little did she know that this was a special turtle; other than the fact it was Baulitica, she was the chosen turtle for the director of the park at attend with his VIP group. I don't really know who this group is, but the were dressed up with collared shirts, khakis, and one of the ladies even had a nice dress on. The real indicator of how important this viewing was, was that the park director, Rotney, gave me a pep talk before the turtle saying, "these people, well they are very important, so this has to be PERFECT!" So little goes perfect around here and with Rotney telling me the turtle was going too slow it was stressing him out...let's just say I was so nervous I could have peed my pants! But everything turned out alright. However, his group did not seem so interested in the turtle. Tourists had to be pulled away, but I found many of the VIPS staring over the water, the sky, and just meandering around the turtle like they were bored, one guy stood 20m off to the side the whole time. I have never seen so many people uninterested in a turtle in my life, and anyone else would have enjoyed it!

Another story for this week is the Avalon had some friends who happened to be in town. Kim and I had to leave the bar where they were because they were so rude and obnoxious. Later that evening our guard, Herman, met them climbing over our back fence with gun drawn. Fortunately, we had just installed video cameras the week prior and were able to watch the whole thing over and over. I felt bad for Avalon, because there was nothing she could do about them jumping over the fence...however even more excitement happened that day that lead us all to forget about the three boys being escorted out with hands above their heads.

Jim feeding the Ctenosaur by our pool

A Ctenosaur about to eat

Other drama occured when Matt showed up crying at our back door with both hands dripping with blood and a limp bloody ctenosaur. He ran to the sink holding the ctenosaur, who had blood running down its mouth and all over its eyes. All of the biologist were pretty sure he had killed it with his noose on accident, but as it turns out the ctenosaur was the one who did all the damage to Matt's hand, but it was perfectly fine. Matt had to leave for the hospital and told us not to let it go, but we had nothing to contain it in, and reptiles are particularly prone to stressed induced death. This lady, however, was a fighter. She wiggled right out of Kimmy's hands, which we were all mildly relieved about because who knew how long Matt was going to be at the hospital and you can't hold the animal that long. Kimmy went after her with the towel and she whipped her tail, turned, opened her mouth, and hissed. I got back in time to see this part. She still had Matt's blood all in her mouth and looked quite scary, I wish I had my camera on me that time. There was no chance to recapture her. Matt showed up right after she got away and was very upset. Apparently he spent 20min in the woods screaming for help and no one did (probably because he doesn't know spanish), but he was dead set on tagging her after that. Everything ended up fine. He got 2 stitches on his finger and life went back to normal around here. He left for the home today with the board members of the Leatherback Trust...and it was about time some people left here because It has been packed!

Other then that, I have identified my first bacteria species! Another study done with Ridleys found this same species, allowing for a comparison to be made between the two beaches. So I am pretty stoked about that. I'm also excited that I was able to see the eclipse last night even though it had been cloudy all day. I had an eclipse ridley! That was kind of fun. We even were able to see a few meteors.

Best Morning Walk Ever!

My new camera could not have come at a better time! I went on morning walk 3 days ago, and there were so many things to take pictures of! I also have been able to to figure out how to adjust some of the settings.  Yes, I know there is a manual, but who has time to read that?  There have not been very many turtles lately, and we are about to get a bunch of people at the station; two families of other biologists, the PIs for the project, board members, other scientists, and our own volunteers will all be shoeing up in the next three weeks! Somewhere in that time frame I will be taking a solo trip to Nicaragua to renew my visa. Since there is not much going on, I'm just going to post my morning walk pics and some from the senset view with the last group of vols.

Bee the size of my thumb.
Hummingbird

Woodpecker

Hawk

Trogon

Pack of Coatis

Coati

Baby Coati

More Trogon

Leatherback hatchling tracks.

Oriole

Scissor-tailed flycatcher

Shore bird (sanderling?)

Woodpecker and our papaya tree.

The rock separating Ventanas and Grande.

Plovers

Sunset and grass

Old turtle museum which is no longer open.

National Park Sign

Una Sorpresa

Much has happened in the past week, I've just been to lazy to write about it. I was never good at keeping up with a journal when I was young.  I think I tried twice, but ended up not keeping up with either. I figure I'll aim for once a week, but as we get closer to the peak of season and everything gets  busier, the post are starting to slip...for this, I apologize.

Mom during her 24hr stay and my first pic with the new camera

Last Friday I got a phone call from my mother saying that she needed me to go cancel the cab with Blair because she was planning on surprising me here, however she could not get on a flight. I was definately more sad when I found out she was planning on coming and couldn't than I was not thinking I would not see her around Christmas time at all. Thankfully, Blair managed to get in on the surprise for the next night when he brought her to my doorstep. Though she was only here one night, it was so nice! I was fortunate enough to see my mom, spend the night in a hotel bed, get loads of BBQ sauce,  candy, some paints, and a brand new camera!!! I haven't been able to take too many pics yet, but my D3000 is amazing! Thankfully the cab driver let me go to the airport with her, so we got another hour and a half together, since she was only in town one night. Wish the rest of the fam could have come down too, but only two and a half months left.


Cool bat shot with the new camera

In other news, the tourist guides are starting to get a little more friendly, which is good and bad. It was a little awkward when one grabbed my hand and tried to walk a bit of my patrol with me under the stars...caught me off guard to say the least. I pulled my hand away to talk with my hands as I often do, and quickly put my radio in that hand so it wouldn't happen again (lesson learned). Kim has also had some strange guide encounters. Fortunately, they are better around the turtles.

The last turtle I had had only 7 tourists and 1 guide. He didn't make me tell him every time I was going to complete an action (scanning measuring, tagging, etc.) and allowed me to work without asking me questions about actions I had not yet completed. She was a brand new turtle to the beach!!! For the most part, the work went smoothly, but the needle did come off in the turtle.  iIt would be similar to a needle used to put air in a ball coming loos). The thick end was just enough for me to get my fingers around and yank out. Glad I didn't have to explain that situation to the tourists and guides, the ones from Tamarindo would not have been pleased.




We are coming to the end of another week with volunteers. They seem to all be really into the experience, and have been fortunate to see a lot. Everyone has seen adult leatherbacks, a ridley hatchling from an excavation, plus a select few volunteers were able to see a nest hatch, a black turtle, and a ridley. I would consider this to be an amazing amount of action considering I still have not seen a nest hatch on this beach (except the one where I found all the dead hatchlings over a month ago) and I can not remember my last ridley or black turtle. The lack of ridleys now is going to make completing my project difficult.

I've lost 2 sampled nests in the past week, one had only 3 eggs and the other we could not find a single egg for. This brings my uncomtaminated sample set from 15 samples to 13...I hope there will still be enough data for a master's. If the ridley's don't come in the next week, there will not be enough time for fungal growth and identifiction of any unhatched eggs (as this can take up to a month). Needless to say, I am neverous about my thesis. I also learned I have to defend by April 22 or I can not graduate in the summer as I had anticipated. As a result, I'm going to have to buckle down and get it mostly written by the time I leave Feb 28. EEEEEKKKKK!

Here are some more shots with the new camera:


Magpie that made dinner out of Matt's iguana bait.
Magpie Jay waiting to get to the papaya.

Iguana Hunt

On Monday I was eating Breakfast at Kike's and looked up to see an iguana sunning itself on the roof of one of the cabinas. I told Matt and he promptly went into project mode. This was the first adult iguana he had ever seen, and with a little help was able to catch it. Catching an iguana involves slipping a noose around it's neck and taking it down from the tree. When the iguana touches the ground it goes into a series of death spirals much like what you would see from a crocodile. Unfortunately, in the process of catching it an old wound was opened up on her left arm. We drove her back to the house for tagging, weighing, and putting a transmitter on...not to mention a little vet work on the arm.

Everyone holding the iguana for cleaning the wound and applying neosporin.

Kim keeping the iguana as calm is possible putting a cover over the eyes with a towel helps with this.

Isn't she beautiful?...And slightly angry.

Here is a shot of the wound on her arm...is was all the way down into the muscle tissue.

Her tranmitterthat she  slipped out of. Matt has to go back to the drawing board for a different design for the harnass that holds the transmitters.

Diablita (little devil girl) upon release.

After several attempts of putting a transmitter on the iguana and 3 hrs, the rest of us told Matt he had to let her go. He was not going to be able to put a backpack on her due to the injury and she was far too stressed to keep any longer (and had been kept for far too long without being sedated). He was very reluctant to release the only iguana he might get (as it was his only adult in 4 months), but he finally saw that it was in the best interest of the animal. Thus, he painted a number on her so she could be observed, and put a pit tag in her so the number could be read if she was recaptured later after she molted.

The next day an old man, the town drunk, walked into Kike's with a juvenile iguana in his hand and just gave it to Matt...far less effort than the first iguana which took at least 3 people at all times. As for the turtles, not much interesting has happened...but Kimmy is Amazing! (She told me to write that for when she read's it later.)