Another brief update

Well, Playa Grande is for the most part the same ole' same ole'. Volunteers come, volunteers go, turtles comes, turtles go, and a lot of restless nights. However, some things out of the ordinary have happened lately. For instance, I just found out the Julianne, a fellow IPFW student with Frank, is coming on Tuesday! Kim and I are so excited because she really is AMAZING and it will be nice to have one of our friends from outside the station here. Also, my roommate from college, Jac is coming in about a week, so I am excited about that. The only problem is, I have so much work to do.   I really just want to hang out with the two of them. Needless to say, If they want to see me, they are going to have to patrol with me.

I'm waiting on what I hope is the last of my plates to get here so I can get the fungus growing because it can take up to a month, which I am now a couple days shy of. I told Frank I needed to reorder supplies, but it costs way too much here for what I need (nearly 4x the amount it does in the states) which would make it more cost efficient to send out my samples than to identify them myself. Needless to say, I am preparing myelf to be dropping a couple thousand of my own dollars on my project to get some lab work done. Good thing I took out some extra in my loans and have a Research Assistantship because I'm pretty sure that is where all the money is going to go. However, I am afraid I am now stuck in panic mode for the remainder of my project trying to ID as much as I can so I limit the cost of lab work. VAMOS A VER!

Some flowers by the hatchery that are in season right now.

The last group of volunteers was awesome! It was a bunch of middle-aged women who have done so many cool things. It was also nice because they got along like old friends. One of the ladies is a nurse in Spokane.   It was cool to have the Washington connection. Another lady decided she had enough of "the man" and quit her job to go on cross-country bike trips. I found that incredible, and wish if I were unhappy with my job I had the courage to quit and do what I want for a while. However, I don't have a real world job, or money, so it's not currently a problem (and working with turtles is awesome!)

Another one of the vols was a teacher doing a "live from the field" project through Earthwatch, which is something I think my mother would love to do. She was always skyping classrooms and writing daily in her blog. (Sorry, I don't have that time or patience). It was nice to have a real fun group of volunteers, because I often find myself stressed with splitting time between the beach, lab, and the volunteers. This time it didn't feel like work! We were also blessed with many turtles while they were here. There was one night where we had 5 turtles.  One of the ladies had not seen one, so we woke her up in the middle of the night to come to a leatherback where there were no tourists and she showed up on the beach with her work shirt and night gown to count eggs. Pretty dedicated if you ask me.  Although that is to be expeced from someone who worked at the EPA for 30 some years. Besides turtles, we were also visited by monkeys at the house while they were here, and now that I have my new camera, I got some great pics.

If you look closely, you can see the baby.

This is my favorite.

We also had a film crew, that is shooting a 12min documentary for The Leatherback Trust, come through.  They seemed to make it more play time than work time, and left us with a bunch of cleanup to do before the new vols got here. We did, however get them to a  turtle, and they were able to see hatchlings that hatched in our hatchery in the middle of the day. Apparently someone put the cover on the nest wrong and hatchlings had escaped and were running all over the hatchery when the volunteer came across them. We put them in buckets and released them at sunset so the film crew could get some good shots (and me with my camera). Unfortunately, 50,000 tourists came and ran all over (more like 25, but it was a lot).  Some guy that lives on the beach didn't want to be told he can not have his dog off the leash running through the hatchlings. He yelled at us saying it was his home, he's lived here for 12 years, and he can't be told what to do...IT'S A NATIONAL PARK!!!

  One of the cool things about being in a national park is you get to see cool life which is being conserved for the future, such as endangered leatherback hatchlings. He didn't care, instead he threw his dog's frisbee right in front of the hatchlings and turned to give us a smug look. I wanted to punch him in the face, I think he should be kicked out of the national park for that. Also it is important to note that dogs, by law, are not allowed, but with being so understaffed, it is rarely enforced. All we asked was that they walked above where the hatchlings were and put their dog on a leash for 2 seconds! You can see it in one of the photos below.

Someone had a little trouble orienting to the beach and preferred my foot.

Man throwing frisbee to dog, his wife, the film crew, and hatchlings everywhere.

Hatchlings

Tracks at sunset

Small portion of the tourists

39 Days!!!

Well, time here is almost done. I don't know whether I should be excited or petrified that I don't have enough time to finish my Master's. Right now I think I'm both and I am not sure how I am going to manage this final month because I am falling apart and going crazy! Everyone has been really busy with their projects around here, and there has been far less time for play and pool parties are nonexsistant.  However, we did get a treat when one of the last volunteers played "Pokerface" on the violin to wake up Jacob Hill one morning (pic above). That gave us a nice 5 min break of entertainment.

I am also finding less opportunities to bring my camera out because I am spending so much time in the lab,  with the volunteers, entering data, or any of my other endless tasks. I've been trying to get a good shot of the sun comming through the trees at sunset.  This one I actually really like, but it is not as cool as a small image.

My hard work, however, is finally paying off. I have found no species of bacteria in the cloacal fluid, but there have been many species of fungus. Unfortunately, I have only identified the one above to the genus level.  I, however, did apply for Spring graduation though I am pretty possitive things won't be finished until more like the beginning of June.

Other than that, not much has happened around the station. The iguanas are also starting to use the beach for nesting, so that is kind of cool. I keep hoping to run into a nesting iguana, but the only biologist that has is Avalon. Matt found one in a collapsed nest and was able to put a transmitter on her. She still looked pretty full of eggs, so I don't think she nested yet, but maybe. Below are some pics from that.

LOOK AT HER EYE!

Kimmy helping tie on the transmitter.

Other than that, I am just ordering what I hope will be the last of my supplies and trying to wrap this project up! Got to get it done. We also have another group of Earthwatch volunteers and I am pretty excited about the bunch. I pulled 10 hatchlings out of a nest for them this afternoon during an excavation. In all honesty, it is hard to work with the volunteers now because it takes so much time from my project, and it is sad because I would love to be relaxed and enjoy everything with them, but at this point I am never relaxed. I'm ready to go home now.

Beginning of the End

An albino leatherback embryo that never made it.

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, I am trying to make up for it today by skipping a nap and getting it done. Things have been CRAZY around here and I am very worried my project will not get done in time. As a result I have been spending hours in the lab with limited success, but it's getting better.

My advisor just left this morning after six days with us. That was pretty fun. I got the night off for pizza and beer with him and the owner of the Tampa Bay Rays to watch the Oregon-Auburn National Championship game. Too bad Oregon lost.

Season has been very funny, we got a lot of turtle action at once, and then nothing. I was patrolling two nights ago and a nest in the hatchery hatched, three more on the beach, plus we had 2 ridleys, and 4 leatherbacks (3 of which were mine and 1 was new).  Morning walk the next morning even discovered another set of tracks from a turtle who came up at low tide. There was a lot of confusion over the radio to get volunteers, who had not seen a turtle, to and from turtles. But it all worked out. Other than that, Gary (Ray's owner), Frank, and Earthwatch, I can only think of two more things really worth mentioning... the iguana in the pool and my father's visit.

The big male ctenosaur (black spiny iguana) chased a female into our swimming pool and she could not get out. For your entertainment I have posted some of th pictures below, including Jacob Hill feeding the giant male after the fact.  (Kids, don't feed the wildlife!)

Iguanas are actually very good swimmers, but I guess that is to be expected as there is an entire species of marine iguanas and their body shape is very similar to alligators and crocodiles, which are well known swimmers.

My dad made a quick trip out here, He was able to get on the beach for 3 nights, but only saw 1 turtle and 1 hatchling pulled out from and excavation. I miss sleeping in the hotel already! Hahah. I'm glad he was able to see a turtle, but I guess I over stated the size of the leatherbacks because his comment afterwards was, "That was so cool, but I thought they'd be bigger". She was only about 10cm smaller than the beach average, and 20 or so smaller than those in the Carribean.  I'm just releived he got to see one even though he patrolled 3 nights in a row. Kim's fiance, Torin, was also in town visiting, and they both got to see their first turtle on the same night. The visits, however, meant Kim and I had over a week without a night off, which was pretty exhausting. They left and Frank came, so there was all kinds of excitement and craziness that will hopefully calm down, but probably not because season is wrapping up.

My dad and I at an excavation.

This hatchling's yolk had not yet been absorbed in the stomach.

J Hill showing Torin the hatchling.

 

In other news I am applying for a job doing guided sea kayaking tours with the orcas in Puget Sound, so hopefully that works out! However, the application is extremely long. I spent 2 hours on it last night and I am not nearly done. It is more like a written interview with 22 questions to elaborate on. I'm pretty sure that is the last of has happened lately, but if I come up with anything else, I guess I will have to put it on the next post...Nap time!