Workin' 9 to 5 (or 7 to 3:30)

Nesting season is nearly over, so I figured it was time for an update on how work's going.

Nesting is trailing off and will probably cease in the next week or two. We've found 3 nests this week, bringing the yearly total to 183. We had a few really big weeks (one day we had 29 nests, plus a mother turtle!). With so many nests, it's clear I've been able to form a search image for the nests. I'm still not perfect at it, and I imagine I'll find at least 50-100 more nests once the turtles start hatching, which is determined by either seeing a turtle crawling out of the ground (yeah, I know, "duh") or seeing an empty nest full of eggshells. It's been very dry here lately, however, which means the sand is soft, retains footprints, and easily moved, all of which make it hard to find nests.

INTERRUPTION: As I was writing that last sentence, a spiffy, tiny little insect crawled across my laptop. Mottled brown, 4mm long x 1.5mm wide, rounded abdomen, all three body segments are equal in length, getting progressively wider posteriorly. 2 antennae that terminate in what appear to be clubs, but have a kink midway down the antenna. Small black eyes. Does not appear to have wings and makes no attempt to fly. Beautiful creature!

Back to work...the babies should start hatching in about 1-2 weeks, which I'm excited for. Actually, I'm most excited for not having to stare quite so hard at the ground for the next 3 months, although I'll have to monitor for new nests emerging. We put rings/cages around the nests starting this week in order to capture the hatchlings. We then insert a tag under the skin & notch the hatchlings' shells before we release them.

I've been asked a number of times if it bothers me to "torture" the turtles in this way; honestly, the answer is usually "no." Most of you know me and my near-medical fascination for things and how I'd probably dissect nearly everything if it wouldn't kill it. Plus, I just don't think about it. Last week, however, I did have 2 problem turtles. One was a yearling that we tried to tag with the large tag & needle (as we would tag an adult), which merely put a hole in his leg and caused him to bleed a lot. As we were drilling the hole in the edge of the shell of an adult turtle later that day, I guess we hit a blood vessel and she started bleeding all over my hands, just in time for the mechanic whose power drill we were using to walk into the mechanics' shed (actually, that latter part was somewhat amusing). I felt bad about those. With potentially 1500-2000 hatchlings to tag this fall, though, I can't really think about it too much.

Unfortunately, I don't think the side project we were going to set up involving terrapin predation on marsh periwinkles is going to work out. I'm a bit disappointed in that, but also relieved that I won't have to frantically rush to do that work or begin a project I couldn't feasibly or professionally finish in 3 months.

Once I get the heavy-duty case for my camera, I'll take it out to the island and photograph the babies. I took some pics of the eggs on my film camera and will post those once they're developed.