Why I need to learn how to dry suit dive or OMG GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!!!!

So everyone who reads this blog probably already knows about my obsession with sharks, heck the title of the blog gives it away. So I’ll give you three guesses as to what I did next, yep, cage diving! I hoped on a plane to Port Lincoln to see the great whites. When I got there I was very surprised. I have never seen a smaller airport in my entire life. You know in the movies when they take a “big city” character and take them to the country like Alaska, or Podunk nowhere; this was it. The entire thing was one tiny runway and the terminal was maybe the size of a gate at an average airport, maybe smaller. I was so confused. So I managed to get into town and get settled and the fact that this was a small, non-touristy town really hit home. There were minimal restaurants, maybe three hotels in the entire town, and there only seemed to be three things advertized over and over again; tuna farm tours, swim with seals, and cage diving. So I spent a total of 4 hours and explored most of the town that was in walking distance and spent the rest of the time catching up on sleep; whooh, so exciting. The next day I got up really early and pilled in a tour van with several other tourists and headed out to the harbor. We took a 2 hour boat ride to get to a marine reserve and the minute we got there, two 3+ meter sharks started swimming around the boat. Omg they were huge, and hungry! As soon as bait ht the water they grabbed it and ran. It was so fast I had trouble taking pictures of them.

Omnomnomnom!

We got suited up in 7mm wet suits and headed into the water. Holy cow it was cold!! Think of the coldest swim you’ve ever had, and then think colder. That was the last thing on my mind though as I span around, looking for sharks. The activity quieted down quickly as there was another boat also feeding them so they became less willing to take the bait. When the did, wow did they move fast! One darted up the side of the cage and dived back down before my brain registered what I saw. All of a sudden instead of blue there was a large white belly in front of my face and then it was gone! Luckily I did catch some video, it was absolutely fantastic. When I did come out I was so cold, when I took a shower I couldn’t feel it, gah!!! I was so tired after that I went to take a nap and woke up around midnight. That was unfortunately the end of my adventure in Port Lincoln as weather was too bad to swim with the seals the next day, oh well, that's the ocean for you.

Beware the blurry shark!

Living the documentary, swimming Blue Planet

I spent the rest of the week with my friend from Cairns relaxing and shopping for family and friends (shhh your Christmas presents are a secret!). At the end of the week I packed my backpack and boarded the Taka for a week long live aboard dive trip. It was simply, amazing. There really isn’t any other word for it. It was like 5 days of living a documentary or Blue Planet. I met some really cool people; from the crew to the passengers, everyone was a blast! To organize things I will describe everything day by day.

Saturday

Our first dive was at Challenger Bay, an easy warm up dive, regardless of it’s name. We spent most of it practicing with our dive buddies and acclimating, there wasn’t that much to see as it was mostly sand. The next 2 dives were at Cod Hole, famous for, you guessed it, potato cod. There was so much to see, from the large cod, to the tiniest nudibranch. One we found was seriously the size of my thumbnail, it was so tiny and colorful too. While we were there our tour group had a cod feeding where the crew fed the cod around you and you could pet them! They were completely unafraid of us and didn’t shy away from the occasional pat or scratch. 

                                          One very friendly potato cod

One got so close to me it brushed the top of my head as it swam past! The next dive was slightly nerve wracking as it was my first night dive. Not because of sharks or anything like that, but because of the current and possibly losing someone or the boat. When we descended it was the weirdest feeling. It was like I was a astronaut floating in space. The only thing you could see was the green glow of the boat lights and the beams of other group’s dive lights, it felt very similar to a scifi movie; the boat was the mother ship and we were scouts exploring the surface of an undiscovered planet. This dive we did at Challenger Bay and it looked completely different at night. Travallies swam between our dive lights, looking for prey in our beams as a white tip reef shark ghosted through the coral. It was so alien and wonderful. On a less spectacular note part of our group, including me got separated and we could no longer see the lights from the boat, oops. Luckily we had one of the instructors with us and we surfaced a good ways away from the boat. Calmly we lit ourselves up with our dive lights and waited for the dingy. We were thrown a rope and told to ‘hang on’. Suddenly Whoosh! We were being pulled back to the boat, which was cool because we like an underwater scooter, or what I imagine its like. After that we watched sharks swim at the surface in the light of the boats and hunt little fish. They would calmly swim in circles and then charge, snapping up a fish in the teeth! That night we headed out to Osprey reef, which is 4 hours by helicopter from shore. The ride out there was the bumpiest ride I’ve ever had, which didn’t help because we had to sleep. After nearly being thrown from the top bunk I pulled the mattress to the floor and slept on the floor instead.

Sunday

Sunday was all about Osprey reef. I don’t remember the name of our first site, but we had a shark feeding there!!!!!! Squee!!!!!!!!!! (I couldn’t possibly use enough exclamation points to emphasize how excited I was!) The crew made us hug the walls of the reef, sitting so we could all see, but far enough away from the action that we wouldn’t be accidently be bit. They then lowered giant frozen tuna heads on a chain and tied it to the reef. After they released those heads, it was a feeding frenzy! 

                                          Omnomnom tuna!

So, many sharks, there were at least 20; white tip reef and grey reef sharks were everywhere, chomping happily on frozen fish. Halfway into the feeding one instructor was pointing excitedly in one direction, at the huge oceanic silvertip swimming in from the open blue water. It was a big deal, because oceanic silver tips are open water fish and are naturally skittish. We had three visit us and participate in the feeding, how lucky is that! No, I did no feel scared during the feeding; the sharks kept their distance both before, during, and after the feeding. I also got stung, by coral. Yeah, they can do that, oops. It wasn’t too bad, it just itched for a bit. After that we headed out to Halfway Wall, another first for me on that trip. You don’t fully appreciate how deep the ocean until you look down and there is nothing but blue below you. Halfway Wall is basically the edge of a shallow portion of Osprey reef that plummets to 1000 m (I was constantly chanting ‘don’t drop your camera, don’ drop your camera’ in my head the entire dive). We got to see several endemic species at that site (species only found in that area or that site, in the world!) Brightly colored pyramid butterfly fish and anemone fish swam among us as we floated by fire coral and anemone. During part of the dive we swam under an over hang and if you looked above you, you’d see fish swimming upside down! (Very disorienting.) The next dive was at the Entrance, a series of coral bommies that lead to the inner circle of Osprey reef. During that dive we got to see sweetlips, reef sharks, fire dart fish, and Christmas tree worms!

Monday

We left Osprey reef and headed towards sites like the Clam Gardens! I really don’t think it should have been called that as there weren’t that many clams, but there were plenty of parrotfish! They were every wear and so colorful! They were so bright that they made Woodstock look monochrome! I even saw a sea cucumber move! For non-divers that is significant, because they normally look like sausages laying on the bottom. I even got video of it! It looks like its roaring! After that we headed out to Steve’s Bommie, or the pillar of death, because there are so many venomous things hanging out in that particular spot. We saw eels, more nudibranches, nemos, lionfish, and stonefish, one of the most venomous fish in the ocean! However, it is pretty much the most poorly designed fish in the ocean.

                                       He's sad because he failed evolution

 It has no swim bladder, so it can’t float and can’t swim very well, trust me I’ve seen it. It also has this permanent scowl on its face, like it knows your laughing at it because it fails so spectacularly. It sits on the bottom most of the time, so you can only get stung if you step on it. Since we were diving we were fine. I spent a good amount of time at the site schooling with these yellow striped fish. It was so much fun! I would swim in and they would move away, but when I stopped and floated they schooled around me, I was an honorary fish, my dream has come true!

                                                    Going to "school"

 The last dive of the day was another night dive, no we did not get lost this time. The site was called the Beer Gardens because a loggerhead turtle frequently sleeps there (Haha, dive humor). In addition to the couch sized sleeping turtle we also saw sleeping parrot fish and a peacock mantis shrimp! These shrimp are super colorful and very bold. They’re about the size of your forearm and have two large balls of hardened calcium on the claws that they use to whack they’re prey on the head and kill them. They’ve been known to crack camera lenses and 2cm thick glass! With boxing gloves like that I’d be pretty cocky too!

Tuesday

On the last day e only had two dives, this time on Norman reef. Even though it is a more visited reef and therefore more damaged, there was plenty to see. I got to see a baby lionfish, a green turtle, and flatworms (which look like colorful handkerchiefs that have bunny ears). I also got up close and personal to a white tip reef shark. It was sitting on the bottom in the sand and I decided to join it, and it didn’t swim away! It let me take a few pictures before it decided that it had enough and swam off.

                                           One very unimpressed fish...

 This particular part of my travels was very significant for me and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It makes everything I’ve learned and hope to do more significant and personal. Instead of a fact on a flashcard it’s now are living creature I can associate with. Cheesy as it sounds it was life changing.

Advanced placement and questionability of Australian hostels

So after several adventures later, cosplay, Halloween, Full Moon Parties, zombie walks, and finals (if you want to know about them you can just ask) I finally got the chance to get my advanced diver’s certification. So, I hoped on a boat to Maggie Island to get certified at the local dive shop. When I got there they told me my certification would involve 5 dives and reading of a few chapters from the dive handbook. Let me repeat that, 5 dives and a few chapters…what? It took me months to get my open water cert and now it’ll take 2 days? I love Australia! So after that I dawdled around, met some of the local wallabies (they are so cute, but the way they swarm you is very intimidating you see one and suddenly, they’re all around you. It was like the marsupial version of The Birds) and went to my accommodations. The accommodations were nice enough, but on a weird and kind of gross note I did find a cane toad in one of the toilets (Ew Mr. Toad, just ew).

The next day the sweetest cat greeted me as I embarked for my dive. This cute little grey tabby was rubbing up against my leg and purring! He escorted me to the front walk and plopped down in a sunbeam to see me off, so cute! So the first dive was for buoyancy control, which any diver can tell you, is a pain to initially work out. After that it was underwater navigation. Anyone who has ever been in the car or traveled with me, knows I am directionally challenged at the best of time. Needless to say, my first attempt was way off the mark. The other ones, surprisingly, went great I found the line easily. I can easily navigate a square, triangle, and using the terrain, I just can navigate back and forth in a straight line…go me. The last dive of the day was a wreck dive of the Moltke, a German cargo boat 150m off of Geoffrey Bay. So my dive instructor and I paddled out on our backs to the buoy and started our descent. The visibility was abysmal. I could see about 2m in front of my face. Plus I was having trouble staying down because the instructor insisted that I only needed 2 weights when I knew I needed 3; but I did see some awesome wild life! The first was this huge crayfish the size of my arm! We also saw a nudibranch (before anyone wisecracks or says nudi-what? It's a type of gastropod that kind of looks like a sea slug that comes in nearly every color you can think of) and I saw my first shark!!!!!!!! Before you ask, did it bite you, were you scared, no I wasn’t. It was a 3 foot epaulet shark, virtually harmless and probably more scared of us as it swam away as soon as we saw it.

            The next day I had to wake up extra early to catch a bus to get on a boat, to do my last two dives on the Yongola Wreck. I spent 20 minutes waiting for the bus, being stared down by a bird whose name I forget, as I munched on an apple. The bird even hissed at me, like a raptor, weird bird. So one long and bumpy boat ride and gear up, we dove down 100ft to explore the S.S. Yongola, one of Australia’s most famous wrecks and one of the world’s best dive sites.

 I was a little nervous about diving so deep, but going down was very easy. As soon as we began our descent down the guide line, dozens of silvery tarpon were swimming around us, and suddenly we hit bottom…right next to the largest stingray I’ve ever seen!! I was literally bigger than me, just chilling out in the sand. Why do you need to hide? You’re bigger than almost anything that could eat you! We spent our last two dives exploring the wreck. There was so much to see, you could see for 20+ meters and there were fish everywhere! We saw eels, wrasse, barracuda, and at least 3 different types of sea snakes! One in particular decided to get real friendly and moseyed over my way, my response “lets just be friends” and slowly scooted away.  I also had a lot of fun trying to school with a small group of very big barracuda, they didn’t seem to mind. The best part of the trip was the second dive. We were swimming towards the bow when the instructor started pointing emphatically under the bow. Not thinking much of it, I took my time getting there, derping about, and finally looked under the ship… holy…cow…Under the boat was the largest fish I’ve ever seen, bar a shark. The fish was easily twice my size and looked so heavy it was anyone’s guess how it could swim. Apparently this grouper is called V.W., who visits the wreck from time to time. He’s called V.W. because he is the same size and a V.W. mini bus!!!! Not kidding! The pictures do not do justice to his size. It’s estimated that he weighs about 400 kg! After that experience and one bumpier ride later I officially joined the ranks of advanced diver! Yeah! However, there was no time to celebrate. 

The next day a couple of friends and I hopped on to a bus and began the long ride up to Cairns and the Daintree rainforest!!!! The tour group we picked gave us the option of staying overnight, in the rainforest, so of course we took that option. We visited several sites like Port Douglas, swam in Mossman Gorge, and took a river tour to croc spot! We saw a few of them, it was very difficult as they were very well camouflaged. Creepy (shivers). After that we were dropped off at the hostel. After dumping our gear we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and taking goofy pics.

 We didn’t go swimming of course since stinger season was in full swing. (Will jellyfish always ruin swimming for me?). After that one of my friends, Line, and I decided to go on a (toured) night walk in the rainforest. Our guide, oddly enough, was German. We ended up not having a single Australian on the tour. While picking up others, our guide brought us over to see something in the bushes next to the hostel reception. It was a snake; not just any snake, but an eastern brown snake, the second most deadly snake in all of Australia. It was in front of the reception parking lot, yikes! Fortunately no one did anything stupid and the snake paid no attention to us. This was not the only time we saw snakes in less than ideal places. We saw two other snakes in the area around our hostel, none on the night walk, in the rainforest, but around the hostel…uhhhhh. There was also tons of large, very colorful, and probably venomous spiders everywhere too. Oddly enough, we didn’t see snakes or many spiders, but we did see forest dragons, toads, and some other lizards. We even got to see glowing fungus!!! It was mine and Line’s favorite part of the tour! (Bio geeks unite!) However, to see the moss everyone had to turn their flashlights off, ack! Fortunately nothing happened. The next day we spent walking along one of the beaches, which was absolutely beautiful. The sky and sea were so blue and the sand felt wonderful on my feet. The beach was covered in little crabs burrowing in the sand, resulting in piles of sand balls everywhere! We even saw some Ulysses butterflies; they’re the iridescent (shiny!) blue butterflies you usually see in rainforest advertisements. After that we had some time to kill so we visited the local bat conservation center. We got to feed one of the old bats and the caretaker even let us hold one of the baby bats! (I got to hold Stellaluna!!!!! I never thought I would say that). Unfortunately we had to head back to Cairns and the group split up to travel to different places.

Stellaluna is sleepy, time for a cuddle!

Yes I'm alive, no a shark didn't eat me

Okie dokie, sorry this blog has been dead for so long. I keep forgetting that I have this thing and the moment I do remember is the moment I am no where near my computer. Aside from that, I’m going to try to relay the last couple months for the amusement of anyone still reading this. Ok, right, Orpheus Island. For the Australia version of uni spring break certain classes can gobble up this time for fieldwork and trips so instead of a week you have 3-4 days…if you only have one class with a field trip. So for Coral Reef Ecology we all had to do field work on Orpheus Island. Sounds interesting, right?... You’d be completely wrong, it was fantastic! Basically Orpheus Island is a remote island accessible only by boat and the only thing on it besides forest is a small research station and an exclusive resort. It was gorgeous! It was basically untouched reef, it was so colorful, and we were allowed to touch it! Everyday we would get up and spend hours in the ocean snorkeling our like crazy gathering data for various student made projects. Not only that., but we were also allowed to interact with it! Our professor told us that was the only way we could fully learn, so he said we could handle the coral! That never happens! Granted we had to make sure there was no sun block on our hands so we wouldn’t harm the coral. A lot of vigorous scrubbing of hands occurred before every survey. Coral wasn’t the only thing in the water. We saw lots of colorful fish! They were swimming all around us; angelfish darted in front of our faces, butterfly fish and snails everywhere and, as a special surprise Christmas tree worms! There’s a pic of them down below. They are a small worm that attaches to hard substrate, like rock or dead coral and filter feed. When predator (or your hand) causes a change in the water movement, they withdraw themselves into the rock. Fun fact they were the inspiration for the retractable plant in one of the early sequences in Avatar! Biology, its awesome! On a less positive note afternoon work was a bit of a pain (literally) because at low tide and with a current we were accidently bumping into coral constantly. You could I.D. coral from the mucus imprints on our butts basically. Everyone ended up with coral scraps and cuts on their hands. Luckily no one got infected. It wasn’t all work though; we also got to do a fun snorkel very early in the morning in the mangroves. Looking for baby sharks! We didn’t find any unfortunately, but swimming the mangroves was the best maze I’ve ever been in. We did see one from the shore one day though. That day before dinner everyone was just hanging around napping and recouping, when some one shouted “Shark!” In a flash every student, whether lazing about, working, or sleeping, jumped up and ran towards the beach. Nearly everyone was there looking and chattering excitedly about where it had gone ( we probably scared it away, as some had run into the water)… yeah we’re weird like that, marine biologist are the only one who will run towards the water when someone yells shark. Self preservation, what’s that? We are scientists!

After half a week was up we packed up and headed back to JCU, only to get on a bus the next morning and head down to Arlie Beach. Nine of us went, we took up a while room at the hostel we stayed at. We spent the rest of our week swimming, lazing around on the beach and catamaraning. No, we didn’t sail it, we took a tour on one around the islands, I’m not coordinated enough to crew a ship. We had such a short time that we thought we’d get a nice summary sailing around the islands. It was very relaxing. During our tour we took a break on White Haven beach, home to the palest, finest sand I’ve ever seen. Fine ground, natural silica sand feels absolutely heavenly between your toes, it felt like the dust I used to fill my chinchilla’s dust bath. All of us decided to roll around in it and imitate sugar cookies (because silica sand is a good exfoliate!). Several f the locals said hi as well, three lace moniter lizards and a massive green turtle. We also spent some time snorkeling as well. It wasn’t as impressive as Orpheus, but then again there is a lot more human traffic in the area, so it wasn’t surprising, it was still nice though. So that was my “Spring Break”. I’ve much more to chat about, my advanced dive course, the rainforest, diving in the Coral Sea, but I’ve got to be rested for tomorrows cage dive, with great whites! Here’s hoping I see a few! Got any question or just want to rant about my lack of keeping up with the blog? Leave a comment below!  

I survived midterms (yes midterms, school starts earlier here)

            Hey everybody…or whoever is still reading this blog after weeks of silence. Yay, things have been very busy, considering I’m half way through my semester! OMG!!!! These past couple of week have been running me ragged I’ve had to write 3 3,000+ word papers and several exams.  Blech! I’ve also been on and off sick, must be due to the campus, they are a breeding ground for travel savvy germs.

            But enough about that, on to fun stuff. I finally went diving! We left the marine at 6:30 am to start the 3 hour trek to a nearby reef. You would think that you would run into reef if you swam from shore, nope. There are a bunch of ecological reasons why its out this far, but I won’t bore you. Plus 3 hours is relatively close by Aussie standards. On the way there we saw whales! This pair of humpback whales were hanging out at the surface and they were huge!!!! We slowed down to watch them, much to the befuddlement of everyone else on the deck. Diving for the first time in two years was, nerve wracking I’ll admit. I thought I’d forget everything and I’d do something really stupid. Except for my initial decent, everything went awesomely! I had problems trying to sink to the bottom. I am very buoyant plus the thick dry wetsuit wasn't helping. When I finally reached the bottom and looked around it finally hit me that after years of reading and staring at glossy photos of fish and reading about reefs I was diving on the largest and most species diverse reef network in the world. I was in full-blown geek mode. The water drag reduced my happy dance to a slow panoramic twirl. I had two dives with my dive buddy, one of the dive masters. She swam a bit too fast, but other than that it was great. All the fish were so colorful and the coral was stunning! The coral looked like statues but so alive at the same time.

Look I found Nemo and Martin! (Not really, they are clownfish just not the same species)

            I didn’t see anything big, but that's the best part about the ocean, its dynamic and its never the same experience twice. We did get to see clownfish and spotted stingrays. (On a side note the dive signal for clownfish is an open palm with your thumb touching your nose and a spotted stingray is laying your hand flat and pointing at different places to indicate spots). My favorite was when we were swimming out in the open; all of a sudden this huge white stingray lifts off out of the sand and swam away. It was wonderful.

            Unfortunately after the trip I got sick, fever, colds etc. and then midterm assignments hit like textbooks falling out of a messy locker, inevitable and painful. (Trust me, I would know). I haven’t been doing much since except homework. Oh, and I joined my GR (George Robert’s) choir group, we had a competition last week, yay!!!! It was so much fun. All of the dorms competed in various musical groups. Our group sung the “4 Chord Song” by the Axis of Awesome. (I’m tagged in a clip of our performance). We didn’t win, but we had so much fun doing it we didn’t care.

            After all the stress of the past couple of weeks I finally had a chance to swim in the river after the chaos of this week. There is a river just a short walk away from my dorm and its big, deep and has a dock. It was relaxing to just hang out with friends and goof around for a bit because this week is lecture recess!!! This is Australia’s equivalent to spring break, but until back home classes can use this to set up week long field trips. My coral reef class is one such case. I’m spending 4 days on Orpheus Island taking coral surveys. Sounds boring, but think about it. I’m gonna be on a non-touristy island, with friends, on a beach, snorkeling on a reef all day…*faints from joy*. I thrive on research and doing this is unique experience. After that I’ll be going down to Whitsundays for a few days of fun in the sun! Until then! 

At first I was like woah, and then she was like woah! And then we were like woah…

Hi everybody, I’m still alive! No, I haven’t been mauled by a vicious koala. I’ve just been busy with schoolwork. Ugh. The worst part is that it’s all reading. No practices no work pages, just reading and essays. On the other hand there hasn’t been much going on socially, most of the clubs aren’t very active or don’t advertise themselves well (except for Anime Club, go figure).  I have been getting exercise though just walking to class, which is a 15-20 minute walk away! Goodness this campus is sprawling! To combat this problem I bought a bike! Yay for transportation!

On a happier note I went to Magnetic Island with my friend Sarah and we went snorkeling and kayaking! For those of you who may not know Magnetic Island is, obviously, an island 20 minutes from Townsville by ferry. It's a weekend favorite of all JCU students and one of the least touristy islands I’ve ever been to; which is good and bad. Bad because you can barely find anything on the island, good because there is no crowd of tourists everywhere you turn. It feels like uncharted paradise. So, Sarah and I first went to Florence Bay to go snorkeling…which involved a 3km hike one way up and down very steep hills. They were so steep rental vehicles were having trouble going up them! 0_0. Wow. The snorkeling was worth it! The reef was just a few feet away from shore and gorgeous! It was like a scene out of Blue Planet! The fish were so colorful and the coral vibrant and lively. Then, Sarah tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at something to our right. It was a…sea turtle!!!!!! This beautiful green turtle swam next to us; it was over half my size! The way it swam looked like a bird in flight. It was so breathtaking to watch an animal I’ve learned so much about in its natural habitat, it really brings home the fact that these animals are more than the subject of short answer essays and reside solely in aquariums. This is why I want to be a marine biologist, to study these beautiful animals and study their complexity and show that to others. It’s really hard to describe that swim. I think the best summary was when Sarah and I left the water and were hopping up and down squealing, “Did you see that potato cod? That fish was so colorful! OMG turtle!” When you get two people studying marine biology on a reef our vocabulary drops significantly.

After that we hopped on a bus to Horseshoe Bay for a sunset kayak. Unfortunately we got off at the wrong bus stop and had to take a long walk up to the beach. The ocean kayaking was great, but man what a workout. We managed to see a few more turtles and watched the sunset from our kayaks. All it was a spectacular day!

p.s. I have (crappy) video of the green turtle, I’ll post it on facebook! For those without facebook, should I start a Tumblr page so you can see it? Let me know in the comments below!

 p.p.s. : Yes this is from my camera, underwater housing for the win!

Meeting the locals

Squee! My cuteness-o-meter just hit critical! Ok, let me back track. Several days ago I bought tickets to go to the wildlife sanctuary. I knew I was going to encounter some of the local wildlife, just not to the degree I met them. The tour started as most do, a greeting, short background story of the sanctuary and then move to the first exhibit. The first animals we saw were koalas. They were so chill and relaxed. The ranger said that they sleep most of the day because of their nutrient poor diet. Then he told us we could go in and pet the koalas! I was so excited I squeed and started hopping up and down (my natural reaction to most animals). We met one of the younger koalas named Ray Charles, a blind koala. This little koala was surrounded by a swarm of uni students getting up close and personal and he didn't even bat and eyelash; he just keep on eating and then fell asleep!

We also got to meet what I thought was the cutest animal at the sanctuary, not just because he was fluffy, but because of his history. I’m referring to Tonka the wombat, this gigantic marsupial nearly the size of a bear cub. The ranger brought him out and he looked so sleepy and relaxed (wombats are nocturnal, so he was tired!). The ranger told us that a cyclone hit Townsville in February and they had to close down Billabong temporarily. During this time Tonka stopped eating and was listless. After he lost weight and took him to the vet they discovered that Tonka was depressed; he missed getting hugs from the visitors! (He was raised by humans since he was little, so he thinks he’s a human!). Since the park has reopened he’s gained his weight back and is now happier than ever. I made sure to give him a big warm cuddle and pat on the head.

Hopping outside the enclosures were dozens of kangaroos. You could walk up to them and pet their fur; it was so soft! They weren’t the big kangaroos you normally think of (those are red kangaroos) these came up to around shoulder height. I fed a little kangaroo, he was adorable; hopping on his little legs and eating out of my hand (don’t worry it was feed handed out by the park keepers). I also held a baby crocodile, python, and joined to feed the turtles!!! It was so funny watching them eat raw fish whole! I missed the turtle race because the bus came early, oh well. I did manage to bring a little friend back from the sanctuary; maybe I’ll introduce him some time soon.

I enjoyed Billabong a lot! We closely interacted with the animals and had a wonderful tour guide. He was informative and very funny, which seems to be the normal Australian attitude. I wasn’t a fan of the new cockatoo being acclimated to humans though. They put it on a branch and clipped its wings. Poor thing was freaking out as people crowded it. The rest of the sanctuary was fun though.

Yesterday we went to ReefHQ the largest coral reef aquarium in the world! The coral was gorgeous and the fish were so colorful! This one type of fish, called an orange spot surgeonfish (because their fins are sharp and used as defense) change their color right in front of me. It turned from black to silver grey. Apparently this change occurs when the fish becomes less hostile and wants to invite cleaner fish to groom it. They also had the largest nurse shark I’ve ever seen! It was easily 6 feet long and very big. Since we had a private tour we were lead to the sea turtle hospital. They had several green turtles in tanks recuperating from various things, mostly from garbage in their stomachs.

On the way back to campus we saw the forest fire that has been burning for the last several days. Ok, before anyone freaks out, it was a prescribed fire. This means that they intentionally burn some of the underbrush so when wildfires happen they don’t spiral out of control. It is controlled and monitored closely and they do this often, so don’t lose your head. It is pretty to see it in the middle of the night though.

Aussie word of the day: joey= infant marsupial

p.s.: You can see more pictures of my first week in my new facebook album "Aussie Welcome Wagon"

Couching nerd, (not so) hidden dork

So I tried my first Australian party…not a fan. The music was pounding, I a million conversations going on at the same time, and beer. Australia seems to be a drinking culture. I’ve been here a week and it seems that there’s a party or people going out to drink every night. It may just be due to classes not starting yet, but I’ve talked to some of the locals and people go clubbing on a Tuesday (called cheap Tuesdays).

Call me a teetotaler, fuddy-duddy, lame; I don’t care. I don’t get it. I don’t care about it either way; it just tastes gross to me (drinking age is 18 here, calm down). Which is a good thing because alcohol is expensive over here. Ehh. I was more excited about seeing the wallaby walking back from the party (I can already hear the chorus of friends and family saying “you would be” :D ).

Today was full of meet and greet events. I finally met the Japanese language professor, who has been very nice about responding to my neurotic emails. Unfortunately I won’t be able to take the intermediate level because my coral reef ecology class practical is during one of the lectures. RAGE! I’ve made so many sacrifices for this class; took a 3 week summer stats class, constant emailing of professors to approve everything, reorganized my schedule, sacrificed my week long lecture break for research (which is in a beautiful remote location, which is cool, but its grating on my last nerves, plus the trip wasn’t mentioned in the course offer). I’m so drained from this class and I haven’t even started it! Enough about that, I found the shark section of the library! I checked out a huge textbook field guide to sharks of Australia; need to know who I’m looking at when I dive.

I’m gonna try to fall asleep now, there’s a party going on next door…ugh.

Aussie word of the day: Bubbler= water fountain

p.s.: next post is a surprise!

Almost like home, but not quite

I’ve been here for nearly a week now and I’m already noticing a few differences. Not big differences like everyone walks backwards or speak another language (though sometimes the accent is difficult to manage) but little things like; a parking lot is called a “car park” and when you order a burger they slap a salad on top of it. Seriously I had a hamburger with lettuce, cheese, tomato, carrot, ketchup, pickles, pineapple and beet root (beet root seems very popular over here). I’ve been out exploring via (pronounced vai~a, not ve~ia) car, I’ve found a friend with a car very quickly, and completely on accident. Yay for striking up random conversations in the dinning hall!

Food wise things are recognizable with a few changes; you have spaghetti on toast in the morning, dessert is only at dinner (the apple crumble and custard is delicious), you sprinkle cinnamon directly on to your toast, there is no soda in the dinning halls (probably a good thing), and coffee is always: instant, 1/5 coffee and the rest is milk. Not unsettlingly different but its caused me to double take more than once. The other night we did go out to the Strand (a nearby beach) and I had the most delicious goat curry. It was spicy and savory and wonderful!

I also went to see Harry Potter; it’s been in Australia since the 13^th (release dates over here are a bit wonky). It was awesome and a good way to get to know my new friends better. On a side note the concessions at the theater were like a candy store, you could get anything from normal snacks from home to chocolate dipped ice cream cones and pizza!

Normally on Sunday all the stores are closed. So streets are closed down and dozens of street markets open up. The one I went to was a fairly standard market; fresh produce, handcrafted toys, crocodile skin belts (ok, maybe not that one). Everything was bright and colorful…and expensive. I know that the American dollar isn’t very strong right now and the exchange rate adds to it, but I still couldn’t help but whistle under my breath at some of the prices. So I window shopped! I found the cutest hatters that specialized in those fancy hats you see ladies wear at the Kentucky Derby. Apparently at weddings here you usually wear a hat, they also have a lot of horse races locally. Some of my friends went to one last week and had a ball. Maybe I’ll go next time, maybe even wear a fascinator.

Today was more or less checking off things on my list:

-get an Australian phone

 -get snacks

       -buy tickets to JCU sponsored events (They’re a secret, but I’ll write about them eventually)

Buy books…

I tried to find them, but nothing came up on my ‘books I need to buy list’, which is weird. I’ve never had a biology class that didn’t have a textbook big enough to k.o. a kangaroo. But I did come across this stunning flock of rainbow lorikeets munching on flowers outside one of the dorms!   

p.s.: Since there isn’t going to be a turtle count anymore I’m going to have a word of the day that’s either a different from the American phrase or completely new!

Word of the day: zebra (pronounced zebra) crossing = cross walk

Fresh off the boat

Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posting, I’m a little discombobulated and overwhelmed. So I made it Australia, and what a trip it was! 24 hours of flight + lay over + different time zone – 1 day= 1 very dazed and confused me. By the time I stood in front of the Townsville Airport I could only sway back and forth on my feet as I tried to respond to people with accents. Luckily I met up with the other students from my school and I met one of my roommates! Our dorms are suite style singles! Dinning halls are annoying though. There’s one for every dorm and they have strict hours so interacting with campus is limited to the dorm, meh. I have met quite a few people so far; Germans, Norwegians, Dutch, Hollanders, Ecuadorian, English…and a bucket ton of Americans. I came here to escape America! Oh well, I have noticed that foreign students tend to group together, mostly with their own nationality. It feels weird being the international student, now I know why my schools foreign students huddle together like they do; being in a foreign country is easier with people going through the same things.

I’ve mostly been getting familiar with campus and smoothing out my schedule. I had to drop photography due to a clash, so now I’m taking painting. Other than that I’ve been hanging out with my new friends and trying out the local activities. I’ve been to the tav (tavern) and we tried to go to the aboriginal full moon drum circle; unfortunately it was rained out. Which is weird because we’re in the middle of Australian winter.

At the tav last night we met one of the tav’s usuals, a beer loving possum! They’re very different from the possums back home (this guy was actually cute, I suggest you look them up on Google). A bandicoot also joined the party to snack on bugs. That's the thing about the wildlife here, its everywhere and mingles surprisingly well with the people. I wake up to hear the stereotypical jungle background sound every morning (the kind that has all the bird calls). Kookaburras are abundant; causally flying around giving students only a passing glance and laughing raucously at 6 am… They’re not the only birds around campus; I’ve seen ibis, magpies, turkeys, and other birds I couldn’t name. These animals are very unique even the turkeys are pure black with bald red heads and a double-fanned tail, and these animals are just on campus. Henrietta (my Norwegian friend) says she saw a wallaby early one morning, I’ve yet to see one.

Everybody do the construction car conga!

My times as turtle hunter have come to an end. Word must have got around the terrapin water cooler because we found 6 turtles yesterday; the first one we found even before we started our route, we drove up to it! I guess they wanted to see me off, or get one final nip at me. 8174 wished me farewell by sitting in the road and making me carry her across it; seriously we caught her 4 times and she’s always crossing the road, just pick a spot you finicky reptile! Maybe she has a death wish.

It was sad to leave my housemates, we may have only known each other for about a month, but when you’re with someone nearly every waking moment of the day and are all huge zoology nerds you just click. I’ve done a lot with these girls over the past month, from chasing down threatened species to errands and hanging out. They’ve certainly made this a memorable and fun experience. They even surprised me with pie and ice cream on my last night!

 And so began my 6 hour drive back home…you would think that driving at night would lessen the crowds, it did except for the infinite number of construction sights spawning like zombies in a horror movie! Its like every tractor trailer in the state magnetizes towards them and no one has ever heard of the concept of alternate feed. And why is there so much construction if there is an economic downturn? I digress; I made it home and now am scrambling to grab everything I need for 5 months in Australia. Going a little nutty I must admit.

I also went to the new Yankees stadium for the first time, only to see them soundly beaten, oh well. The seats were comfy and I enjoyed myself immensely, go Yankees!

Final terrapin tally: 58

Final nest tally: 15

Turtles don't go on vacation

Working 7 days a week in the outdoors with only one coworker means that you often forget what day it is. I completely forgot about the 4^th of July until one of my housemates said she was going to a barbeque. The plethora of tourists reminded me though, ugh. Traffic was bad and there were people everywhere. We got to see the parade though…correction, we drove through it.

We were driving back from Great Island and we saw a lot of people going into town. We thought we’d go around it, but a police officer waved us through…into block party’s worth of people. Children running in the street, parents standing in the road taking pictures, it was utter pandemonium! I was freaking out just a bit and rolled up the windows so my color commentary wasn’t shared with the entire street. We made it without having to pick tourists from Vinnie’s grill, so it wasn’t so bad. I think they thought we were part of the parade, silly me.

Since it was the 4^th our house had to have a picnic! Did we go into town and watch fireworks? Go to a barbeque? No. We made banana bread, cheese, bread and other assorted delicious things, packed them up and sat on the dunes to watch the fireworks! There were a lot of bugs, but it was worth it. It was pitch black; the only lights came from the town. Since the dunes in the Province Lands are so high we saw fireworks in Province Town, Truro and Wellfleet! No one else was there because everyone was in town and we could climb the dunes thanks to our permits. (Afterwards we had to look for toads). It was gorgeous; we were level with the explosions and far enough away that the sound was delayed. When the fireworks died down we lay on our towels and watched the endless map of stars above our heads. We talked and made wishes on shooting stars navigating the sky. We were completely alone in the dunes except for the chirping crickets and coyote pups learning to howl. To quote my Peanut: “Its like a scene out of a movie.” It certainly felt like it.

Terrapins today: 1

Terrapin count: 53

Nest count: 14

Hey Lady!

Today was kinda gross…scratch that, really gross. It was hot, sunny, and cloudless. This was perfect weather for a swim and relaxing...and I had to work. I had sand and dirt sticking to me everywhere and it looked like I stepped out of a tanning salon. It all washed off in the shower though, bummer. (But now I know what I look like with a tan!). We found only one turtle, 8134, a recapture. She had a protrusion on her right front leg; we think it's a bone. Ouch! These turtles are tough! Most of the older ones are beaten up; some look like they’ve been run over too. (I’m not joking!)

We had some guests recently join us on our patrol; little day campers! They were so cute!!!! I felt like I was giving another aquarium tour, but without all the usual hyperactive screaming and running. They got a little too excited over the turtle we found. No you cannot hold the turtle, watch out he bites, no you can not take him with you. You have no idea how glad I was that we found at least one turtle. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we didn't find one.  Luckily Emily and I knew enough about the flora and fauna to entertain the kids ( I even gave the horseshoe crab talk I’ve said uncountable times at the aquarium job while trying to illustrate as best I could with a molted horseshoe crab carapace). They were so exhausted by the end of walk that they barely talked, let alone complained. The councilors were very thankful. The kids and councilors were really nice and I doubt they would have complained much even f we didn’t see a turtle, I just keep thinking about some of the tours I’ve led at my previous job *shudder* not pretty.

Today’s terrapins: 1

Total terrapins: 52

Nest total: 13

I finally understand what "soaked the bone" means

I will never be dry again! Its either wet and rainy or I’m sweat drenched. I finally went out with my housemates to find toads, in the rain. You see turtles like warm, dry weather for nesting and toads like wet warm weather to, ahm, “get jiggy with it” I believe is the scientific term. If one animal doesn't like the weather, chances are the other will. Catching toads, Sounds easy, right? Nope. These guys are small, come out in downpour at night and are slippery little suckers. The first time I went out Momiana (Emily and I’s new name for Cricket) we walked 10 feet down the path and we found 9 toads, apparently unheard of (I have a video of this I’ll be posting). I have been dubbed a toad magnet and Momiana is threatening to keep me in the back seat of the car every time they go out to catch toads.

The turtle lull continues with a turtle here and there, just in time for my family to visit! My family came to visit! Yay! I lead them on a tour of Great Island, we didn't see any turtles, it was foggy and very un-turtley weather. Which ended up with jokes of how the terrapins didn't exist and it's all a conspiracy. (Sadly, some people believe this. These guys are hard to find if you’re not looking. People have said we plunk them down on their property…Yes, because Mass Autoban took time and effort to displace a threatened species in your backyard just to inconvenience you. *sarcasm sign*).

As Murphy’s Law dictates we found a turtle today, barely 30 minutes into the walk, with a sonic tag!  This turtle was freaking out, she wouldn’t calm down. Emily and I received a few lovely claw marks to go with our greenhead fly bites (first flys of the season, itchy). The funny thing was when we put her down she didn’t run back into the marsh; she immediately started digging and then laying her eggs! She basically decided “I’m gonna lay my eggs whether you’re here or not! Biological Prime Directive!”

We also went out to Middle Marsh, how you might ask? By boat, ah yeah! We hopped on to Professor B’s boat and jetted out into the bay to look for more turtles. We didn’t find any turtles, but we startled a hawk 3 feet from us and nearly flew into Professor B! 

Today’s terrapins: 1

Total terrapins: 50!!!!!

Nest total: 11

There's a toad in our freezer

I’m not kidding, it’s right next to the waffles. This is what happens when you have a house full of scientists. It’ll only get worse as we grow older, Professor B has shown us some of her prizes, I can’t wait to have a glass cabinet full of animal bone, sea glass, and shells! Right now I’m only collecting feathers. I have a wild turkey and several others I haven’t I.D.’d yet. They toad is from my two of my housemates (who I shall now refer to as Cricket and Peanut). Everyone in the house is wonderfully insane. Its been nothing but inappropriate jokes, zoology references, and non-stop giggling…and food, lots and lots of food! We’ve gone to Stop and Shop maybe three times this week already, the fridge is packed, and we’ll probably run out of food my Friday. Don’t judge, “we’re four grown women with vaginas and periods” so says Peanut. Peanut is hilarious, with the metabolism of a roadrunner! Cricket is just as funny, and speaks Hungarian and Japanese! Yay! We also like to show each other goofy clips and speak in quotes, tour current fav is End of Ze World, or nostalgic if you’re my age.

On a more serious note, we have begun the first lull of the turtle-nesting season. From what I’ve been told there is two nesting peaks with a quite period in between them. So far there are only one or two turtles nesting. We’ve found some more nests (with some predated, sad I know, but that’s nature) and we’re stopping our egg count because most of the eggs we’ll find now are older, and turning them may cause the egg-embryo bond to break and kill the babies.

…Oh my everything…I definitely earned my sleep tonight. Yesterday and today was a marathon of everything we’ve learned to do so far: patrolling, wading, kayaking, etc. all day. I’m not complaining; I just feel like a geriatric patient. On the bright side, I take my lunch breaks on the beach! OH YEAH! It was a perfect day;

The sun was warm and bright, the ocean half-heartedly rolling on the shore. Emily and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch beneath a drift an old lean-to compiled of driftwood and other flotsam and jetsam. A lazy breeze ruffling the dune grass as we stared into the faded denim scenery, the sky and water seamlessly melded until the horizon fading into nothingness.

This is me trying to be poetic, take what you will from it.

PS- Since we are stopping the egg count I’m just going to post the total number of turtles and nests as we find them! Tootles!

Today’s terrapins: 6

Total terrapins: 48 (almost at 50!)

Nest total: 9 (7 are viable) 

The literature lied to me

Today was a perfect day! 70 degrees, sunny, little wind…I found one turtle. What is wrong with you turtles!!!! Don’t you read your own literature! Grrrrr…I’m not really mad, just a little annoyed that the one turtle I found was at the end of my route so I had to walk the path again. It was a hot walk, so after the walk I climbed the dunes on to the beachfront and took a dip in the ocean…with my clothes on. Didn’t have a bathing suit and at that point I didn’t really care. I can’t believe I’ve been living here for about two weeks and this is the first time I went swimming here. I work on a beach, why haven’t I taken advantage of it!

I didn’t find many turtles, but we found babies yesterday! They’re so cute! Granted they are eggs now, but they’ll hatch into cute little terrapins and scuttle into the salt marsh in a few months! Finding the nests is really tough though. We’ve been digging up every patted down area to find them, but until yesterday we didn’t find any real nests. Now that we’ve found 5, FIVE, nests I don’t feel like an idiot. I’ll put up pics later; there are at least 12 eggs in every nest we found. It must be tough for the mothers to lay up to 20 eggs, that's a lot for an animal the size of a dinner plate!

We also went kayaking the other day, while trying to catch turtles…its difficult to catch a turtle when you have a paddle in one hand, a net in the other, trying to chase after turtle heads popping up in the water, all the while trying not to tip over the kayak. It’s like Whack-a-Mole extreme outdoor edition; I loved it, and it’s completely free! I managed to find a little cove where a few of them were hanging out and got the paddle tangled up in the net at least thrice and I spent most of my time paddling back and forth after surfacing turtles only to have them scatter as soon as I put my paddle in the water. I caught one in the end! Skill or dumb luck? Don’t answer that.

While patrolling yesterday I got into several conversations because people wanted to know why I was wandering back and forth along the trail (I was following turtle tracks) and digging in the sand. By the time I turned around to walk back an older lady asked me if I was the “turtle girl”. Apparently word gets around fast on the beach. It certainly is a step up from “Hey lady” being pounded into your eardrums by a group of hyperactive first graders while guiding an aquarium tour. Turtle girl, I can live with that.

Turtle tally- 4 (and lots of little eggs)

PS- Emily passed her driver’s test! Yay! Now she won’t need to bike eight or so miles everyday to our study site when I leave!

The social dynamic of daddy long legs spiders…in my bathroom

With good weather come turtles…and tourists. It’s been cold and cloudy up until today so there weren't any before, but now we have some with the promise of a herd of them tomorrow. Turtles, that is…and tourists too. There were a lot of people out walking, kayaking, etc. and we got a few weird looks while processing a couple of turtles, but a lot of people were genuinely curious and wanted to know about them, which is AWESOME! Education for the win!! Anyway, tomorrow looks like it’s going to be a turtle bonanza. That’s the thing about field biology, there is either nothing to do, or you’re so busy you hardly have enough time for personal maintenance (e.g. sleep, food, etc.). But busy is good, Professor B is joining us with kayaks and a new volunteer tomorrow, catching turtles while kayaking; this can only end with me in the water (I’m not very coordinated). One of our turtle’s had a sonic tag on it from a grad we are working with, she wasn’t too happy about meeting us and managed to scratch both Emily and I up. Turtles claws are sharp, ouch!

On another note, driving in Wellfleet is a bit of a problem for me. It’s not the traffic or the other drivers…it's the wildlife. It’s everywhere! Its so distracting to see wild turkey or red fox run across the road or on the side of it and not go all zoology nerd and coo over various wild animals. One day I stopped on the road to watch a fox cross the street with a meadow vole in its mouth (Don’t worry, it was at 6 am and no one else was on the road, or else I wouldn’t have stopped). I even started a list of all the birds I’ve seen and my roomies and I try to I.D. all the birds we see from the porch. We had a nest of Eastern Phoebes over our doorway and the parents would always yell at us when we stepped out. The babies were so fluffy! The 4 of them were bursting out of their nest until yesterday, they all fledged and flew away. Bye bye birdies!

My roomies and I are getting along pretty well; it’s easy when you’re all huge animal geeks!

Turtle tally: 3

PS- We have a daddy logs legs or 2 in our bathroom and due to laziness and the fact we are all zoology nerds we left her up there and tend to watch them interact as we wash, rinse, repeat. So far the one has fended off several other daddy long legs at her spot in the corer ceiling…yeah I know, nerdy.

Rain rain go away...Seriously, you're scaring the turtles!

Turtles don't like rain…sounds silly, but its true…ok so they don’t like the cold and usually rain brings colder weather... So there haven’t been any turtles in two days. We still have to check just in case, not an easy task this morning. It was raining so hard this morning that I couldn’t see the road! Scary! So we turned around and slept in, yay! We went our later though. We also went to Professor B’s house for dinner and turtle talk. (I’m just beginning to realize how many cutesy things you can add to turtle, turtle trackers, turtle talk etc.) We have some big things planned like talks and boat based tracking coming up, I’m so excited for it! We had a really nice dinner and talk with her and her family (and play with their adorable dogs!) On an completely unrelated note, I got my Coral Reef Ecology class approved! It’s been an uphill trek the entire way, but it all paid off, thank goodness. So…that's all from me, there really hasn’t been much going on for the past 2 days, I’m till wiped out though, and its freezing up here! “summer” up in Cape Cod is unpredictable at the best of times. I forgot this little tidbit and didn’t bring any blankets up, oops. I’ll go looking for some tomorrow!

Turtle tally: 0 (I blame Mother Nature)

PS- I posted pics on Facebook under “A Day at the Office”

Why the grass is not always greener on someone else's lawn or why scientists need permits

Hi everybody! I would have posted last night but the power went out, meh. It really stinks when every thing in the house runs on electricity…and you were in the process of making pasta. But, the power is back on so I’ll just lump 2 posts into 1!

Wednesday

Turtles are very sneaky, they don’t look like it, but they are. Yesterday we found some turtles on the side of the road. So Emily and I hung back and let them do their thing…bad idea. Both of them crawled up into private property, one disappeared while the other went trundling along for about 20 minutes looking like she was going to build a nest, dig, and then stick her nose up at the spot! I know this is a behavior called false nesting (they make a divet and decide not to nest there) but it felt like she was mocking me! Do you know how humiliating it is to be mocked by a turtle? I was so focused on the one that by the time I noticed the second one come out she was half way across the road, but I caught her! She wasn’t too happy about it though; she kept trying to bite me. On a side note did you know diamond back terrapins can bend their neck over the carapus (top of the shell)? Makes holding them a game of hot potato, or is it hot turtle? We ended up finding 3 turtles in all and tried to catch turtles in the estuary; the key word is “try”. Between the 2 of us we kicked up enough mud to obscure anything we would have found, the out going tide didn’t help. We did get to chat with a vacationing elderly couple out kayaking on the way back though. They were so friendly and interested in what we were doing; it’s nice to have people appreciate your work. I thought we were done for the day; we unloaded the car, made lunch and was just about to take a nap when my phone rang…apparently Mass Autoban had terrapins coming up with the second tide at the sanctuary and wanted us to check Great Island again. So we packed up again and walked the trail, we didn’t find anything…fantastic (heavy sarcasm ahoy).

Thursday

There must be some sort of turtle convention at this one house on the beach because every time I go there at least 5 turtles pop out of now where. That's what they do; you’re just walking along and all of a sudden, if you’re looking, there’s a turtle! We even found one on Stumpy’s Hill! It wasn’t Stumpy though. You would think that the turtles would go to convenient locations first, but the places we’ve been finding them are ridiculous! We’ve found them is places like on top of hills and people’s lawns. It’s quite a trek for such a little creature! Diamond back terrapins are also veeeerrrry indecisive. I tailed one for over half an hour as she walked up and down dunes, on to the beach front, and then back into the dunes. It was like watching a watching a very confused and lost person driving randomly around town, but they’re too stubborn to ask directions. She looked motivated though; wherever you wanted to get to little turtle, I hope you got there! I find it really unfair that turtles can wander on to private property and not get into any legal trouble; scientists (a.k.a. us) endure strange looks and need to carry around permits to show people we are neither crazy (that’s debatable) or burglars. It’s really awkward to stand in front of someone’s yard as you watch a turtle mosey through someone’s lawn pretending to dig a nest and when you dig for it there’s no eggs! The turtles, they are mocking me! We’re not supposed to catch them if we think they’re in the process of nesting and they usually disappear before we can. The owners are really nice about it, and they love to hear about what we’re doing. We did have one turtle nest but she didn’t cover up the nest and laid only one egg, which is strange. And the nest was right next to someone’s dive way…*face palm*. Because when you think of a good place to lay your eggs you think of big rolling tons of steel that can crush baby turtles like grapes. Maybe we sacred her, too bad I can’t ask her; I don’t speak turtle (but I do speak whale). We tried to find turtles in the estuary but it was so cloudy that we couldn’t see anything. Just as we turned to head back guess what we saw? A turtle! These turtles are hilarious so far and I can’t wait to see how they’ll surprise me next!

Total turtle tally: 12

PS- I’ll be posting pictures on my facebook account! 

Crash Course…I think I’m gonna collapse

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I am directionally challenged…today was no exception. Emily and I were supposed to meet Professor B at Dunkin’ Donuts to start work; we got there on time and were completely prepared. Except that we were at the wrong store. I can’t be blamed for this one though, there are so many freakin’ Dunkin’ Donuts in New England! So we toured a couple of the sites our Professor monitored and went to Professor B’s house to get our equipment.

            We finally got to see our site today and it was beautiful! We spent most of the time walking into the dunes, looking for tracks. So…much…walking! It just confirms how woefully out of shape I am. I de-sanded my shoes twice and still had a mountain of it left when we got back. We walked pretty far, maybe a couple of miles. The end of our site is this large sandy hill where one of our “infamous” terrapins likes to lay her eggs. Her name is Stumpy (side note, there was a great white shark named Stumpy on a Shark Week special in the early 90s…yeah I know I’m obsessed); she has no tail and 3 of her fins are nearly gone, but every year she paddled up this huge dune! That's dedication for something the size of a plate! We didn’t see any turtles today, though we did find the very fragrant carcass of a dead marine mammal, barf. We finished up early and had the rest of the day off. We didn’t do much today, but we’ll be doing a lot more when the turtles arrive. That has to be the most frustrating part of this kind of work; it all depends on the wildlife…and nature.

           

            Afterwards I jogged with Emily and Kristen in the reserve. Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m living in the National Seashore! And through Professor B I’m working for the National Park Service, and by extension the Department of the Interior. So…I work for the government! I’ve always wanted to say that. Any way I didn’t jog so much as jog for a few minutes, get winded, give up and plod along the trail. I lost the two and ended up wandering around, I found the beach though, so it wasn’t to bad. I also found a key…in the sand…that was kind of random. I think I’ll drop it off at the visitor’s center tomorrow. I also got some what lost on the way back, but I followed an itty-bitty bunny around the trials, which actually brought me back to the house. Thank you Mr. Rabbit!

Terrapin tally: 0 :(

Ps- There is a weird noise outside the house tonight. I think its bugs flying into the windows towards the light. It makes this small ‘thunk’ noise. Man are those little bugger persistent!

First day, first day! Yay!

            So this is my first blog entry…yep…so I drove up yesterday to for my internship, met with the professor I’m working with and the other intern, a friend from my school, and settled into our house. We have such a nice house! It’s practically a beach house and you can see the bay from our back porch and the beach is so close I can hear it! Its so pretty! I’ll post pics as soon as I muster enough motivation to. We’re sharing the house with two other girls who are working with spade-foot toads. They work at night so when we get up they’re going to sleep and vice versa. They’re really nice and we’re all getting along so far, good sign.

           

            I started working today! Yay! We met our professor at the sanctuary with another researcher and spent most of the morning catching terrapins out in a body of water dubbed “The Run”. Walking to the actual site took a little while because we had to walk through the woods, the marsh, and half the beach to get there; shimmy into our waders and walk out into the low tide. Fortunately the water was clear and you could walk out for forever and the water never went past my hips. Then we had to catch the terrapins. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! The whole “slow as a turtle” thing is a lie! A lie I tell you! You see them pop their heads up to breath or sitting on the bottom in front of you and you think “Ok, I’m just gonna pick you up” and bam, they take off swimming like Michael Phelps! If they could talk they’d be screaming “Run away, run away!” . My first catch was less than spectacular. It must have been as confused as I was because it swam a circle around me and then tried to swim between my legs! This was also the exact moment a guided tour of school kids was passing through, watching me hop around like I had ants in my pants. -__-‘ The four of us caught a total of 23 terrapins, excellent for the first round. We measured and weighed them and then tried to I.D. them. If we couldn’t we filed a series of notched in the outer edge of their shells. Before you get in a tizzy about hurting them, I’ve been told that it doesn’t hurt, it’s like clipping your finger nails. Then we let them go like the sea turtle specials your see on Discovery Channel. One swam back towards the shore…not the smartest egg in the bunch.

           

            After that Emily and I drove down to Sandy Neck so one of the rangers could show us turtle nesting signs. Tracking them is fairly easy, you just have to look for comma shaped marks in the sand, following them though make you wonder what the turtle is thinking. We followed one set of tracks that led from the marsh, into the sand around a huge dune, slid down, and went back into the marsh…that's a lot of work to end up deciding not to nest. We also got to see a laid nest, the eggs are so small! I can’t wait to see them hatch. We also got to see a piping plover nest on the beach front. The nest was basically a sophisticated divet in the sand surrounded by rocks. It was hard to tell that it was a nest because the eggs look like rocks. Both the parents were there and gave a “broken wing” display. The bird drops its wing and hobbles to say to predators “Look, I’m so hurt. Can’t you see how hurt I am? Eat me!” and then they fly away when the predator leaves the nest. It was really funny because both did it at the same time, cute! Then one ran straight at us so we left to calm them down. Talk about over protective parenting. That was my first day! Tomorrow we start patrolling the beach for nesting sites, we’ll see how that goes. Oh, I’m also gonna have a tally of all the turtles captured/spotted day by day for my own reference and you can follow along if you like!

Terrapin tally: 23