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.
....well... we don't have daddy long legs... but we DO have a lot of cockroaches. and some unidentified spiders that i don't care to think on. Also, COME ON! How can you NOT stop to look at wildlife! We do all the time! It's great! Everyone here is an animal nerd of some kind. I'm glad your hanging with fellow nerds!
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