TWO TURTLES!!

The last of the data loggers and the last satellite tag have been launched! We needed one more turtle to finish off the initial part of Lindsey's research and we got TWO!! 

At 9:10 pm, we found a turtle in the bushes about 20 yards from our camp. She was already in the process of digging a hole and we soon realized that this was not a turtle we had seen before (no flipper tags). At 9:20 pm, Robyn walked back to the camp to grab supplies and stopped short 5 yards from where we had been sitting on the sand. She peered into the bushes for a moment, then returned to Lindsey and I and whispered that there was another turtle. Sure enough, crashing through the bushes and headed straight for our tarp was a second female. Soon, we established that this, too, was a new female. Then started the entertaining portion of the evening since, as Lindsey put it, "We don't have protocol for this!" 

I was told off to babysit the motions of the second turtle while the other three measured the first turtle, who had started to lay by this time. Turtle One finished laying, was tagged, and had returned to the water by 10 pm. Meanwhile, Turtle Two had rejected her first hole and was wandering through camp, following a similar path to Speedy. Shortly after the others joined me, she gave up on hole number two and wandered off towards the woods on the other side of camp. By 10:45, Turtle Two was laying and we were frantically mixing epoxy to attach the satellite tag to her carapace (the first turtle had too many barnacles on her shell for us to affix the tag). Around 11:15, Lindsey had finished attaching the tag and noted that, as Turtle Two was beginning to cover her eggs, we might have to hold her for 15 minutes to allow the epoxy to dry before she returned to the ocean. However, we needn't have worried. Turtle Two stuck around for another hour, continuing to thoroughly cover her eggs. 

Eventually, we got both nests uncovered again, the eggs counted and returned, and the nests recovered. The last set of data loggers went into Turtle One's nest. Finally, at 2 am, we headed home. 

Last night was fantastic. We concluded that it was nature making up for the terrible night Lindsey and Robyn had the night before--no wind, no turtles, and a bee attack (I won't do the full tale justice so I'll let them tell it: Lindsey's blog, Robyn's blog)  

Enjoy the pictures of TURTLES!!! 

Myself, Robyn, and Lindsey with the second turtle.

Flipper tagging the turtle and taking identification
photos.

Recording data

Activating the data loggers to record nest temperature

Hawksbill eggs. Turtle eggs look and feel remarkably
like ping pong balls, in case you were wondering.