Day 12 - Nest Excavation

Today I had a pretty Chilled morning. I woke up at half 6 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I got dressed and finished my book. My job today was the cleaning so I swept the floor, wiped the surfaces and cleaned the kitchen, living room and bathroom. I started the 6th book later that morning and chatted to Poppy and Steph. I had cereal for breakfast and made myself fried egg on toast for lunch, which was more adventurous than my pasta and cheese or cheese toasty I normally make 😊. After lunch I started writing up some of the methods and data collection protocols in my dissertation field notebook and drew some diagrams of how we measure the turtles and nest positions.

Just before 3pm Mandy, Steph, Tom and I headed to Levera beach for nest excavation. We were aiming to excavate 6 but could only find 4 when we started digging. Steph and Tom worked on their own and Mandy and I worked together but it took forever to find our nest. Eventually all four of us were digging to find our nest! Eventually Steph found the temperature logger than had been put in the nest but the nest had only contained 14 eggs so no wonder it was hard to find! All of them were unhatched and when I opened them most contained the purple and pink bacteria sometimes found in them. I scribed for Steph, when she opened her unhatched eggs most of them had full term hatchlings which hadn’t hatched. (Don’t scroll down to photos if you’d rather not see a pile of dead hatchlings). The excavation again was so incredibly stinky! And it must look funny to see people with their heads and upper body down a big hole in the ground, legs in the sky! Gives you an appreciation for when they dig them when you spend ages digging with your hands! I think my arms are going to ache tomorrow.

Poppy and Talitha cooked dinner tonight they made flat breads, rice, potato salad and roasted Veg. Afterwards everyone had a gluten free lemon drizzle cake which smelt really nice but I couldn’t eat it because it was made with Almond flour 🙁.  I’m going to read a bit and write some more in my notebook before heading to bed!






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

March 2024 Maldives

First Month in the Maldives as a Marine Biologist at a Sea turtle Rehab centre with Atoll Marine Conservation Centre!

January & February 2024 Maldives AMC Blog