Day 7 - Swim Club, Beach, Night Survey
Yesterday Poppy and I headed down to bathway beach with Kate just before 9. It was the final swim session of the term and so they were holding a swim party. Dave and Linda (Who run the swim club) put us in charge of manning the Bouncy Castle which was put up near the information centre. Poppy’s never worked with children before so she wasn’t sure how to get them to listen when too many were on the slide, but I managed to get them to behave themselves. There were a few cheeky ones but once they realised they couldn’t take advantage they were much better behaved. The girls were really sweet and kept asking us when we were going to swim, so just before the end Linda took over bouncy castle duty and Poppy and I went to the sea with the kids. They like clinging and holding on and at one point I had about 3 of them on my front and back carrying them around the sea. They were also fascinated by my waterproof camera, thought I wasn’t going to get it back at one point but I did! At the end one of the smaller girls got me to give her a piggy back across the beach so her feet wouldn’t get sandy, they’re very persuasive! After the Swim party was over we came back to the house for a bit and then Talitha joined us back to the beach for the afternoon.
I went for a swim and read some of my book and we returned at about 4ish for Talitha to cook dinner, Poppy considerably pinker from the sun, whereas Talitha and I had been following the shade all afternoon. Talitha made a veg pasta bake for dinner which was very yummy.
Poppy, Mandy, and I joined Tom, his family who are visiting and Sharka (one of the local staff), for the Night Survey at Levera. Tom went out on the first run with his Family and saw one female, whilst the rest of us rested at the beach hut. The second run was Sharka, Poppy and I and we saw 3 females! The first was emerging near the end of the beach so we carried on to the end and found another. We split into two and Sharka ran between Poppy and I whilst we got the information on the turtles. The female I was watching nested too close to the sea and past the beach markers so we had to relocate her eggs. This was my first relocation. They try not to relocate as much as possible as the success rate for relocated eggs is much lower than if they’re left where they are. The female spent ages digging her nest, a real perfectionist which seemed a shame because as soon as she was ready to lay we had to fill the hole and catch her eggs. The eggs were put in a bucket and once she was finished and measured we moved to a more suitable spot and dug our own nest. I was given the job of counting and putting the eggs into the make shift nest.
Poppy had help from a tour guide when counting the eggs of her female. We were then on our way back when we saw another female. She was the biggest I’ve seen yet and she laid 104 yolked eggs! I also used my night vision camera to record her laying. Once she was done we saw a few hatchlings that I helped to the sea. They get stuck in people’s footprints so easily. Sharka found where the hatchlings were coming from and we found some emerging from the eggs. He helped a few out and put them on the sand to let them get to the sea. They seemed to just lay still and I wasn’t sure they were alive but he picked one up and shook it and it started moving. He told us they just needed to wake up a little bless them, they’re so tiny and cute! We also found a dead one which I buried. The stars were so bright last night as well! I’ve never seen so many stars 🌟 at a time, the sky was full of them! Very pretty. Our run took us from 22:00 to 01:15! The longest run I’ve done without a break. Mandy and Tom saw one turtle, bringing our total to 5. On our 2nd run we didn’t see any and it was pouring with rain so we got pretty wet. In the morning at 6am we walked back over the beach, measured the distances from the nests to the markers for location and raked over all the turtle tracks to discourage poachers. When we got back this morning it was the most tired I’ve ever been after a night survey!
I went for a swim and read some of my book and we returned at about 4ish for Talitha to cook dinner, Poppy considerably pinker from the sun, whereas Talitha and I had been following the shade all afternoon. Talitha made a veg pasta bake for dinner which was very yummy.
Poppy, Mandy, and I joined Tom, his family who are visiting and Sharka (one of the local staff), for the Night Survey at Levera. Tom went out on the first run with his Family and saw one female, whilst the rest of us rested at the beach hut. The second run was Sharka, Poppy and I and we saw 3 females! The first was emerging near the end of the beach so we carried on to the end and found another. We split into two and Sharka ran between Poppy and I whilst we got the information on the turtles. The female I was watching nested too close to the sea and past the beach markers so we had to relocate her eggs. This was my first relocation. They try not to relocate as much as possible as the success rate for relocated eggs is much lower than if they’re left where they are. The female spent ages digging her nest, a real perfectionist which seemed a shame because as soon as she was ready to lay we had to fill the hole and catch her eggs. The eggs were put in a bucket and once she was finished and measured we moved to a more suitable spot and dug our own nest. I was given the job of counting and putting the eggs into the make shift nest.
Poppy had help from a tour guide when counting the eggs of her female. We were then on our way back when we saw another female. She was the biggest I’ve seen yet and she laid 104 yolked eggs! I also used my night vision camera to record her laying. Once she was done we saw a few hatchlings that I helped to the sea. They get stuck in people’s footprints so easily. Sharka found where the hatchlings were coming from and we found some emerging from the eggs. He helped a few out and put them on the sand to let them get to the sea. They seemed to just lay still and I wasn’t sure they were alive but he picked one up and shook it and it started moving. He told us they just needed to wake up a little bless them, they’re so tiny and cute! We also found a dead one which I buried. The stars were so bright last night as well! I’ve never seen so many stars 🌟 at a time, the sky was full of them! Very pretty. Our run took us from 22:00 to 01:15! The longest run I’ve done without a break. Mandy and Tom saw one turtle, bringing our total to 5. On our 2nd run we didn’t see any and it was pouring with rain so we got pretty wet. In the morning at 6am we walked back over the beach, measured the distances from the nests to the markers for location and raked over all the turtle tracks to discourage poachers. When we got back this morning it was the most tired I’ve ever been after a night survey!
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