December 2022 Ascension Highlights!

Turtle work started on the 5th December 2022 which also marked one month of arriving on Ascension! We were shown our turtle work schedule which consists of raking tracks and counting nests at three of the most important nesting beaches on Ascension. Anna and I practiced identifying a successful nesting attempt over an abandoned attempt. Since then, we’ve been raking/counting every weekday! Turtle nest numbers were slow to begin with, with one or two nests each day the first week, to over 50 nests per day on long beach in the new year as we look onwards to the peak which won’t happen until March!

In December I also attended training for a refresher of my first aid qualification, which is always good to keep up to date. We had three days of training from the 12th December – 14th December by two lifeguards from Blackpool who were on Ascension for two weeks to deliver lifeguard training.

On the evening of Wednesday 14th December Anna and I went with Austin to Northeast Bay to watch the geminoids meteor shower. It was really amazing to star gaze in such an isolated place, the sky was filled with stars, the clearest night sky I’ve ever seen. North East Bay is on the opposite side of the island to the town and so has no light pollution. We could see the shooting stars so clearly and was a magical experience. When we were about to leave the beach, we also noticed our first Ascension nesting turtle! Which was Anna’s first ever turtle (apart from those mating in the coastal waters)! It was an honour to be with her during her first turtle experience, we found the turtle as she was covering her nest, so she had already laid her eggs, but we named her Samantha (S names have since become a tradition for naming the turtles) and watched her camouflage her nest. 

Thursday 15th December was also a big day for us as it marked the arrival of the final intern, Abi who would be living with us. She had to fly in on the RAF A400 flight which had changed dates a few times, but she finally arrived on the Thursday. Anna, and I collected her with Chrisna after a day of Mexican Thorn control. 

On Saturday 17th December Anna and I had signed up to work at the Pier warehouse for the day as they were looking for some cover staff as lots of people were off island for the Christmas period. There was a shipping delivery coming in from South Africa and lots of the islanders had Christmas food and presents etc arriving on the shipping. Anna and I were tasked with organising parcels into groups based on names to that when people arrived later in the afternoon they could find their things. We even got to see a family being reunited with their Dog which was very sweet to see. We enjoyed the morning moving boxes and organising the warehouse and were excited to help people find their belongings in the afternoon. However, a lot of people seemed to be turning up to see if they had been sent anything and then having to leave empty handed rather than just people arriving to collect their shipping, so it wasn’t as quick or fun as we had first imagined. But overall, it was a fun day and nice to do something very different to normal. 

Christmas was also of course a highlight of December! I had a very alternative Christmas starting the day by watching turtles float in the shallows mating and spending the afternoon rock pooling but also managed to make the day still feel as Christmassy as possible 😊. 

On 28th December we had takeaway burgers from the VC for dinner at the long beach conservation beach hut whilst we watched the sunset with Lorna, Emily, Sunitha, Adam, Marcos, Jonny, Chrisna, Austin, Anna and Abi. As I was leaving to head back to the Bungalow, I saw a turtle body pitting and ran back to find Abi to let her know. Anna, Austin, Abi and I then spent 3 hours watching turtle nesting process and I had the best time. I love watching turtles go through the whole process and lying in the sand watching them dig their nests and lay their eggs, it reminds me why I came here. It was also Abi and Anna’s first time seeing a turtle dig a nest and lay eggs, so I talked them through what was happening and enjoyed watching them be captivated by the remarkable phenomenon of seeing the nesting process of the ascension green turtles.