A Turtle watcher's Diary
2009 Season
Monday, June 1, 2009
No turtle activity yesterday. We had a busy day in Alagadi cleaning
and tidying the goatshed and making finishing touches. Many visitors
are now showing up for information. We are off to the West Coast
today to check once again for activities, myself, Ainslie and newbie
Sam. Tom will be around all with information for visitors. More
later.
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| Mr Mustafa |
Monday, June 1, 2009. First nest in the
West!
Volunteer number three, Sam, arrived late last night, bringing the
turtle brigade total to 4. And tonight as I write this another 5 are
arriving so the peace and quiet of the goat shed will be a thing of
the past. An increase in numbers will mean that night training can
start in preparation for taking visitors out.
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| Turtle tracks at West 1 Beach |
An early morning walk today along Alagadi revealed one new Logger nest, quite close to the water line. Tom was left at home today with a very long list of jobs and to host to any visitors that popped in, while Robbo, Sam and I headed to the beaches on the West. This was the first time that we had been left to drive and navigate the dune tracks on our own and I discovered that my note taking from the other day left out a lot of vital information! Needless to say there were several wrong turnings, quite a lot of backtracking and more than one occasion where the shovel was required to dig the Rav out of the sand! It was all good fun, so much so that it was quite hard to get Robbo out from behind the wheel.
West 2 and Monster both had Green activity but all were FCA (false crawl attempt). Information can still be gathered from these including track width and position of the body pits (nesting attempts) in relation to the high water mark and vegetation line. There was also a lot of Logger activity along Monster, all FCA or U-turns, until finally at the very end of Monster (it’s a very long beach!) we found a Logger nest – the first nest on the West.
At the end of the day, weary and sunburnt in Akdeniz village, we were invited by Mr Mustafa into the cool shade of his yard for a drink. He always gives us a big wave and calls out a greeting as we drive through Aldeniz so it was nice to spend a little time with him. Ainslie
Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Our First Day
We’re Ana and Libby, two new volunteers for the project!
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| Getting Organised for the Season |
Today was an early start for us (6 o’clock) as we were checking the beaches on the North Coast for any activity. We found some false crawl attempts and two green turtle nests. Becca explained to us the differences between the loggerhead and green turtle tracks and also how to screen the nests from predators. The nests were given different names to identify them. After many hours of checking the beaches, we were hot, thirsty, sweating and tired so we decided to have an ice cream at a convenient beach bar. It was very satisfying!!! Then there was a long drive back to the base.
Celli, Katy, Sam, Ainslie and Penny were in charge of looking after visitors.
One of the daily jobs around the Goat Shed is to take the food scrap bucket and feed the goats. This task was given to Sam and Penny who came back rather swiftly minus the bin! Apparently the goats were terrifying and they made a hasty retreat. Sam was so scared he locked the gates with Penny still inside!
Our afternoon was spent relaxing, at the beach with the exception of Ainslie who manned the visitor centre and Robbo who was doing some hard haggling on a much needed new car.
Before we start doing night patrols of the beach, we all need to know what is involved so Robbo showed us how to spot, tag and monitor turtle behaviour t hrough the night. Now, we are all off down to the beach for our first night of no sleep and hopefully a turtle or two!! Ana and Libby
Wednesday, June 3, 2009. First Turtle!
Woohoo!
The last 24 hours of the turtle project have been exhausting,
thrilling and extremely hot! After dinner last night we all traipsed
down to the beach loaded with bottles of water, warm jumpers and
tonnes of turtle equipment. After 2 minutes on the beach Becca
spotted our first turtle. Down on bended knee, we started to crawl
commando style towards it. On closer inspection however it turned
out to be nothing but a large tyre. This was to be the theme of the
evening. Three bushes, 4 piles of rocks and one sand castle later we
had still not found and actual turtle. The mood on the beach however
was hopeful. Groups were sent off to walk the beach to check for
sitings and tracks and we would congregate at the midpoint every
half an hour or so for gossips and games. Our numbers slowly
diminished as volunteers needed to be picked up from the airport and
those that had been up since 5 the previous evening succumbed to
tiredness.
Eventually it was 4:45am and we were on our last beach walk, heading for home and our beds. Penny and Robbo went over to Iki (the second beach) for one final check and we received a radio call simply stating. ‘Turtle! Run!’ Sam, Kate, James and I clambered over rocks, ran down paths and sprinted to the site.
There she was. The first turtle of the season, named Steve. A fantastic loggerhead just laying her eggs. She was absolutely beautiful and extremely focused on what she was doing. She didn’t seem to mind a bit when we tagged her and measured her to collect data. Finally at about 6am we watched her heave her way back in to the sea at sun rise. Possibly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. So we’ve marked her nest and now we just keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well until hatching.
We finally hit the bed, tired but exhilarated, at 6:30 and slept until mid day today. Needless to say I’m writing this to you while pretty spaced out and strangely disorientated. Am looking forward to a good night sleep and, of course another early morning.
To all those that put in hard work last night but missed Steve, I hope you have better luck this evening. Celli
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| Protecting the Nest |
Thursday, June 4, 2009 First Green we've seen!
Last night was our second night of turtle watch. We all headed down
in a staggered fashion to the beach at approx. 8.30. Ainslie, Woody
and Sam took Icky and the rest of us did Alagadi 1. We had action
pretty early on in the evening with a radio of possible activity on
Icky, which turned out to be a Green. Robbo had to make a mad dash
for it to the other end of the beach as it was very close to last
nights loggerhead (I think they're making it as difficult as
possible for us, the sneaky things!). It was first recorded mid-way
through its body pit. After demonstration by Robbo, Sam got to tag
both the pit (electronic) and flipper (metal ring).
All occupants of the beach minus James got to view the Green which was a great result and helped us with track identification for future reference. No further activity was seen and after an exhausting night Tom and I did the last walk back at dawn.
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| Sam Catching Flies |
We saw many dog tracks which shows the ever present threat of predation on the eggs.
Sam summed up our lack of sleep pretty well with his fly catching mouth! Today, a new day, saw Becca, Anna, Adrian and Penny going west to look for nests. They found lots of activity and three loggerhead nests. Back at base Celli was in charge of tourist duty so was up nice and early. She along with Ainslie, Libby and a few others were privileged enough to find a chameleon in the garden.
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| The Chameleon From the Garden |
We all slept in after our night on the beach and rose around mid-day. Jobs this afternoon revolved around making posters for advertisements within the local beach bars and town. Celli, Libby and I did this while wailing along to various tunes on the ipod and ballet dancing (not a pretty site!). Sam had the job of making a door for the shower so that more than one person can have a shower at once. We can now shower al fresco two at a time and chat as we do it (going to take some getting used to!).
Tom was demolition man and fixed one of the main gates which prevents access to the beach during night hours. I cooked dinner which comprised of a chuck together of haloumi, potato chips and salad as the fridge was empty. Ainslie was having a nap so we saved her a plate full. Sam managed to get it into his head that it was waste and ended up throwing it in the compost bin!! We managed to scrape together something which vaguely resembled a meal for her so she didn't go hungry! Another day, another night duty- the group have just gone out to start for the evening, I've got the night off as I'm on tourist duty tomorrow so need to be awake and sharp to be able to get the well needed donations required to keep this project afloat!
Goodnight off to bed,. Kate
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| Preparing Kit Bags |
Friday, June 5, 2009. Turtles and Ice
Cream.
Another day at the big turtle house, some activity was spotted last
night on Alagadi 1. Two loggerheads were spotted. The first, by a
guest from a project on the south side early on in the night, and
the second by Sam I am at around midnight. Icky had a FCU from a
green turtle, which was franticly measured up by Tom and Celli.
Libby lost her flipper and pit tag virginity last night by pit
tagging the 1st loggerhead and flipper tagging the second. Becca got
to show off her amazing stealth skills on a turtle vanishing the
embarrassment of stealthing a tyre a few nights earlier. This was
all the action for the night turtle-wise, but people on Alagadi 1
decided to munch some biscuits. The love was not spread to icky, so
we went hungry (sob). A long, and exhausting night, was finished off
by Tom and Sam, with Sam feeling exceptionally tired from a night of
sit ups and push ups for a bet with Celli.
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| Rob Being Interviewed |
A fresh, awake Kate, opened information centre and used her talent of talking forever, to entice customers to buy things and to donate money to a worthy cause. Becca, Penny, Ana and Adrian went to the north coast and had to relocate a nest from Kantara. Also, the tragic news that Tom’s baby, “retrobob” the turtle nest, had been lost to the high seas the night before rocked the camp. We all have our fingers crossed that the eggs are still OK, just MIA.
After the tragic news was broken, and tears had been shed, we all got about to doing some work. Becca and Tom painted the barrier, the fans had the plugs mysteriously fitted by an unknown volunteer (Although we suspect Ainslie did it). Any further information on this mystery would be gratefully appreciated. Robbo arrived back from town bringing presents of food and t-shirts and was followed by a surprise visit from the ice cream man with all his crazy but nice flavours.
Robbo arranged a meeting at around 2 o’clock to instruct us all the ways of the kit bags. During the meeting Robbo was interviewed by the local media and explained all our hard work and asked for everyone to help keep the beaches clean. Kate and Penny were also asked for a quick statement.
How could this day get any better? Well it did by two magicians in the kitchen who produced an amazing meal fit for a king. Ana did arrive on the scene to help rescue these two chefs from their late service. The meal went down well and the team have now left to go off on another adventure searching for turtles.
Saturday June 6th 2009.
Another great night on the beach last night with lots of activity
early in the evening to keep motivation high. The first turtle of
the evening, on Alagadi 1, was a large green. She measured in at a
whacking 104cm (length of carapace and dug two body pits before
digging the egg chamber. This was followed closely by two
Loggerheads, on Alagadi 1 and Alagadi 2 respectively. There were
also a couple of u-turns as well just to keep us on our toes. Just
before dawn, on Alagai 2 a Loggerhead came ashore and completely
wasted everybody's time by digging several body pits and egg
chambers before disappearing off into the sea again.
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| Kelly and a Green Turtle |
We have a many wonderful people locally who are helping the turtle
project in many ways. One such person is Penny, who lives in Alagadi
and provides us with the most wonderful cakes every few days.
Yesterdays banana cake was saved until the wee small hours of the
morning and devoured on the beach. Thank you Penny!
Sleep deprivation is beginning to take it's toll and most people today failed to put in an appearance much before mid afternoon! The usual insomniacs however, Ainslie, Robbo were up early; Ainslie flooding the kitchen with the washing machine and Robbo test driving the new ute and Tom and Libby manning the visitor centre.
Several blog readers have asked for a little background information
of the project and also a little about more about a typical day.
Since 1992 over students from British universities have taken part
in the annual monitoring and conservation of marine turtles in
Northern Cyprus. Work is carried out at the request and in
conjunction with members of the local Society for the Protection of
Turtles and the local Department of Environmental Protection.
You can get more detailed information from
www.seaturtle.org/
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| The Most Frequented Beaches |
Our work involves night time beach patrols at Alagadi Beach and day time patrols on few beaches on the North and West coasts as well. Those people on night patrol start at 2030 and are on the beach until 0500. Every 10 minutes, groups of 2-3 people patrol the beach and upon encountering a nesting female record her activity / tags measurements etc. This can only be done once she is laying eggs as any noise or light before that stage could frighten her away. Some of the work this year will involve attaching and possibly retrieving satellite transmitters to nesting females to record their inter-nesting behaviour. Communication between the groups of the beach is by coded (sometimes so coded that the meaning is entirely lost)flashing of torches and VHF Radio.
Day work during the nesting period involves monitoring of beaches to record nesting activities, protecting nests from predation using wire screeds and relocating nests laid too close to the sea to safer sites.
In addition to the turtle work we have an information room that is visited by both tourists and locals. There are a limited number of places available for visitors to accompany us to the beach at night. We will be starting this on Sunday night. Anybody interested in taking part in the turtle spotting please come down to the Goat shed to book your place. Ainslie
This page is a mirror of a blog written by volunteers of the Marine Turtle Research group. Information about the MTRG can be found here.
For more information about the turtles of North Cyprus, their nesting and hatching, follow the links.