Hello Bloggers!

So it’s been another busy week at the project, it seems many of the females have finally decided to come up to lay one last time and our sleeping patterns have felt the effects!
The week kicked off with a magnificent Green ‘dawnie’ that only ascended at 5am and stayed until 7! Brilliant for me as I won a can of cold drink for correctly guessing her descent time, and everyone got some great photos. She seemed to pass this message on to fellow females as we’ve had dawnie’s nearly every morning this week.

Sadly, a message from our volunteers up North relayed that one nest they’d found had been fully predated by what looked like a fox, the news of which hit us all hard at Alagadi seeing as a fox has also been spotted roaming the beaches here. Spirits remain high though with the anticipation of our first hatchlings as the laying season draws to a close. The Goat Shed is manic with 25 volunteers making cages for nests, notices for visitors and beach users, and generally promoting our work here which has been so well received by our recent visitors – Thank you!

Thanks goes to the stunning full moon on Thursday night for making our night work a stealth operation. Everyone was fully trained in the tuck-and-roll ‘SAS style,’ and following females became a covert operation. One particular Green that made four separate ascents onto Iki Beach was renamed ‘Scary Mary’ as it didn’t matter how far away we were or how little we moved, somehow her sixth sense kicked in and she failed to lay (despite a multitude of body pits).

Five new volunteers have joined the group at the Goat Shed, with some being trained next week to head out West to help with day work, as from the sounds of things they are swamped!

Watch this space as our first hatchlings will be any day now – we have five nests ring caged on Alagadi and one on Iki that are due to hatch soon and are being checked every night. Keep an eye out for our first hatchlings bloggers! We’re sure to put some photos up for you. Till next week – Rhi.