Night watch continues and is getting very very very busy! Conditions are also made diffcicult with the weather conditions being as harsh as they are. While the weather still remains scorching hot during the day, driving all of us except Boner (or Sabine) into the shade (Boner likes to bake in the sun in all temps!), the nights are very windy and on occasion a bit chilly. While some are very prepared for this- ie Jimbob with his full outfit of thermals and long johns! others such as me who stupidly brought very little warm clothes are suffering a little! The wind has made measuring post marks and keeping track of equipment while being pelted in the eyes by a full blown sand storm slightly challenging! But we persist and are constantly being rewarded by a good show of turtles each night.
My body clock is finally starting to get into the rhythm and many are now feeling upon returning from night duty up for a little tipple.....or one tippple to many causing a funny and nasty sight for the rest of us the next morning when they finally arise, namely Celli and Gill lol! We are still spring cleaning the goat shed and pottering arond doing bits and bobs of jobs. Some have been to town today and have bought some potted plants to put out front to bring some colour to the place, they look really pretty and we will have to make an extra effort with our watering to make sure they stay that way.
Dinners have been amazing and we are becoming really quite versatile cooks with our limited ingredients. We have a heap of onions so Robbo made onion soup yesterday for starter (it has been windy days in more ways than one!), then Ana and Libby did an amazing vege pie for main, and then I made chocolate pear maddock for pudding (hope your proud mum and I did it off the top of my head without a recipe!). We havent eaten that much since we've been here so all went to the beach with slightly uncomfortably full bellies!
We are really busy with visitors now and are booking up upto 5 days in advance. While this means we are rushed off our feet, its also really positive, the more people who come and see and see these awesome creatures the more we can educate and the donations can go towards further equipment.
Off on night duty again tonight looking forward to it. Had a quick hour power nap just now so will be up and raring to go by the time 8.00 comes. Think it will be another busy night tonight. Onto more pressing matters who can I 'borrow' a jumper off of tonight.......and who do I want to walk with (otherwise known as who has the best biscuit stash?!). Let the snooping begin....
Kate xx
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A few pics from Sabine.......more later x
Turtle returns to stormy seas.
Sunrise over Alagadi
Sunrise over our sleepy house.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Latest From the Project Leader
A busy few weeks for me. I was glad to have the workforce needed to enable us to begin night work at an early stage and hence already we have a good list of individual turtles that have visited Alagadi to lay their first clutch. 36 nests now. Not to mention a male turtle carrying a satellite transmitter who after a week at sea has now reached Turkey and begun to traverse the coast towards Mersin, probably patrolling for females and trying to sew his seeds a far as possible. First of it’s kind in the Med actually! It is now getting to that stage where the first nesters having laid a fortnight ago, will be returning to lay their second clutch of the season, whilst new females continue to arrive to lay their first. Last night we saw 5 nests, 4 green turtles and 1 loggerhead. At around 2am a storm whipped up and we were blasted by sand and a number of nests were washed over by high seas. At half five we waved off the last of the females in broad daylight as she was engulfed in waves. Quite surreal and deserving of a celebratory drink before bed. There is now no question that the season is going to be extremely productive for both species. I remember the dreaded season of 2005 when we only had 40 nests on Alagadi, night after night of no activity and boredom. I expect at least 100 this year.
Now that the volunteers are trained up and with experienced remigrant volunteers arriving from last season, who’s return was funded by the Erwin Warth Foundation, the volunteers are coordinating themselves on the beach well and I am able to snatch an hour or two to myself in the goat shed, on call and listening out on the VHF radio. I am really pleased with the team, all of them get on very well and work together, full of initiative and enthusiasm. With no new arrivals for a few weeks now I expect that we will become a very tight group.
We have been tackling the litter problem on Alagadi beaches. Firstly on Sunday afternoons we are patrolling the beaches handing out black bags to local family groups to take their litter to the car parks. Secondly, during the week we are emptying the bins in all of the car parks and loading all of the rubbish to the beach bar where Gokmen, the beach bar manager, then ferries it up to the Beledeya in Esentepe. We hope that the Beledeya will take responsibility for at least emptying the bins in the near future. We have also organised beach cleans and special thanks go out to Marylin and friends, who came down from Catalkoy on Monday to help out on Alagadi 2.
On Sunday the West Coast team returned and stayed over and volunteer James Johnston and his two friends Woody and Ollie at James’s parents house in Esentepe hosted a reunion pool party. Sorry James if your parents were not supposed to find out, but apparently the house was cleaner when we left than when we arrived. James has been house sitting for a few weeks whilst diving by day and turtling by night at Alagadi, not leaving much time for house work. Woody and Ollie disclosed that James had been tidying all morning in anticipation of our arrival! A big thanks to James for putting on a great spread, we all had a well-deserved afternoon off and a fantastic time.
I took an hour off this afternoon and launched my kayak on Alagadi. In the middle of bay 3 I noticed a turtle cross underneath me. It crossed my path a few times moving quite quickly beneath me, almost inquisitively, and I was able to identify it as a male green turtle. It emerged to breath beside me and that was the last I saw of him. Brilliant!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Pie and beach times
It’s all good times round at Casa de Goatshed, with my first night-off of the season, yay! Abandoning my nightwork clothes, headtorch and emergency 3 sticks for the night, I even showered and began preparing a feast fit for people who spend the night with their heads in turtle behinds. This meant veggie pie with puff pastry that didn’t actually puff (there was some complicated folding business that I left out), an amazing salad created by Mr German, followed by apple crumble and sheep yoghurt (an alagadi staple). I think a few situps, lunges and buttcrunches were required when walking the beach after that lot.
Yesterday saw the arrival of Ella, a volunteer from last year, who was met with way too much excitement at the airport by me and Emma (in the swank new car of course). We almost had a bit of whiplash when I forgot it was an automatic and pressed the brake as the clutch, but aside from that we arrived home safely and sent Ella out on North after flying all night. Obviously. If any of you haven’t been to Ercan airport you should add it into your list of must see tourist destinations. Where else can you watch people get off the plane and collect their baggage from the floor above, while making rude faces at them through the windows?
Moving on to the business of our little green friends, the North coast group were unhappy to find a Turkish fox feasting on one of our turtle nests when they arrived on the beach yesterday. The nest was totally predated, sadly, and the fox got a good earbashing for his trouble. So, from now on the nests on the North coast beaches (Esentepe, Tatlisu, Kantara, Kaplica) will be caged with special metal pegs along with our usual flat caging to stop predation from fantastic Mr Foxes. This should hopefully stop one of the biggest threats to egg survival and help that 1 in 1000 to hatch. Also, well done to Emma and Tom for caging with heavy, rusty metal which is really a pleasure to carry around ; )
Onwards to night work and last night the loggerheads finally made an appearance after days of only seeing greens (I’m biased towards the loggers, they have more character than greens and are uglier. Not every turtle can be beautiful you know) with 3 logger nests and 2 green nests over our two beaches. The volunteers were run ragged, along with our 4 visitors, trying to stay with each turtle AND make sure the beaches are walked every 10 minutes. We’re a well-oiled machine now and 5 turtles on the beach are nothing we can’t handle! Well done to Celli for spotting the highly endangered german joke-back turtle and observing it for a few minutes before being given the fright of her life as Adrien jumped out of the hole with a logger carapace on his back. I hope you had fresh underwear on the beach Celli.
Here at alagadi we work hard and we play jokes on people. Then we work some more and some more and then we sleep.
Becca xx
Yesterday saw the arrival of Ella, a volunteer from last year, who was met with way too much excitement at the airport by me and Emma (in the swank new car of course). We almost had a bit of whiplash when I forgot it was an automatic and pressed the brake as the clutch, but aside from that we arrived home safely and sent Ella out on North after flying all night. Obviously. If any of you haven’t been to Ercan airport you should add it into your list of must see tourist destinations. Where else can you watch people get off the plane and collect their baggage from the floor above, while making rude faces at them through the windows?
Moving on to the business of our little green friends, the North coast group were unhappy to find a Turkish fox feasting on one of our turtle nests when they arrived on the beach yesterday. The nest was totally predated, sadly, and the fox got a good earbashing for his trouble. So, from now on the nests on the North coast beaches (Esentepe, Tatlisu, Kantara, Kaplica) will be caged with special metal pegs along with our usual flat caging to stop predation from fantastic Mr Foxes. This should hopefully stop one of the biggest threats to egg survival and help that 1 in 1000 to hatch. Also, well done to Emma and Tom for caging with heavy, rusty metal which is really a pleasure to carry around ; )
Onwards to night work and last night the loggerheads finally made an appearance after days of only seeing greens (I’m biased towards the loggers, they have more character than greens and are uglier. Not every turtle can be beautiful you know) with 3 logger nests and 2 green nests over our two beaches. The volunteers were run ragged, along with our 4 visitors, trying to stay with each turtle AND make sure the beaches are walked every 10 minutes. We’re a well-oiled machine now and 5 turtles on the beach are nothing we can’t handle! Well done to Celli for spotting the highly endangered german joke-back turtle and observing it for a few minutes before being given the fright of her life as Adrien jumped out of the hole with a logger carapace on his back. I hope you had fresh underwear on the beach Celli.
Here at alagadi we work hard and we play jokes on people. Then we work some more and some more and then we sleep.
Becca xx
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Bruce almighty
As the season warms up (literally and metaphorically) we’re getting busier and busier, with 7 turtle sitings last night and 15 visitors to the beach! For this reason the blog is becoming slightly less regular but we’re keeping you up to date the best we can.
Tuesday night we had 2 U-turns and a nest on Alagadi 1, as well as an attempt on Iki. One of the U-turns on Alagadi one, came right next to midpoint and made its path all the way around where volunteers and visitors were sitting, creating some pandemonium! The turtle on Iki decided to head straight up to the dunes where the sand is so soft her body pit kept caving in. After 2hours, several attempts and a lot of cursing by volunteers, she decided enough was enough and headed back to the water around 4 am.
Yesterday day time, Tom and Emma headed out north to walk the beaches up there, whilst we went down to Alagadi to repositions posts that beach goers had used as goal posts and GPS all the new nests. After a few fights over the good hammock before dinner, we were ready to set off again for another night watch.
Sam and Kristine took Iki, where they had 3 greens come to nest simultaneously. Sam, having lost one in the dunes decided that it was Kristine’s turn to look for her rather than get himself any more dirty up there. Unfortunately none of these laid but we hope for their return over the next few days.
On bay 3 a turtle came up and started to dig her egg chamber, unfortunately another turtle decided to ascend the beach and the same time and lay directly in front of the first. While digging her body pit she not only pelted the first turtle with large stones and bits of debris but managed to hit her in the face with a flipper! Needless to say the victim went back into the water a little disgruntled, without laying. We have decided to name the latter Bruce due to her spectacular punching skills.
Hopefully it will be another fun packed night tonight, but in the meantime I’m making the most of a little peace and quiet to soak up the sun, lie in a hammock and do some much needed laundry!
Celli x
Tuesday night we had 2 U-turns and a nest on Alagadi 1, as well as an attempt on Iki. One of the U-turns on Alagadi one, came right next to midpoint and made its path all the way around where volunteers and visitors were sitting, creating some pandemonium! The turtle on Iki decided to head straight up to the dunes where the sand is so soft her body pit kept caving in. After 2hours, several attempts and a lot of cursing by volunteers, she decided enough was enough and headed back to the water around 4 am.
Yesterday day time, Tom and Emma headed out north to walk the beaches up there, whilst we went down to Alagadi to repositions posts that beach goers had used as goal posts and GPS all the new nests. After a few fights over the good hammock before dinner, we were ready to set off again for another night watch.
Sam and Kristine took Iki, where they had 3 greens come to nest simultaneously. Sam, having lost one in the dunes decided that it was Kristine’s turn to look for her rather than get himself any more dirty up there. Unfortunately none of these laid but we hope for their return over the next few days.
On bay 3 a turtle came up and started to dig her egg chamber, unfortunately another turtle decided to ascend the beach and the same time and lay directly in front of the first. While digging her body pit she not only pelted the first turtle with large stones and bits of debris but managed to hit her in the face with a flipper! Needless to say the victim went back into the water a little disgruntled, without laying. We have decided to name the latter Bruce due to her spectacular punching skills.
Hopefully it will be another fun packed night tonight, but in the meantime I’m making the most of a little peace and quiet to soak up the sun, lie in a hammock and do some much needed laundry!
Celli x
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Cat sick in the West and "excavation" on Alagadi
Hello all!
It has been an interesting few days here at the goat shed!
There were some welcome new arrivals: enthusiastic new volunteers! Emma, Jim bob and Kristine. The North was thoroughly checked by Tom Kate, Emma, Celli and Kristine for turtle activity and juice was drunk in bounty. Oh and a nest was relocated.
Ainslie, Robbo, Jimbob and Ana and I headed out West to set up our new home away from home, so the beaches there could be checked with more ease. We arrived only to find that no one seemed to know where exactly the keys had walked off to, so then had to break into our own house, with the help of a locksmith. Here’s hoping the Turkish man who kindly abandoned his house into our keeping doesn’t return too soon. The water and electricity was switched off, something resembling a pile of cat sick smothered the kitchen floor and there were strange slightly terrifying pictures on the walls. But luckily there were no long dead cats lying around like last time.
After much cleaning and calling of electricity men, the house was in a more welcoming state, so we went off for a very delicious kebab.
Night watch was a busy one. 3 turtles laid: two Greens, one Loggerhead and one Green FCA. So our visitors enjoyed good views of some of the turtles!
One of the highlights of the night for Kristine, Sam, Celli and Adrian was “extensive excavation” of Alagadi 2 due to unforeseen nest marker movement. Kristine says “It was the best hour of digging in my life”. The egg chamber was successfully sighted in the end.
Today most of the turtle gang went into town for a nice change of scenery with the exception of a few manning the goat shed, and Sam and Adrian who did “man work” and built our new bin holder thingy. Wayne from down the road assisted with the cement with Sam optimistically calling out “I can do this in ten minutes.” Yeah Sam 10 minutes. Riiiiiight. 2 Hours later the workmen returned to the goatshed.
Everyone headed out for Night watch tonight with full capacity of visitors. Good luck to them we say.
from libby and kristine
It has been an interesting few days here at the goat shed!
There were some welcome new arrivals: enthusiastic new volunteers! Emma, Jim bob and Kristine. The North was thoroughly checked by Tom Kate, Emma, Celli and Kristine for turtle activity and juice was drunk in bounty. Oh and a nest was relocated.
Ainslie, Robbo, Jimbob and Ana and I headed out West to set up our new home away from home, so the beaches there could be checked with more ease. We arrived only to find that no one seemed to know where exactly the keys had walked off to, so then had to break into our own house, with the help of a locksmith. Here’s hoping the Turkish man who kindly abandoned his house into our keeping doesn’t return too soon. The water and electricity was switched off, something resembling a pile of cat sick smothered the kitchen floor and there were strange slightly terrifying pictures on the walls. But luckily there were no long dead cats lying around like last time.
After much cleaning and calling of electricity men, the house was in a more welcoming state, so we went off for a very delicious kebab.
Night watch was a busy one. 3 turtles laid: two Greens, one Loggerhead and one Green FCA. So our visitors enjoyed good views of some of the turtles!
One of the highlights of the night for Kristine, Sam, Celli and Adrian was “extensive excavation” of Alagadi 2 due to unforeseen nest marker movement. Kristine says “It was the best hour of digging in my life”. The egg chamber was successfully sighted in the end.
Today most of the turtle gang went into town for a nice change of scenery with the exception of a few manning the goat shed, and Sam and Adrian who did “man work” and built our new bin holder thingy. Wayne from down the road assisted with the cement with Sam optimistically calling out “I can do this in ten minutes.” Yeah Sam 10 minutes. Riiiiiight. 2 Hours later the workmen returned to the goatshed.
Everyone headed out for Night watch tonight with full capacity of visitors. Good luck to them we say.
from libby and kristine
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Male with the Large Tail
Good morning! We’re a few hours late with our blog today due to an extremely exciting night that required all hands on deck, but I’ll come to that later.
Saturday night saw us splitting into two groups, some down to the beach and 4 of us to a fundraiser. On the beach 2 Loggerheads were found nesting, one on Alagadi and one on Iki. Whilst measuring and observing these, Kate managed to tag not the turtle, but herself. Luckily she’s fine but we’re all intrigued to find out where exactly she goes every day! Our Logger friend from the night before also returned for another 6 attempts at nesting before going back into the sea, bringing her grand total of body pits dug up to nine. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that she’ll actually lay sometime soon, in the mean time its nice to see a familiar face on the beach each night!
Meanwhile, Becca, Tom, Sam and I went to the fund raising turtle race and dinner, where we eagerly anticipated our spaghetti bolognaise made with real meat! (not an aubergine in sight). We weren’t let down. The food was fantastic and the people unbelievably friendly. We all had a small bet on the turtle races, where Sam and I came out on top and Becca and Tom didn’t. Through generous donations and a bit of competitive spirit over 800 YTL was raised, which is a fantastic sum of money and will go a long way in helping the project. Thank you to everyone involved for helping us and giving us a wonderful evening off.
The next day we were up early to go west to walk the horrifically long beaches to find any nests from the night before. Tom and I found our first day time nest, a Loggerhead we have named Heather. After much prodding and digging of the sand we eventually found her egg chamber, bringing the total number of nest found in the west up to two. Unfortunately the other nest had been partially predated by dogs, but we have high hopes for the remaining eggs.
So last night! After a farewell dinner for Penny, the beach patrol set off. Half an hour later, Ainslie burst into the restaurant where we were still sat, shouting about a male turtle. We flung some money on the table and sprinted down to the beach where we found a pair of green turtles mating. Kate, Tom and Sam had seen what the believed to be a large rock steadily moving up the beach. The female had determinedly carried her male all the way on to the sand with her mind set on nesting! After Kate, Tom and Sam executed some very professional commando rolls in order to observe them unseen, we all gathered round to wait for her to begin to lay. A few hours later, during which time the female was simultaneously mating and digging her body pit and egg chamber, we were starting to get restless. Finally she began lay and the volunteers swung into action. Kate and I took the female to tag, and eventually as the male came off he was surrounded in tables from the beach bar so that we could quickly get a satellite on him. Everything went well and we now have one of the only males tagged with a satellite transmitter, which will be fantastic from a research point of view.
An unbelievable exciting night, which I can’t imagine ever being topped, but it seems you never know what’s around the corner at the turtle project!
Saturday night saw us splitting into two groups, some down to the beach and 4 of us to a fundraiser. On the beach 2 Loggerheads were found nesting, one on Alagadi and one on Iki. Whilst measuring and observing these, Kate managed to tag not the turtle, but herself. Luckily she’s fine but we’re all intrigued to find out where exactly she goes every day! Our Logger friend from the night before also returned for another 6 attempts at nesting before going back into the sea, bringing her grand total of body pits dug up to nine. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that she’ll actually lay sometime soon, in the mean time its nice to see a familiar face on the beach each night!
Meanwhile, Becca, Tom, Sam and I went to the fund raising turtle race and dinner, where we eagerly anticipated our spaghetti bolognaise made with real meat! (not an aubergine in sight). We weren’t let down. The food was fantastic and the people unbelievably friendly. We all had a small bet on the turtle races, where Sam and I came out on top and Becca and Tom didn’t. Through generous donations and a bit of competitive spirit over 800 YTL was raised, which is a fantastic sum of money and will go a long way in helping the project. Thank you to everyone involved for helping us and giving us a wonderful evening off.
The next day we were up early to go west to walk the horrifically long beaches to find any nests from the night before. Tom and I found our first day time nest, a Loggerhead we have named Heather. After much prodding and digging of the sand we eventually found her egg chamber, bringing the total number of nest found in the west up to two. Unfortunately the other nest had been partially predated by dogs, but we have high hopes for the remaining eggs.
So last night! After a farewell dinner for Penny, the beach patrol set off. Half an hour later, Ainslie burst into the restaurant where we were still sat, shouting about a male turtle. We flung some money on the table and sprinted down to the beach where we found a pair of green turtles mating. Kate, Tom and Sam had seen what the believed to be a large rock steadily moving up the beach. The female had determinedly carried her male all the way on to the sand with her mind set on nesting! After Kate, Tom and Sam executed some very professional commando rolls in order to observe them unseen, we all gathered round to wait for her to begin to lay. A few hours later, during which time the female was simultaneously mating and digging her body pit and egg chamber, we were starting to get restless. Finally she began lay and the volunteers swung into action. Kate and I took the female to tag, and eventually as the male came off he was surrounded in tables from the beach bar so that we could quickly get a satellite on him. Everything went well and we now have one of the only males tagged with a satellite transmitter, which will be fantastic from a research point of view.
An unbelievable exciting night, which I can’t imagine ever being topped, but it seems you never know what’s around the corner at the turtle project!
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