Turtles, turtles, everywhere

Since my last post we’ve had two full nights on Buck and figured out how we’re going to handle working all night.  Our first night we had just one hawksbill, but on Monday night we were crazy busy with 5 turtles!!  It all started with a hawksbill and green at the same time and the ladies continued to come onshore to nest until about 1am, often overlapping with one we were already working on.  The first green I had came ashore around 8:30pm and dug a body pit (a big hole in the sand about twice her body size), but the nest hole she tried to dig collapsed in on itself.  She moved on down the beach and we followed her as she tested site after site.  Before they start nesting, they’re very alert and you have to turn off all your lights and stay out of sight.  We were on a berm above and behind her, where we could observe without being seen.  She continued body pitting until about 11:30pm, when she finally decided to nest.  We had to relocate her eggs since she nested too close to the water, and I got to “catch” the eggs as she laid them.  She laid over 100!  They’re a little bigger than golf balls and leathery, with a slight “give” to them.  We moved the whole lot further inshore and dug a new nest.  The funny thing is, she had no idea and meticulously covered and disguised her nest, when I had moved them over an hour ago!  She was up on land over 3 hours in total; hawksbills are definitely quicker layers, but the greens are still my favorite.  They’re just so elegant and have such beautiful faces.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet compared to the first few hours.  We were all drowsy by the end.  A typical night goes something like this: We have dinner at our hotel around 4pm then head over to the marina by 6:00.  We take a quick boat ride over to Buck Island and start our first beach patrol by 7:00.  The pier where we dock the boat lies in the middle between the north and south sides of the island, and one person heads north and another south at the top of each hour.  Each patrol is about a mile, and we continue this until about 4am.  If you find a turtle you work her up, taking data on her species, size, etc and relocating her eggs, if necessary.  Someone still has to continue the patrol, though, in order to find every turtle that comes ashore to nest.  It gets interesting when you have 3 or more turtles on the beach at once – that’s when you have to juggle!  By about 4:30am, if we don’t have any new turtles, we head back to St. Croix, breakfast, and then bed.  It’s such a weird thing, working all night and sleeping during the day.  It won’t be long before we all become vampires, never seeing the sun.

And so it begins...

Drum roll please!  We have our first turtle…a green!  On our second night on the island we came across a green female nesting on the beach.  She dug several huge body pits before settling down to lay her eggs.  The whole group was out there – nine in all – and we got to watch the whole process.  It was downright amazing.  To begin with, she was huge: about 4 feet long and so powerful.  She effortlessly flung sand and bits of shrubs ten feet behind her.  That night we had a nearly full moon and pretty clear skies.  If the summer goes anything like this, it’s going to be pretty special.

I don’t know if I’ve explained what we do on the island, but we’re basically out there walking along the beach, searching for turtle tracks by flashlight and listening for one rustling around in the bushes.  When we find one, we take a bunch of data on her size and species and tag her so she can be identified later.  So far we’ve had two “half nights” on Buck, just working until midnight or so.  Tonight will be our first full night, working from 6pm to 6am.  Hopefully, we’ll see some more turtles.  One thing I’ve come to realize about this job in the week or so we’ve been here is that you spend a lot of time on the beach by yourself.  I think I knew that before coming down here, but it’s another thing to actually experience it.  If it’s a clear night, the stars are amazing, and sitting on the pier under a full moon with nothing but the sounds of the waves to interrupt your thoughts is something everyone should experience. 

Saturday was our first day off and we took full advantage of it, borrowing a car and touring the island.  We swung around to the East End first, taking the North Side Rd to Point Udall.  This is a beautiful winding drive along the coast with a lot of switchback turns and sweeping views of the coast.  The scenery reminds me a lot of Belize: lush and hilly with scattered houses and goats and horses grazing on the side of the road.  Point Udall is a really cool little monument marking the easternmost point in the United States and also a great overlook spot.  We’re determined to make it out there at sunrise to be the first people to greet the sun! 

We headed back west from there on the Southshore Rd and visited the St George Botanical Garden.  If you’re ever in St. Croix, stop at this place!  It’s a beautiful place to spend a peaceful, relaxing afternoon.  From there, we headed to Frederiksted on the west coast, a sleepy little town that I guess gets pretty touristy in the high season.  There was a huge cruise liner docked when we got there, but it was gone again before we left by dark.  Most of the restaurants along the boardwalk were either closed or outrageously expensive, so we headed back to Christiansted for dinner.  We drove back by way of Carambola, through the rain forest area, but it was dark and we couldn’t see much.  We had a super full day and got to know the island a lot better, but there’s still so much we want to see.  But with almost 11 weeks left, I think we have time.  Soon come…

Buck Island of Adventure

Rain, rain and more rain…that seems to be the theme for this week.  There’s a baby tropical storm brewing just off the coast and it’s dumping buckets of rain on us constantly.  Hope it doesn't hit you guys in Florida as hard as it's hitting us!! 

Luckily, we still got out to Buck Island today!  We had a break in the weather this morning when we were clearing a path of rocks and coral rubble along the beach.  We definitely don't want to be twisting an ankle on a rock while we’re stumbling around at night!  Thunder rumbled intermittently in the distance and you could see rain falling back towards Christiansted, but we were dry and cool on the island.  There must have been an awesome storm brewing offshore, though, because just around midday it showed up in force.  We made it back to the shelter just in time and had lunch amidst driving rain and wind.  There was one gigantic thunder clap that made us all jump it was so close.  You really know the storm is right on top of you when the thunder vibrates in your bones.

After much hype from my coworkers back in Miami, I finally got to meet the “killer plants” on Buck Island.  They don’t mess around – almost all plants are either full of burrs, spines, or thorns, or are “highly toxic”.  We watched out especially for Christmas bush and Manchineel, which are prevalent and give you crazy rashes.  Christmas bush was described to us as “poison ivy on steroids”.  We hiked up to the observation deck on the top of the island and met all of these plant enemies up close and personal…sometimes right above your head!  On the way back down to the beach, we shared the trail with a rushing torrent of rainwater, something Ian, our boss, had never seen on the island before.  The view from the top was great – ocean met the green hills of the island in a narrow, rocky coast then stretched as far as you could see on the horizon.

Once we got back down to the beach we had a crash course on turtle nesting habits.  There are 7 turtle species throughout the world and 4 nest here in the Virgin Islands: green, hawksbill, loggerhead, and leatherback. Hawksbills, especially, like to nest further inland under the vegetation.  That could make things interesting if we’re following turtles in and around our plant enemies in the dark!

More thunderstorms brought our afternoon on the island to an abrupt end and we high-tailed it back to St. Croix amid big swells.  Back at the Buccaneer we had a relaxing dinner accompanied by…guess what…more rain!  Luckily there was a really talented guy playing the steel drums which lightened the mood, along with some tasty Cruzan rum punch.  Tomorrow, looking for more turtle nests in the rain :)

Life in the Left Lane

Welcome to the Virgin Islands!  My new home for the next few months is The Buccaneer Resort on St. Croix.  Check it out at www.thebuccaneer.com!  We 4 interns live in the Strong Box, which we like to think will offer some extra protection should we experience a hurricane during our stay!  After a beautiful afternoon yesterday, my first day on the island, today was pretty much a wash.  By mid-morning the rains started and didn’t let up until early evening.  It postponed some of our beach training until tomorrow when we plan to go out to Buck Island.  Here’s hoping for sunshine!

Our second day was basically spent preparing a multitude of things.  We learned about the resort and our responsibilities for keeping up with the housekeeping.  We collected backpacks full of gear for heading out to Buck Island—everything from pit tags and flashlights to ponchos.  I think we’re all looking forward to getting started with some of the real field work.  There are always a few days at the beginning of a project just organizing and getting your bearings.

The highlight of the day was learning to drive on the left side of the road!  They have American cars here, which means the steering wheel is still on the left.  All seems well until you come to an intersection and have to think to yourself: wait, which side of the road am I turning onto?  We all caught on pretty quickly, though.

The resort is beautiful!  So lush and green and such a relaxed feel to it.  The people are warm and friendly and make you feel welcome.  There are three beautiful beaches and a couple pools as well.  I absolutely cannot say enough great things about the views, but I will certainly try!  They are amazing!  From almost any angle there are velvety green mountains or ocean stretching out to the horizon.  I've already taken a lot of pictures, but I'm having difficulty uploading them with the super-slow internet.  Hopefully in the next few days...

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day, providing the weather cooperates.  Even under heavy cloud cover (and at times pouring rain) it’s still beautiful here.