On our shortest night of the season [that will be June 21st] we had a quite improbable scenario!
No, not the fact that 4 turtles came up to nest that night; we can deal with that, without a problem. Not the 2 neophytes, that is also easy. Just the way they acted!
The first girl came on to the beach around 22:00 and had 3 nest attempts before finding a suitable spot to dig her nest. She chose a small scaevola bush just up by the barbecue in front of one of the houses....was she trying to say something to us?
Anyways! once she dug her nest, she got into position to lay, half a flipper still in the nest chamber (it happens sometimes), cloaca comes down.... contractions and … … no egg. OK try again! Contraction … no egg, contraction … no egg, contraction … no egg...
[
1 hour later] contraction … no egg... contraction … no egg...
so we decided that it was worth trying to put a tag on her, just in case she comes back so we can recognise her. Tag applied – normal reaction, slight flinch; tried the second one...no problems!
Wow here comes her first egg! Maybe she needed a little extra help. After 10 eggs we decide it is time to drill her; first hole no problems... a couple more eggs; another hole....wow she is starting to cover!
And so we let her carry on covering without disturbing her and her award winning sized clutch....a grand total of 17 eggs after 4 hours and 30 minutes effort! [for the record a hawksbill turtle lays on average 150 eggs in 15 minutes]
You may say it was the luck of the draw....but little did you know that we had another neophyte up the other end of the beach at the same time. When we left her she had just started digging; when we get back to her, she had just started laying. Cool; we can get an egg count and work up nicely.
Well that was the theory! Look at the nest chamber...15 eggs or so and seemed to be settling into a rhythm. Check the flippers to see if there are any tags or tag scares...none! OK, get the tags out of the bag, put one in the clamp....look at the turtle and you've got it... she started covering! 15 eggs and you start covering? Once in the evening is sort of acceptable but twice in the space of 2 hours? You gotta be joking!
Gave her a tag because we had a feeling she would be back... then left her to cover her nest.
Not impressed!
What is it with these girls tonight?
[
3 days later] Jogging along the beach [I was in desperate need of a cup of coffee so thought that I would speed up the patrol] and I see this fresh set of tracks [there goes the coffee!]... take a deep breath, walk up the tracks and find a turtle digging. That supracaudal looked very very familiar [you get to recognise the turtles by the shape and size of the supracaudal with a bit of experience], but I had a little doubt...so a quick glance at her flippers. One tag on the left side. It IS her, she is back!
The girl who had ran away from us 3 nights before was back and this time she meant business.
A nest full of eggs [132 to be precise] later she returned into the water, with her second tag obviously but no drill pattern. We didn't want to push our luck!
That was probably the weirdest night spent on the beach since we discovered Jumby Bay...in turtle terms that is!
Until next time
Dtrain & Rox
