A turtle with a satellite tracker on her back--Col gave a fascinating lecture discussing turtle movements around the big ol' ocean, with lots of great graphic demos. New fast-loc GPS units allow a detailed analysis of near-shore movements during the breeding season. Technology is really opening our eyes to their movements, where previously so much was unknown.
Before X-mas, Dirk had a quick jaunt to lovely St Louis to present papers at the major international IS conference. It was 30 degrees when he left and 30 degrees when he arrived in St Louis - just different scales!
Looking up the arch at night.
A brief stop-over in Boulder to start some new research, visit and check to see that the town is still there.
The turtles were in residence at Mon Repos, but the real story was the rain. Buckets. For days. And days. Thre was talk of boat-building - as in one large boat. This was the road into the reserve which was closed on a number of occasions. We were late arriving at Mon Repos, as the highway north from Brisbane was closed due to rain-induced accidents and we sat in traffic for hours. Once we did arrive after a hairy drive through the pouring rain, the rising waters closed the roads surrounding Bundaberg, so we couldn't leave! The road that we drove in on, just south of Bundy, closed behind us, and now has been closed for road repairs--parts were washed away.
A rare blue sky (this season) over the flooding Burnett River in Bundaberg. On the far shore are ~200 houses severely flooded. The floods are extensive - 300,000 sq. miles of Queensland under water (that is reportedly the area of France and Germany combined -see
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/world/asia/01australia.html?hpw). For local stories on the floods see
http://www.news-mail.com.au/photos/galleries/bundaberg-under-water-10am/#id=bundaberg-under-water-10am&num=1. It
is real drama. (particularly the bit with the guy watching teli in his flooded living room!
Our last nest relocation of the night (it's 4:30 am). We line the eggs up in rows of 10 to count them, and then dig a new nest on higher ground to try to prevent them being washed away by storm surges and beach erosion. Every little turtle counts since the survivor rate is so low, once the turtles hatch. Col has carefully researched methodology for relocating the eggs, so we carefully follow protocol to ensure good hatch success.
Note the large eggs at the bottom -they are double and triple-yolk eggs. The turtles will develop if the yolks are not touching each other.
Col has determined more precise numbers, but if I remember correctly, only on the order of 1 in 1000 hatchlings survive the 30 year journey required to prepare to come ashore back on the same beach they were born to lay their own clutches of eggs. In the meantime, the little turtles spend part of their lives riding ocean currents to the coast of Chile and Peru and back, and then feed in the waters around the south Pacific islands, avoiding being caught either on purpose or by accident by fisherman.
We need to be able to identify turtle species (in the dark) by their tracks in the sand. Most of the turtles are loggerheads, but we managed to correctly call this one as a Flatback turtle. It's good we were correct, because Dr. Col Limpus was waiting for this one to arrive, given her venerable status and brought out lots of equipment once we radioed her arrival to the lab. A mis-identification would have been rather embarrassing given that a tour-group of 60 people was on hand!
Here, he captures a picture of the gorgeous "priority" Flatback (whohad 2 healed fractures on her shell - possibly from being dropped on a boat deck). Certain turtles require special treatment, including this one. Col wanted to weigh this turtle and to do a laproscopy on her to check her egg status. This is her last clutch of the season. We also weighed and measured 10 of her 70 eggs, but were careful to return them within the two hour window for when we can safely move eggs without killing the developing embryos.
Ms. loggerhead turtle makes her way back to the ocean after carefully digging her nest and depositing her eggs.
Mon Repos Conservation Park is critical for the survival of these endangered loggerhead turtles. This protected beach supports the most significant nesting population in the South Pacific Ocean region.
Beautiful bee-eaters buzzing blissfully biting bugs.
Crested pigeons canoodling in the woods
We don't know the name of this spider, but he's about 3 inches long and wove quite an architecturally wonderful web which he displays with his handsome orange and black-striped legs.
Fireworks on the beach at Surfers paradise. It was no big deal to stay up 'til midnight this year, after a tour of turtle duty into the wee hours of the night! Happy new year to one and all!
It has been a decidedly anomalous summer - record rains, massive flooding in QLD and now in Victoria but drought and fires to the west. The clockwork seabreezes expected every day never appeared. So when the sun was out and the winds finally perked up last weekend, no-one was complaining that they were sou-easters - winds of winter! I just collected my gear, unpacked my new board and headed for the water!
