What you've missed...

Steve and I arrived on Ossabaw late afternoon, Monday, May 3rd. After a morning of paperwork at Georgia DNR office in Brunswick, we drove to Savannah and met our boss Mark for a boat ride out to the island. Once on land, we got a very limited tour and met most of our fellow island residents. That night we heard stories of Ossabaw over a late dinner.

Tuesday was met with uncertain weather as the storms that flooded Tennessee crept closer. Mark took us to the beach for training and on the way we had several surprises. First we came across a wayward alligator blocking the road, and further on what we believed to be a coyote as it darted across the road. They are a rare sighting on the island, so we don't want to say for sure. On the beach we went over sea turtle nesting protocol. Mark made examples of loggerhead crawls in the sand and we reviewed how to tell the difference between a nesting crawl and a false crawl (when a turtle crawls on the beach but for some reason leaves without depositing eggs). After some ominous clouds passed over, and dumped some rain, we went over egg relocation protocol. Depending where on the beach a turtle lays her eggs, Steve and I may have to relocate up to 50% of the nests to safer ground. We then patrolled the entire North Beach (6.70 km). No turtle nests, yet. Mark left around noon, and we went home to start cleaning our house.

Wednesday, Mark's right hand man Adam, arrived early to continue our training. He led us south on the island to patrol the other three beaches. Let's just say the road was rough. I remember laughing out loud most of the 30 minute drive as I tried to keep up with Steve on another Mule (Kawasaki, not the animal) who was following Adam on an ATV. Our first stop was the kayak launch point to South Middle Beach. Steve and I paddled down a tidal creek as Adam took the ATV over shallow water to the dune. The ATV is our transportation for this beach, so Steve and I had to sit back to back on the cargo rack as Adam drove. We patrolled the whole beach (5.92 km) and found nothing. At the north end, we crossed, at low tide, another tidal creek to North Middle Beach. This beach has to be patrolled on foot (2.28 km) (unless Steve can repair the beach cruiser that was left out there all winter...) (donations welcome). It was a nice chance to slow down and look around. Adam is an amazing naturalist and knows what everything is from the grass, to the birds, to the shells. He even made us eat a couple plants, one was an antiseptic and one was a relative to the carrot. After the kayak ride back, and an awesome bald eagle sighting, we drove even further south, to South Beach. This road seemed to not have been used in a very long time, and later we had to make our own road. We patrolled (2.74 km) and again, no nests. On the way back, the older Mule dropped some parts on the road, and then the frame cracked in half. Steve did his usual MacGyver thing and removed the bed so it could creep along the road some several kilometers more just to get home. We'll be down to one Mule for a bit, but the upside is that every morning for the next while we'll be patrolling together.

Thursday, Adam came early again, and we spent the early morning troubleshooting the "good" Mule as it wouldn't start. After some brains worked it out, Steve and I were sent to patrol North Beach as Adam picked up the pieces of the other Mule somewhere on the Main Road. No nests were found so we headed back. We completed sea turtle stranding protocol training with Charlene (Adam's preserved hawksbill sea turtle) and reviewed the equipment in the house and shed. Then Adam took us to "the hill" (main land), to get stuff from the RV and local store. We towed the canoe back and attracted some dolphins along the way. As soon as we unloaded the boat, he left and Steve and I were officially on our own.

Friday we woke up before sunrise so we could be on the beach as the sun came up. As the early morning takes hold, signs of sea turtle crawls can be diminished so it's important we're there every morning at dawn. We patrolled all four beaches over five hours. Lots of rough Mule rides and some wet ass from the kayak. Still no nests, however we did have a dead loggerhead stranding. This required some paperwork, photos, examination, and biopsy. Steve removed the left humerus bone and skin sample for research. The carcass was painted (to prevent double counting) and pulled up to the dune. On the way home we got to see 4 Roseate Spoonbills feeding in the marsh and a pretty Broadhead skink hanging out in the hole of a tree.

Saturday we woke up even earlier (5 AM) and changed up our patrol route because of the tide. We headed to South Middle Beach first and took the kayak across to the ATV. This proved to be not such a great idea, because both the kayak and ATV were still wet from the morning dew. However, we were able to do the walk of North Middle Beach without the blazing temperatures of the mid-day sun. After the Middle beaches, we went to South Beach. The tide was much lower than any other day and we were able to explore the very southern tip of the island. There, we collected a few oysters and whelks. They are sitting in a bucket of fresh water now, and in a few days will make a nice addition at the dinner table. Afterward, we drove up to North Beach. We encountered a few weekend goers that had their boats pulled up and beach chairs setup. Even still... no turtle nest. In the afternoon, after much needed naps, we went over to the island manager's (Andy's) house. He is going on a trip to Alaska and needed to show us how to feed the horses, and possibly his house pets in case Eric, who is the island's designated hog killer cannot (because his wife is having a baby any day now). It was our first glimpse of Ms. West's property. It reminds me of the movie Great Expectations. We will have pictures of it soon, since we have to visit it everyday this week. When we got back, Steve cooked up taco night. We cracked a few beers and spent rest of the night working on this update. It's now 9:30 PM and way past our bedtime. Sunrise is at 6:30 tomorrow, so we need to be up before 5:00 if we want to be able to eat a big enough breakfast to last until noon and still make it to the beach by dawn.

Goodnight and stay tuned fore more. Please email us with your stories. Take care.