Phew...

Steve and I have been busy with the close of the nesting season, and especially because we just had two visits back to back.  Obviously, a lot has happened during the two week lapse.  I'll highlight the fun stuff.

Just after Hurricane Earl passed, Steve found a crab trap on the beach with live stone crabs.  Since we hadn't caught any yet, we decided they'd be a meal.  They were alright, maybe overcooked, and too much work.  The next day, after we'd decided that we would stick to blue crabs, we found three more traps full of live crabs.  By the end of the day, Steve and I rescued 14 stone crabs and 1 blue crab.

 

Sometimes, at low tide on South Beach, sea critters gather in the small pools of water. 

Two hermit crabs.  The one on the right started checking out the empty whelk, possibly for a new home.

Sea Star, still alive despite the missing limbs.

One morning, South Beach offered me more than just the tide pool.  Surf clams and juvenile invertebrates washed up by the thousands and provided a very pretty high tide line.  

Angel wing, razor clam, horseshoe crab molt, common cockle

Large Atlantic Cockle left behind at low tide.  It was still alive, sort of, so I took it to the water.

Over Labor Day weekend, Charlie and Clare came to visit again, this time to see the turtle hatchlings.  Lucky for us, we saw the last of an emergence on Bradley Beach, nest NB113.  They also got to see a few live hatchlings after a nest inventory.  This was also a great opportunity to see more of Ossabaw, as it's pretty hard to pack it in during a short trip.  We spent some time exploring the Boneyard on South Beach.  I finally got to take some photos down there, too.

Large alligator track leaving the beach.

 

Last Thursday, Steve and I welcomed Steve's parents.  By this time, we learned how to better tour the island.  Fortunately for everyone, there were less bumpy rides in the truck.  Over those four days, his parents were treated with most of what Ossabaw has to offer: beach combing, swimming, turtle hatchlings, Paul Mitchell and the donkeys, up close alligators big and small, fishing, hog hunting, and tours of North and South Beaches, Middle Place, the Main House, South End Hunt Camp, Tabby Houses, the Clubhouse and Boarding House.  They were even treated with an introduction to Ms. West.  It was a fast and tiresome visit, but I know they felt the magic of the island.  

Dad admiring the infinite marsh.

Tighes fishing.

Everyone loves rocking chairs on southern porches.

Donkeys LOVE corn husks.

Thanks for visiting!

Ossabaw is in bloom!  Morning glories, passion flowers, sweet peas, lantana, and more!  Even better is the migration of many species of butterflies.  While working on the dune, dozens of Gulf Fritillarys fly around heading south.  They cover all the flowering bushes.  I've also seen a Grey Hairstreak, Cloudless Sulphur, and a Pearl Crescent.  Lately I've been finding cicada molts.  We've also seen a Luna Moth and a couple Imperial

Moths around the house.

Luna Moth

Two days ago, Codey found three baby squirrels in the road.  He was on the tractor, so he moved them off the road.  Later that day, he showed me where he found them and we located one, as she came bouncing over to us.  We brought her home.  I did some research and learned that we should give the mom more time to find her, so Steve and I took her back.  Just as we were setting the box down with the squirrel, a second squirrel came hopping across the road toward us.  We left the two in the box and drove away, hoping mom would rescue her kids.  After a couple hours, as the sun was close to setting, we went back to the spot, both squirrels still there.  Since Codey said he found three, we attempted one last time to find more.  Soon, we found one, and hopefully the last.  I hate to think we left one behind.  We've since learned that they are two females, one male, about 6-7 weeks old.  I got to town yesterday to buy puppy formula, pedialyte, and other necessary things.  They are much improved since we first brought them home.  They love the formula and eat other soft fruits well.  Lucky for us there was a large bird cage in our shed that we saved during the cleaning.  Also, there is an old chicken coop in our yard that will be perfect for our soft release.  Lucky for the squirrels we're good at raising orphaned animals.  And we love squirrels.   

Flying Turtles goes Viral

Our little video of baby turtles has hit 10,000 views on YouTube. I'm rather surprised. Here's the video:

The past 3 days have been spent preparing for the possibility of Hurricane Earl paying us a visit.  We've had plenty of cleanup to do, both on the beaches and around the house.  At the beach, we've been collecting screens, posts, stakes, treasures and trash.  Our main focus has been on the Middle beaches.  Because both South Middle and North Middle are not usually accessible by vehicle, we just pile up all the leftover stuff as break down nests after completing inventories.  On South Middle, we also collected a bunch of trash and treasures - things that washed ashore that we thought deserved recovering - and put it all in a big pile near where we pull up the kayak.  On North Middle, we had additional stashes of screening material placed here and there so that we wouldn't have to bring it each day on the bike, but still have it on hand if there was a nest.  We've been wanting to clean up most of this stuff for awhile, now that nesting is finished.  The hurricane provided a perfect excuse.

So today we planned for low tide.  Kate took the Mule over to North Middle and recovered any leftover screening materials.  I went to South Middle and packed our big pile of stuff into the bed of the other Mule, and drove it down across the southern creek to South Beach, dumping it off to pickup later in the truck.  Also today, as well as yesterday, we both made sure to check the white numbered posts on each nest, and hammer them in a bit further into the sand.  We don't want any markers being blown away in the storm.  But blowing away isn't the only issue.  High winds cause a sandblasting effect on the post, essentially acting as sandpaper, and erasing the numbers we've written on them.  So, we traveled with our big sharpie markers, and re-wrote numbers on posts that were already faded from previous sandblasting.

Another thing we worry about is the possibility that the weather will keep us from the beach.  In order to combat this risk, we removed the small screening on any nests 40 days or older (normally we wait until 45 days).  This way, if we can't get out to a beach, we at least know the turtles aren't trapped in the nest.  Luckily, things are really wrapping up, and there isn't much to worry about.  For example, there are only a handful of nest on South Middle, and of those, all have emerged but two.  The remaining two aren't due to hatch for 10-15 days.  In essence, this means that we could ignore that beach for a week with no ill effect.

Around the house we've also been preparing.  We had made stacks of screens next to the shed as we've been bringing home the material.  Since it may get blown away, we decided it was time to store it.  We cleaned out a small shed, next to our big "turtle shed".  We put down pallets that Kate had collected from the beach to make for a new floor and keep the screens up.  There we stacked up the old white screens.  Every 25 high, we marked the screen with orange flagging tape and wrote the number on it - 25, 50, 75, 100, etc.  We also made a big stack of small screens with the same numbering scheme.  This way, next year's turtle observers will know how many screens they have, and how many nests they can protect.  It was difficult for us this year, not knowing how much material we had.

Speaking of making it easier for next year's interns, we're also re-painting all the marker posts white.  When we started, they all had numbers on them from last year.  So every few days, we would have to paint a bunch of posts for the new turtle nests.  Next year, they'll have a head start.  We've also organized other equiptment that will make things easier on them.  Best of all for them, they will get one or two brand new Mules, a new ATV and a bunch of new equipment.  Kate and I are really tempted to come back, knowing how much easier it will be next year.

So... back to the past few days...  Besides our regular beach duty, and all the cleanup we've been doing, here are some highlights:

Friday, we spent some time ashore.  About 3 hours of that was in a sushi place called Tangerine.  We spent a bunch of money, ate a ton of amazing food, had plenty of drinks, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Saturday night, we went over Andy and Amanda's for dinner.  We had fresh and smoked salmon that Andy caught on his most recent trip to Alaska.

Sunday, was a regular day.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

Monday, Kate had a "feeling" that there might be a stranding, and that I should be sure to take the stranding kit.  She was dead on, I found a little Kemp's ridley on North Beach.

Tuesday evening, while we were having grilled burgers (Kate's veggie, mine beef) for dinner when we received a disturbing call that Eric (the island hunter) had had a serious accident and was in the hospital.  (Details withheld for privacy).

Today, Wednesday, Josh cleaned a couple hogs and brought them home.  I got a couple hams out of them, and some ribs.  Hopefully they'll be good eatin' soon.

Tomorrow, Josh goes home for the long weekend, and Cody comes back from a week off.

Saturday, Charlie and Clare come for their second visit.  Hopefully we'll find them some little baby turtles to play with.