January 13th - More tortugas

This morning we headed over to the turtle sanctuary for 7:15 to dig up little Olive Ridley sea turtle hatchlings.  However, rare as it is, the Mexicans actually were early and we never got to dig them up.  They were already in their carrier.

Unhatched turtle egg

Olive Ridley turtles

Sea turtle supervisor telling us about their work here.

There were a couple of volunteers, young nurses from Lethbridge, who had spent the night walking the beach in the moonlight, watching for turtles laying eggs.  When they find them, they mark the nests, then later dig the eggs up and put them in incubators (boxes in a steel siding building, or when they run out of room, pile the boxes up and cover them in black plastic).  Prior to hatching, they transplant them back into the sand, because it's cool in winter, only about 8 inches deep.  Hatching time for the transplants is all over the place this year, because of the irregular heat the eggs have received.  The turtles we saw were all Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (in decline, but a relatively abundant species), but for the first time in four years, they had two Hawksbill Sea Turtle nests on our beach.  The lottery win that they're looking for is a Leatherback Sea Turtle nest, which used to lay eggs here, but haven't been seen in five years.  Leatherbacks are quite large, and the hatchlings are bigger than your hand.  Olive Ridley turtle nesting season used to be from early November, into early December, but with the warmer water, they are laying much later into the winter (like last night).  The hatchlings we released will go out to sea, then drift north and south with the seasonal ocean currents, until they are three years old, when they start establishing there feeding grounds.

The supervisor had a pet chick (Pollito) that was imprinted on him and followed him everywhere.

Little sandy prairie flower

I spent a good part of the afternoon with Valentina (pronounced Balentina) who is Marteen and Monica's 2 year old.  They were washing RVs in the park.  Valentina and I went to the playa, the alberca (pool) and took Kirk for a walk.