Released the turtles from the San Francisco Zoo today, and it was a lot of fun. I kind of love wading out into the middle of the lake. Not sure why it doesn’t scare me like a regular lake would, maybe because it’s not open water. Today we got a later start than last week, and also had to get final weights and measurements on the babies, plus renotching a few of them, so we didn’t get to the site until about 1:30. Still was fun, though. Hoping that tonight will be an active night out at the lake, and we get some new nests. It’s been a bit boring with how slow it got up here because of the rain. Although last night we did make one super cool discovery. Our first turtle this year, #240, was recaptured yesterday, gravid. This is the first time we’ve seen proof of a double clutch in one season, which I thought was pretty neat.

(Continued from earlier). Another cool event at tonight’s shift. We got a nest from turtle #70, whom I believe was the very first turtle captured and notched by SSU up at this site. She’s still alive and kicking! Literally! She kicked me several times, the little grump. Okay, so I can hardly blame her. We grabbed her and prodded her a lot, and opened up her nest. Hopefully no harm was done, though. She was adorable. I took a photo with her because I thought it was super cool to have found her again.

Feeling a bit conflicted about the end of the field season. I’ll be glad to be home, sleeping in my own bed, having some time to sit around the house and do nothing. But I am going to miss this place, and my little turtle-ee-os. I will be back again this summer, when I come up to help Nicole collect the eggs that will be hatched in our lab and head-started. But still. I kinda love turtle season. Then again, probably a good thing to leave before I get really tired of it. This way I’ll be looking forward to next year.

I think I’m going to head to bed now. It’s not that late yet, but I haven’t been sleeping through the nights. Last night, I got woken up at 4:30 by a skunk going through the trash bag next to my tent. It was actually pretty cute. I knew it was a skunk because I could see the silhouette of its tail through the side of my tent. Like a puffy feather. I eventually had to put in earplugs to get back to sleep,

Okay. Nighty night! More turtling tomorrow.