Day 4: Night Patrol, Ross University Tour, Bird Survey and Turtle Nest Escavation

            Last night we went to night patrol at 8:00 PM and were up until 4:00 AM.  As would be expected, we were all exhausted during this night patrol because we were staying up very late, so we all fell asleep.  The problem was that instead of sleeping for 30 minutes like we’re supposed to do on our shift, we all fell asleep for 2 hours, including our guide who was with us.  Luckily we did not miss any turtles and none of us complained about the extra hour and a half of sleep.  The bad part was that we were all woken up because it started to rain. After we got back from night patrol it is safe to say that nobody had trouble falling asleep at the hotel. 

            This morning we all woke up at 9:30 and had breakfast at 10:00.  After breakfast we went to take a tour of Ross University, a veterinary college (Mom and Dad: I am going there, no questions asked).  Ms. Yen and I decided that we would go to school their together and that Sarah would work as a teacher for the daycare/school that they provide for the children of faculty and students that go there (The students can be any age). Sarah, Ms. Yen, and I will all be roommates and Sarah and I will be able to call Ms. Yen Dorothy J.  The school that is provided for the children of students and faculty is from daycare through 8^th grade. Everyday every grade goes to assemblies, and today we got to see the 4^th and 5^th graders perform a skit they have been working on about a poem.  Their poem was about a cow in outer space.  This poem was very fun to watch and we all enjoyed it. After the assembly we continued with our tour of the campus and saw all of the different laboratories and classrooms.  We were very impressed with the university because of all the different classes offered there, and the campus is also very pretty with a beautiful view of the ocean.  The university is also very hands-on; they even breed their own cows! Once again mom and dad, I am going there.

            After our tour we went into a small conference room at the university and met with some students who were studying birds. They showed us a PowerPoint of the different types of birds that are found on the beach and talked to us about their behaviors.  We found it funny and interesting that some of the birds act injured when predators got near their nests so that the predators would try to catch them instead of eating the eggs or hatchlings.  After our orientation about the birds, it was time to put our new knowledge to the test and go to the beach to observe these birds and their nests.  We went to all the nests that people have found before and counted how many eggs were in each nest and recorded it to compare the amount there to the amount that were there the last time someone recorded them.  Some nests had eggs still in them getting ready to hatch while others were either cracked, eaten by predators, or hatched.  We even saw a mother acting injured, so we knew that either a nest or a hatchling was near by.  Unfortunately we could not find the nest or hatchling that the mother was trying to protect, and it started to rain anyways so we decided it was time to go stop. When we got back to the cars it was immediately time for our next activity.  We left the students helping us with the birds and then met up with who was going to help us with our next activity.

            

We hopped into the cars and made our way over to a beach where we would look for turtle eggs that did not hatch.  We dug through the sand in the areas where our guides thought the turtle might have laid her eggs. Once again, it started to rain so our digging did not last very long. Although rain has put a “damper” on certain activities recently, we are still having a great time and have really enjoyed this experience!

-Carly Bass