Knock-Out

Today was another wet, cold day so the bunch of us spent the morning sitting around reading. Fortunately the rain stopped by lunchtime so when we walked over the BHIC classrooms for Dr. Paul Hearty's seminar we stayed dry. The next two weeks I'll spend in training with the rest of the interns and listening to Paul's talk on the islands aquifers and water conservation was a great way to kick off our island lessons. I learned a lot about the drilling process and the layers of limestone, clay and sand his team found on various parts of the island. Geology has never been my strong point, but it was a fascinating lecture and I look forward to learning more from Paul this summer.

Afterward the interns all layered on more clothes and went to Gator Overlook that looks out on a small pond. Brett has been netting and marking turtles around the island and we all wanted to help out. Granted in 60 degree weather it's not an ideal activity for people or turtles, but we had a great and fairly successful time. We marked the yellow bellied sliders by notching specific marginal scutes (the ones that go along the edge of the top shell) as they correspond with the alphabet.

The id assigned to the first turtle we caught was K O, who we then named "Knock-Out". Then we notched his K and O scutes with a file, dotted his carapace with white out, photographed him and returned the little guy to the water.



While it was fun to mark the turtles (the group caught enough for each of us to notch one), it was probably most fun watching the group try to actually catch the squirmy little things with nets.

After the slider adventure the 11 of us came back to the house to meet Meredith, the final intern, and then the whole crew went to Eb and Flo's on the island for dinner. I'm starting to feel like I'm part of a huge family with 12 kids :).

Tomorrow morning we start bright and early with tours, talks and lessons in the island's flora and fauna. Can't wait!