Three up - Three down

This afternoon, the honchos (Hawk, Kat and I) ran the telemetry circuit on the east reservoir. In addition to actual data collection, our objective was to work out any existing bugs in the protocol. I am proud to say that there were no cycling batteries or electric fences detected. We did manage to find all of our tagged turts. In all, we had at least five turtles in the reservoir, three of which were tagged. The beast is still running the show and was occupying prime basking real estate on our arrival. His transmitter is not pumping out the signal strength that it should be, but at least it is detectable. In the water were unidentifiable turtles courting and foraging.


On land, we found all three of the females that have gone terrestrial since tagging. One has moved a bit but all are still in the general vicinity of where they were detected the day before.

After evaluating the patterns that are beginning to emerge, we have decided to back off the telemetry for a couple of days. We should be back at it on Friday, just in time for the weekend. Until then, rest easy turts.