The New Methodology

Big nod to Mr. Bettelheim for adding a new trapping idea to the project. It's odd and needs a bit of tweaking, but the baited wire trick did, indeed, work. 2 hours - 1 turtle, but arguably, that's one more turtle than the basking trap caught. Even better, the turt that got nabbed was a new addition to the dataset. Lucky number 16 (now nicknamed 'the scrapper') is not a big guy, but is apparently following in chip's footsteps when it comes to accumulating battle scars. Thus, The Scrapper, weighing in at a respectable 580g.

Operation 'Open Water' going swimmingly....

hard at work, as always....

Turt 4 - the girl gets a new tag

Forgot to post this from last week. Girlie #4 got nabbed in the HP swale last week (Finally!!), so we had a chance to swap out last year's tag with a new one. She looked great overall and had an impressive pair of 'thunder thighs' with her little fat rolls hanging out. As of today, she is still hanging out in the HP.

The Azolla Boom, Part 2

As of this eve.....


Well. After clearing what felt like about a thousand pounds of azolla out of the pond, we managed to create a small area of open space. The good news is, today we saw 4 turts using that open space. And thus, the fix is in to go one better... Did I mention how only REAL scientists use FunNoodles??? It's true, ask EO Wilson.

Crouching plantlife, hidden turtles

And it's carpeting the ENTIRE Res. So..... What does one do to catch invisible, stealth ninja turts? One starts to ponder how to create open water, so the turts can bask in the water and hopefully the floating trap comes back into play. And thus begins "The Great Azolla Debacle". Cue the funnoodles......

And the beat goes on....

So, alright, I admit it. I've been too lazy to deal with our server issues. But now that I know that at least 1 person has actually looked at this blog (you know who you are), I feel compelled to end the sloth and get it back in gear. Here is a brief synopsis of what is going on....

This is a serious high water year for us and the turts. Unfortunately, it has made it damn hard to catch the turts or get good visuals on them. Seining is out, since the res is too deep to wade across. We were having a go at the basking trap, but since a ridiculous Azolla bloom has occurred, the trap is not working and we have had to seek alternate ideas (more on that in the next post). Did I mention that over half of our tags (yes - the brand new tags that we just replaced) have crapped out on us. and since the azolla covers the pond like a carpet, we have been unable to get reliable visuals on any of the turts. In other words - the black cloud hanging over the project continues..... DOH.