This week is brought to you by over 90F weather and case of turtle fever.

 

Though this week was shorter, it did not stop us from tightening our waders and jumping into the marsh looking for our turtle friends. We even had Dr. Allender and the newly Dr. Alexis Davidson, an old Kane County Turtle Team member, come out and join us this week.  It was awesome getting to work with Dr. Allender out in the field and seeing his excitement when yell across the marsh that we caught a turtle. It was also fun to pick Alexis’ brain about her experiences in the vet program and being on turtle team, as well as, seeing her dust off her waders for the last time before starting her next journey as an intern across the country.

 

While this week was super hot, it did not discourage us from marching through the marshes, eager to find a turtle or two or more. I must say, there were times I stood in the marsh thinking about the water in my water bottle and if we were ever going to find a turtle after checking many empty traps, however, I would quickly snap back into reality when someone shouts that they found a turtle. If you had to picture it, it was like the scene from Holes where Stanley (Shai LaBeouf) was digging his hole until suddenly he finds treasure. Each turtle caught this week came with a lot of sweat and soreness but well worth every bit.

 

We started the week setting traps as we usually do and got to set up some traps individually and picked where we wanted them to go which was cool. The water levels were a bit high at the location we were at this week.  This made it more challenging to set traps out but we were able to game plan and picked places we thought would be good. And with the water levels being a bit high, Surina struggled a bit (or a lot) to keep her waders and herself afloat but she did managed to not flood her waders…this time. Nick, on the other hand, walked the marshes like he’s been doing it for months. We both are getting a way of the land the more time we are out there and have also seen a lot of improvement in our efficiency and rhythm when doing our work-ups for each turtle.

 

Week 3 Tallies:

Total Turtles Sampled: 15 (in 4 days)

Surina’s Fall Count: 4

How many times did Surina Flood her Waders: 0 although she was very close many times

 

What do you call a flying turtle?

A shellacopter.