SO much has happened!

So much has happened since I posted last!! It's hard to decide which pictures to post! Check these out... On my last Sapelo day we went seining for fish. That's when you take a giant net and stretch it out into the ocean off the beach, then turn around and come back to see what you caught. You can see the other group in the deep end through the ropes of this group. The net was 300 feet long! Found a puffer! It didn't like being picked up so much, so it puffed up with air (and floated when we put him back in the water.) I've now started my fourth trip, on St. Catherine's Island (which is AMAZING!) I'm doing a sea turtle conservation internship helping to save these little guys. This is a Loggerhead hatchling that was a "straggler" in the bottom of a nest. We dug them out and pointed them toward the ocean. Incredible. This has been my view for the past few days: from a John Deer Gator. They are SUPER fun to drive. Here we are going up a pretty steep hill. We got trapped on the beach because of high tide. Here's another one of me and a baby turtle. Adorable. St. Catherine's has a partnership with the New York Zoological Society, so there are all kinds of amazing exotic animals on the island. Here is a member of one of the Ring Tailed Lemurs that wander around. Apparently, there are six different troops! They really loved our Gators. They would lick the salt from the ocean off the sides and look in the glove boxes for food. I had to snatch a bag of peanut M&M's from one of them. We're releasing the babies tonight at 8:30, so check back for another video soon. Hatchlings almost always emerge at night when there are fewer birds to gobble them up.

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

It is so good to be back on the Georgia coast! I absolutely love it down here--I love the marshes, the wildlife, and being surrounded by some of the most knowledgeable coastal ecology professors and scientists in the world. Here at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, you can pick up a shell on the beach, walk over to a prof and here its scientific name, ecological niche, and natural history. It's science nerd heaven!

Anyway, we've had a great couple of days. This picture was taken on our way out to Wassaw Island, which is a National Wildlife Refuge. This dolphin swam right up to our boat looking for handouts. Our professor said that there are more and more "Beggar Dolphins" in the water these days because of people tossing them one of their freshly caught fish or what have you. However, while it might be fun to see wild dolphin up close, when they get into the habit of swimming close to boats they also have a much higher risk of being hit by propellers. That's why the state will fine boat captains $20,000, seize their boats, and revoke their boating licence if caught feeding these adorable creatures. No thank you.


During our backstage tour or the UGA Marine Extension Aquarium, Lisa and I got an up close view of Eddie the 3 year old Loggerhead Sea Turtle. Thinking that he was about to get fed, he swam right up to the edge of the tank with his mouth open wide. I had to take several pictures of my friend and Davis colleague, Lisa, here. Her image kept coming out blurry due to her jumping up and down in excitement. :) I love hanging out with fellow science nerds.



My turn! No, Eddie, my fingers are not food. He could easily snap one off with that beak designed to crack open clam shells.



So here we are on Wassaw Island. Way back in 1898, the US government built this Gun Battery on the island because of the Spanish American War. Believe it or not, this little fort was built 600 feet inland behind the dunes! Rising sea levels have buried most of it in sand, and the top of it is under water at high tide.

Did anyone ask for evidence of climate change? Well, here you go.



Here's some more. A knot from a dead oak tree that once stood in the middle of a maritime forest (that's now on the beach).



I forgot to mention our purpose for going to Wassaw. We went with a Skidaway scientist to map the north end of the island using this fancy GPS/GIS thingy. As we walked the "wet-dry" line on the beach, this contraption sent a signal to a satellite about ever second or so. Apparently, it's accurate down to 40 centimeters (much better than your average car GPS!)



When we got back to the institute, we overlaid the data we took on top of an older aerial photo of the north end of the island and compared that with previous years. Our line is the pink one and the other two lines are from 2006 and 2001 (I think.) You can really see how much the island moved! People forget that barrier islands are really just giant mounds of sand, so waves and storms move the sand around from place to place. This means that it's actually pretty stupid to build houses, hotels, and anything else permanent on oceanfront property on barrier islands because the beach has a really good chance of washing away eventually and leaving your house in the ocean. And don't get me started on sea walls! (Oy.)




Yesterday was our last day at Skidaway, so we took a hike through marshes out to a little hammock. A hammock is a small island surrounded by marsh that usually don't have beaches. All the hammocks we've seen around here have these dead trees along the edges because the trees can't tolerate the salty water encroaching on the hammocks. They make for cool pictures, though. :)



In a few hours we'll be taking the ferry out to one of my FAVORITE places in the whole world--Sapelo Island (sigh...) I'm convinced that there's no other place like it in the world. Most of the island is owned by the state as a wildlife refuge, and UGA has an amazing research facility there also. But possibly the most interesting part of the island are the permanent residents. The only people that live there all the time are the descendants of the slaves that worked the island plantations WAY back before the civil war. The government deeded the land to the freed slaves, and most of their families never left. The relative isolation has preserved their Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage (or at least way more than anywhere else.) Fascinating.

Trip #2: Jacksonville!

Two trips down, three to go! I just got back from visiting family in Jacksonville and had a great time. We ended up taking some neat pictures. And today marked the first day of my Skidaway/Sapelo trip.

First of all, though, look at the new friend Roman made! Well, he was acting like this mama Whitetail deer was his new friend, but she didn't seem to like him very much. When Roman ran out of the house on this day, she CHARGED the fence out of protection for her little fawn. At first I thought she was going to jump over and send Roman back to the Emergency Vet. But she just stood right there and kept a close eye on him. She stayed long enough for me to take several pictures and two short videos!



Here's her baby. Aaaw


OK, here we are in Florida at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. Honestly, I really wasn't that excited to go, but I ended up having a lot of fun! This is a portion of the pirate exhibit. Apparently, pirates would stick people in these hanging metal things and dangle them off the ship as a warning to other pirates or do-gooders. Here's my husband John modeling this lovely little number. (I think he looks good in there, don't you? I wonder if they'd let me borrow it sometime...Kidding! ;)


This is a big green screen that leaves a white image of your body on it after a bright light flashes.


So Ripley's had this rotating tunnel that you walked through (a.k.a. holy-wanna-puke-your-brains-out), but it made for some SUPER cool pictures. (By the way, to get this picture, I made John stand still inside the barfy tunnel for almost a whole minute--what a good sport!)


Here's another one. I didn't expect it to turn out like this, but it's still sorta neat.


Tomorrow we're going to Wassaw Island and using a $3K Global Positioning System to map the north end of the island to see if it has moved at all. Barrier Islands are basically just GIANT piles of sand, so they move a little bit with the currents and waves each year. I'll let you know how it goes and the cool stuff we see!

Home again!

It's probably a good thing that I wasn't able to post pictures in San Salvador because I took over 400! I would have done nothing but blog. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.


The beach in front of the Gerace Research Center. Not a bad place to take a class, huh?


A sea urchin on the beach in front of Snapshot reef.


This is another one of my favorite spots on the island: The San Salvador Lighthouse.


When we were getting ready to head out for a day of snorkeling, one of the teachers in our group noticed this little baby mocking bird that had fallen out of its nest. He resembles a grumpy old man, doesn't he?


We went to a spot on the island known as "Trash Beach." Apparently, the offshore ocean currents wash up more trash on this beach than anywhere else on the island. It's really sad to walk around and see trash (mostly plastic) from all over the world. I found this piece of driftwood shaped like a question mark and thought it very appropriate on several levels.


Historians believe this is the spot where Columbus FIRST landed after his maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Spain erected this memorial in San Salvador several years ago.


I loved this little beach among the gorgeous rock formations.


I caught myself in "artsy" mode several times a day--the beauty of San Salvador could turn anyone into a photographer. This shrub/rock combo is one of my favorites.


The morning of our last day in paradise, I walked out to North Point with a group of teachers. This is North Point inlet between San Salvador and Cut Cay. Earlier this week we rode down the current that flows through this inlet.



This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Known as "Grotto Beach" this beach has it all--a nice sandy bottom, a few beautiful reefs for snorkeling, a healthy dune system, gorgeous rock formations to the right of it, a nice covered area with hammocks and picnic tables, and crystal clear water that resembles a swimming pool. I could have stayed there the whole week.