Isla de la Plata

So I just got back from the island Wednesday afternoon. My first shower in 8 days felt awesome, but I was a little sad to be leaving. I loved it out there. For the first two days we had to do the monthly bird census, where we try to count as best we can all the nesting seabirds. I was there during the end of nesting season for the Nazca Boobies, and there were tons. The island is about three miles long, with one trail that loops around the western half and one on the eastern half. I thought it was going to be impossible to count all the nesting birds, but it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought, because they all divide up the island into distinct nesting zones. The Nazcas only nest on flat ground on two points, one on each end of the island. Blue-footed Boobies only nest on the cliff-sides, and the Red-footed ones use trees along the cliffs of the North edge. Even though they all eat fish and are about the same size and shape, they never intermingle.

So on day one we went to Punta Machete, which is kind of the south-west corner. It took about 45 minutes to walk there from the ranger house, which is right in the middle of the northern beach. We divided the point into three zones and each marked how many nesting pairs, single birds, and chicks we saw. Punta Machete is also where the albatross were hanging out. They're beautiful birds, and Isla de la Plata is one of the only two islands in the world where they nest. (This is just for the Galapagos Albatross. There are other species that aren't so critically endangered.) On day 2 we took the other trail to Punta Escalera to count the other Nazca colony, and on the way we got to stop and see the Red-footed Boobies and the Frigate birds. The frigate birds reminded me of dinosaurs. They have long beaks that they click together and really long wings for their body size, and just the way they all sat in their trees clacking and croaking make me think of pterodactyls. Their wings don't have the water-proof coating that all the other birds do, so they have to snatch stuff from the surface or steal it from other birds mid-air to eat -- people call them the pirates of the air. Frigate males are also the ones that have the big red throat pouches that they inflate to attract females. I think their nesting season starts pretty soon, so they'll be the ones we count next month.

After the census was done, we still tried to go out hiking once a day to find the albatross. Every time you see them you have to put a waypoint on the GPS to mark where they are and record the numbers on their leg bands. Our other big job on the island though was turtle patrol. Every night you take out your red flashlights and patrol the beach at 8:00, 9:00, 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, and 6:00. Needless to say, if you're alone on the island you get pretty tired. Most of the time there were a couple other volunteers or employees with me and we would split up the shifts, so it wasn't so bad. Only Green Turtles really nest very often on the island, but it's one of the few places they keep coming to year-round. I learned how to tell all the different species apart (Ecuador has 4 of the 7 kinds of sea turtles) and what to do when you see them nesting or hatching (you have to take a bunch of measurements and check their tag numbers. If they're not tagged you also have to tag them and take a DNA sample from the skin on their necks. You can do that while they're laying the eggs because they go into a sort of trance and don't really notice anything until they've finished covering up the nest). There was only one night when a couple came up to try and nest, and those all turned back without laying. We think it was because the sand was too rocky for them to dig a good hole. But we had hatchlings coming up about half the nights I was there.

All the ones I saw came from the hatchery (or vivero in Spanish), which is where we relocate any clutches that get laid below the tide-line. When the tortuguitas (tor-too-ghee-tahs) come up you measure their shells and then pick them up (only with gloves on) and put them outside the little fence that runs around the hatchery, and then protect them from crabs as they crawl down to the water. You can't just carry them all the way because crawling down the beach is how they imprint on it and know where to come back to to lay their own eggs. Sometimes if the lights were on at the house they wouldn't know where to go, and you'd have to use your headlamp to show them down to the water. Once they've made it, they swim straight out to sea for 72 hours, and then they live out in the open water for a few years where there are fewer predators until they're big enough to come back to the coast. My boss, Gabi, says it takes them 40 years to grow to full size and sexual maturity, and the weird thing is that nobody really knows where the adult turtles live or what they do. The ones that live near shorelines aren't actually adults yet, and they leave before they're full grown. (The ones we saw trying to nest were huge, like 3 feet across the shell and 80-100 pounds!)

A couple of days before I left a few more employees, Ricardo, Luis, and José Luis, came and joined Gabi and me, and we got to take a little boat out (smaller than the one at the cabin) to catch turtles in the bay for tagging. Luis and I would hop out with snorkels and fins while the others chummed the water, and when the turtles came in we'd have to dive down and grab them by the front and back of the shell and wrestle them up to the surface where the boat crew would pull them in to take measurements and DNA samples and tag them. I got to do the tagging and sampling a couple of times, too, which was neat. The turtles are understandably not at all pleased to be in the boat, and they thrash and hiss and scramble around for a couple of minutes until you put a wet t-shirt over their heads, and then they usually calm down a little bit. You have to be kind of careful, because even though they can't usually hurt you it does not feel good to have a 60 pound turtle smack you in the ankle with its front flippers. Sometimes they try to bite, too. I've never seen them actually get anyone, but they have super strong jaws and sharp beaks with spiky teeth inside.

Back in Puerto López things have been pretty slow, since all the staff members stayed behind when I came back. I've been hanging out with the other volunteers, who are all really nice. There's Angelo from Italy, Ailis (Ae-lish) from Scotland, Jen from Eugene, Oregon, and the Canadians Connor and Nils, who live near Toronto. I think today Andrés, one of E. Azul's directors, is coming to stay for a while, and Gabi says I'll be starting on a new project soon, so I should have something new to write about by later tonight or tomorrow morning.