Turtle Island

Amazing Green Sea Turtle

Wow, we're almost done with Heron Island. We leave in two days and start the treck up to the Daintree Rainforest. Some pretty cool things have happened in the past couple of days, though. Two days ago we had our midterm for Coral Reef Ecosystems. It wasn't that hard, but I keep thinking of things I should have said. Oh Well. The rest of that day was a blast. We had a boat snorkel in Wistari Channel, where there are lots of reef canyons. I saw heaps of parrotfish, which are magnificantly brightly colored - lots of irridescence and rainbow. I also saw two green turtles...one I tried to follow off the reef crest... After about 45 minutes in the water, I started to get pretty chilly, though, so I was happy we got out.

That evening we had a celebration. We played volleyball (although I'm really bad), had sunset "nibbles" (they like their morning and afternoon tea), and then a great barbeque dinner. My group was pretty excited because they were selling beer and wine, so people got a little tipsy. The meal was followed by salsa dancing lead by one of the tutors. It was tons of fun and I hope we do it again. So much better than dancing to the other music they play! I started feeling pretty ill after dancing and so I headed off to bed, but people went a little nuts late that night.

Uneventful next day. Ran, did species cards, napped, etc. Last evening we had species presentations. I of course presented my lovely Silvereye. There were some really funny presentations. One guy did Juanas carlosus (AKA Juan Carlos - our tutor). Another guy presented the porcupine fish, but his whole powerpoint was on SPAM. Two other guys did mythical creatures (Kraken and Leviathen). Notice how these are all guys...

Anyways, I conked out early again last night. I woke up at 5:45am this morning and had a lovely stroll around the island. I was at Shark Bay, and there, halfway across the beach is a loggerhead turtle returning to the water. I was so excited that I got to document it! That made my morning and made me late for breakfast, but more than worth it!

Update: 10/31 Saw atleast 6 turtles this morning. Two were actually mating about ten feet offshore!

-Over and Out

Silvereye

A beautiful Silvereye foraging in the bushes.

It’s been a few days since I last wrote and things have gotten a lot better. I am no longer dizzy and have been seeing lots of cool things. For the past couple of days we’ve been doing things called practicals, which are basically labs. My group started on one about bacteria, where we cultured bacteria from coral mucus. Day two we did the fish lab, where we went snorkeling and took photographs of fish and tried to identify them. Day three was transect day, and we determined the amount of coral cover versus sand cover in the different zones of the reef. Day four involved sampling coral and coming back to the lab to count zooxanthellae (the coral dinoflagellate symbionts) and measure the light spectrophotometry of certain pigments. Day five was two days ago and quite cool. It was the plankton lab, where we went out on a boat, collected plankton, and came back to look at it under a microscope. So many little things live in the water, it’s crazy! We finished up with a night portion of that lab.

Now we come to yesterday. That day was supposedly devoted to species cards (a project we have to do by December 13th), so I did a little work on that. I also started studying for our test tomorrow. We have so much lecture material to know! Finally, afternoon rolls around and I go stake out and wait for the elusive silvereye (a small green bird), so I could take a picture. After an hour and a half, I come back with five descent images. Score! The rest of the day is devoted to putting together my presentation for the silvereye and then studying again.

Dinner made me very depressed. The woman who is cooking for us is a scary, drill sergeant. Dinner last night had cheese in it, so I asked if I could have ONE extra piece of pumpkin. NO! She can’t possibly cater to everyone’s food preferences. I try to explain to her that it’s not dislike but moral reasons, but she would have none of it, saying she was too busy right now. Luckily, I have a stash of corn cakes and hummus that rounded out my deficient dinner, yet I was still a little shaken.

The night snorkel we went on last night, though, lightened the mood a bit. We went out with glow sticks (for safety reasons) and saw some neat things in the murky depths. I saw a lion fish, a flute fish, an enormous hermit crab, a puffer fish, and ahermatypic coral (not skeleton-creating) that were bright orange. We also saw a loggerhead turtle and a couple of green turtles. It was quite exciting, however, I was so buoyant with two wetsuits that I had very little control over my actions! Anyways, sleep came shortly after returning and now I’m here, ready to spend an exciting day studying for tomorrow’s exam!

-Signing off

Heron Island should be renamed Noddy Island

Black Noddies are everywhere. You try to walk along the path and they come flying at you!

Shipwreck in the harbor...tourist attraction or ghost hull?

So, I’m on Heron Island. This is a small island (takes about 30 minutes to walk all the way around) and there is my group (47 students) and the UC group with about the same number of people. It’s going to be a very small island. Let me tell you a little about the past couple of days. Wednesday night we left Brisbane at quarter to 12 on a six hour bus ride. We then had a two hour, sickening ferry ride. I finally arrived on the island, had induction, learned about all of the things that could kill me, then had lunch. In the afternoon they made sure we could snorkel…and I froze, had to get a new wet suit: a long one and a short one. I’m still cold in the water after about a half an hour, but it’s much better!

We all crashed early that night, but I’ve started a new regimen of going to bed early and waking up at 5:30am. The first morning I went for a wander around the island. I passed by a turtle on the beach, thought it was dead, and kept walking, telling myself I would mention this to someone at the research station when I got back. Then, the turtle slowly starts to move a fin, then another, and finally it’s back in the water and swimming away. INCREDIBLE! I also saw many rays swimming around that morning. Later in the day we went for a snorkel. Saw some cool fish, a bunch of turtles, and a shark. However, I got really dizzy when I exited the water and I’ve been struggling with it ever since.

The next day was pretty boring. Felt awful and slept a lot. Today we went snorkeling again, but I couldn’t handle the second afternoon trip. I did learn a lot about the fish, though. Angelfish and Damselfish are absolutely gorgeous! It looks like we’re about to have a storm, though! Now, I have a bit of time until lecture and so I’m desperately trying to update my blog. I’ve mentioned in the title that Heron Island should be called Noddy Island. That is because there are hundreds of Noddy Terns all over the island, roosting in the trees, and excreting all over everything, including us. There are other birds, as well, such as those that sound like dying babies and squawk all night. You get used to it, though. Anyways, I better head off and go replenish my fluids a bit more. This dizzy spell is killing me.

TTFN!

Wine Tasting and Waterfalls

PATTYMELON!

Me at the top of Python Rock
One of the beautiful waterfalls on our day hike

I haven't been able to write the last couple of days because we have been at O'Reilly's in Lamington, a subtropical rainforest! It was absolutely positively amazing! I'm in love. It was a tiring three days, but well worth it. We actually split up into two groups for this part of the trip. It's been really nice having a smaller group of people to work with, but it won't last much longer.

So, thursday was basically just traveling and then we went on a little hike to Python Rock for the sunset. The real work started the next day, when we did some field work. We did a bunch of surveying and went to the Wishing Tree. There was this canopy tower that you could climb up and see all around you. Jackie ended up falling off the ladder on one of the levels (luckily it was multi-leveled instead of a straight 30 feet) and gashing her head. She had to have seven stitches! That afternoon we went on a lovely hike through the forest some more, had an amazing dinner (breakfast and lunch were nothing special but I gorged at night), and then had a lecture. The evening ended with a Glow Worm walk. At a little stream there were tons of glow worms, and it was basically like look at a night sky plastered to the wall!

The next day (Saturday) we took off at 9am and spent the whole day hiking. I mean, we stopped every half hour to look at waterfalls, and for lunch and to do a little field project. We got back around 4:30pm. People studied a bit for the test the next morning and then bounded off for happy hour. Dinner was great, again, and I stuffed my face. Then, that night we went on the "Gecko Walk" and saw some night critters like possums, leaf-tailed geckos, and pattymelons. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, we took a test and had lunch with the other half of the group. Then we were whisked off to a wine tasting. The winery was called Canungra Valley Vineyards. We tried five wines, but I only liked the last, which was the dessert wine. What can I say, I have a sweet tooth. Anyways, that was the excitement for the day. Now, I have the next three days off and I plan to get a lot accomplished!

-Signing Off

On Top of The World - or atleast Stradbroke

Me on the top of the dune!
The group walking on water...well, a mudflat anyways
Mangrove Roots

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written...when WAS the last time I wrote? Monday we started Coastal Forest Ecosystems. We had one lecture in the morning and then we headed out for our field trip. We went to a wet sclerophyll forest (this is adapted for low moisture and low nutrients) and did a survey of the vegetation in the area. We learned to identify eucalypts, melaleucas (paper barks), and some rainforest vegetation. It was great fun and only rained for a few minutes.

Tuesday was also fun. We learned about fires in the morning, because apparently Eucalyptus is highly flammable. We learned to date grass trees in the morning by counting the rings around the trunk. Then it rained and I had forgotten to bring my rain jacket. We went off to the beach to eat lunch...I am so sick of peanut butter that I opted for a luna bar instead. We finished up the afternoon with a little hike, a gelato break, and surveying vegetation in a heath shrubland. I got bitten alive by mosquitos. That night we celebrated a birthday...my professor basically came into the library where we were studying for his test tonight and said, and I quote, "Bring your bloody books and come to the damn bar!" So, I went to the pub, had some cake, went back and fell happily asleep.

This morning I got up and went bird watching! So cool! Then, we had a fun hike to Blue Lake, which is a men's lake for the Aborigines. We also climbed a dune and looked out over the world! For lunch we had the same thing...but they forgot the peanut butter... :( Then, this afternoon we had our first lecture on mangroves. We visited Myora Springs mangroves...sticky icky mud! I took a walk to the cemetary when we got back. I gorged myself at dinner, probably because I'm starved during the day. Now, I have to go take a test.

-Signing off!

So Much Has Happened in the Past Couple of Days...

Ravine at Point Lookout
Stacie and Me at Brown Lake. Note the color.

My goodness, life goes so fast here! When was the last time I wrote? So, I'll start on Tuesday. It was a blustery day...we went out to a place called Brown Lake. The lake has a lot of tannins leeched from the tea bark trees. This coloration basically allows for very little life to exist in the lake, but gives it a lovely tawny hue. After that and lunch, we went to a beach to play a bit...well, and learn. The tide came in and got everyone's (not mine :)) stuff soaked. Then, I got buried in the sand. It was an eventful trip. Finally, We finished up at Point Lookout, saw some dolphins, whales, and jellyfish.

Wednesday was another crazy day. We got a tour of the mine on Stradbroke Island. About 75% of the island is under mining lease, so this is a huge industry. They actually move whole swaths of sand and then restore the decimated sand dunes. BTW, the whole island is made of sand, some dating back to 100,000 years ago. They mine Zircon, Silica, and Rutile. That was cool.

Today was also another exceptional day. We went to Amity Point to check out the mangroves and caravan park. We are doing a hypothetical situation project where there will be a resort "Super Slappy Marine" built. We have to think of issues and ways to mitigate them. So, now I'm off to go to a community meeting about this said resort...

Toodles!