18 March 2011

Another beautiful day in Paradise as the sun reaches out to the sleepy heads of the world. Where do those cloud animals come from and where are they going? Should we really try to understand or should we just enjoy their passage? Maybe a little of both to keep the soul content.

We only caught 8 animals this morning - three were recaptures and five might have been new. However, because we ran out of PIT tags, it is not possible to identify animals that have been caught before but not tagged. We dusted one last animal and then packed up the traps and put them away. Next summer I will make certain that I have sufficient PIT tags for all the animals we will capture.

Deidre and Addy left yesterday and I dropped Julian and Kris at the airport today. Brad, Justin, Jonathan, and I leave tomorrow. It is always difficult to leave the Caribbean and all its charms, but I know we will be back in July to chase mongoose dem!

With a keen eye and gritty determination Jonathan was fantastic leading the fluorescent-tracking expedition through the brush this evening! We followed the trail further than any other evening for several reasons. One because Jonathan is very good a scrambling through the brush with black light in hand following the small fluorescent specks scattered among the leaves and other detritus. And two, this animal was captured several hundred meters from where it was released.

Images speak louder than words - Julian captured the images below in front of Cottages By The Sea.

Hawksbill sea turtle.

Purple Gorgonian (sea fan coral)