Walking along the trail, early mornings, pulling weeds from the pollinator garden, clearing debris. There was a big storm last night, do you hear that sound? An old dead limb comes crashing down. I get to the office earlier than most. The birds are just waking up, it’s quiet, it’s peaceful. What is that over there? Two large female snapping turtles, walking up from the river to lay their eggs. They make their way back to the river, they will be back next year to lay another clutch. The females don’t return to their young, but we may get to see the hatchlings emerge from their nest. Make sure to watch for turtles crossing the road. I didn’t realize how often I’d be a turtle crossing guard. There’s something in the road. It was clipped by a car and is spinning on its axis. I hope it’s not… It's a turtle. I’ll toss it over the bridge and into the river. After a brief moment, maybe to process its close encounter with death, the turtle flipped right side up and swam away. We can all learn from the turtle, to slow down… Slow down so as not to hit the turtles crossing the road and to slow down in general. Life passes by so quickly, but during the slow, quiet mornings, is when I feel the most connected. Only in the early mornings, before we start to stir, do I get to experience these special moments, just me and the natural world around me. I practice gratitude.
The sun starts to warm the earth, people slowly start trickling into the office. It’s time to go out on the boat. Grab all the gear, do we have everything we need? So much gear, our hands are full. How are we going to fit this all on a tiny row boat? Who’s rowing the boat this time? How many times will we spin in circles before we get to our sampling location? We also need to collect E Coli samples from the beach. Left, right, center; looking at the beach from the water? Or from the beach facing the water? It’s looking at the beach from the water, we have to remember each time, left, right, center. We collect the samples, making sure to wear gloves so we don’t contaminate the samples. Time to process the samples and put them in the incubator. We will be back in 24 hours. It was a long, hot day on the water. We wrap up with Bobby Sue’s ice cream. Maple Walnut is my flavor of choice this summer, the perfect balance of sweet and nutty.
Brittney studied Biology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in ecology and conservation. Learn more about Brittney here.