Ocean view

On my way to the beach, I found a sign warning of cats crossing the street. I did see a cat, but he hid before I could take his picture as he sat in the road.

The Wadden sea. This is at low tide, and is the closest you can safely get. The coast is all mud, and it is a popular sport to go mud hiking. However, with the tides it is unsafe and illegal to do without a guide.

Necropsy

So, I don't get much time off here. Which is perfectly fine; I am here to work and learn, and they don't hesitate to give me the time off I do ask for. And being the nerd I am, I spend my days off watching necropsies.

It is amazing to see the physical manifestation of the problems distressing the seals; the main problem the seals come in with are lungworms. The parasites burrow in the lungs and trachea, creating holes that allow air to escape from the lungs and into surrounding tissue. This creates massive air bubbles surrounding the heart and into the neck; literally the size of a softball in a 15 kg seal.

Although extremely interesting, I think the pics of the necropsy would be disrespectful to post online, so instead here are more happy baby seals:

Pics - Overdose of Baby Seal

When they curl up on their sides, holding their hind flippers, the seals are supposed to be relaxed. While we do many stressful things to the sick baby seals involving medication and cleaning with squeegees, overall I think they are pretty content during there short stay here. Especially when their appetite returns and they figure out all we really want to do is feed them all the herring they can eat.

Pictures

I have so many pictures that I haven't posted since I only talk about specific stories...so maybe I will just start posting pics with short descriptions.

The horses here are either very tall, or short and stocky. This one lives in a neighbor's front yard.

The grey seals are so curious about everything around them. They continually pop there heads out of the water, watching you. Then they sink back down, and pop right back up. Endlessly entertaining. The common seals will do this as well, but I think to stay hidden. We have a new quareentine, where the seals each have there own bathtub. A bathtub was empty, and a seal was in it. He kept poking out his head, saw us, and then hid again. He would only remember to stay down a few seconds though.

A nearby church, with a beautiful graveyard dating back in the 1800's

The houses here have amazing architecture, and beautiful designs. They seem small, but make use of space well, with really high ceilings.

The front of the seal hospital, complete with our rescue ambulance :)

Eenrum

Today I had a split shift, working in the morning and then evening. That left me a wonderful, sunny afternoon for a bike ride through the countryside to a nearby town, Eenrum. It is a bit bigger than Pieterburen, with several shops and restaurants, as well as a real grocery store. We have a small organic store in Pieterburen but it only carriers some of the fancier more expensive foods. Eenrum is beautiful, and has some fun things. There is a clog maker, and a mustard making museum. And the Netherlands are so flat that the 5 km bike ride was very easy and pleasant.

At work this morning I was hand feeding two grey seals, and one was constantly opening its mouth and crying to be fed. But the poor seal couldn't keep the fish in it's mouth; I would insert the fish, and unless I slowly pushed the fish all the way down (seals swollow their food whole, they don't chew) it would just fall out. It must be so frustrating for him.

Fishing net

A large problem for seals in the Wadden sea is fishing nets. They get entangelled, and can drown or become injured. Injuries of course can get infected, and it doesn't end well for the seal. Fishermen find these nets in the ocean and would be happy to bring them back to shore to help keep seals safe, but in the Netherlands you are charged for the amount of waste you dispose. Fisherman didn't want the charges, so they left the nets. The hospital I work at thought this was insane, so they offered to take the nets. This photo is the pile of nets brought in after only one year (it is towering, probably 2-3 times larger than the building). After the government saw this, they changed the law so now fisherman can bring in and dispose of fishing nets for free :)

Seals, goats and horses

Pieterburen is a very agricultural area. Kilometer after kilometer of farmland, with sidewalks bisecting the land so you can get from town to town. There are lots of chickens, goats, and horses as well. But they are so different from the ones in the states; they seem to be a bit burlier, with stocky legs closer to the ground. They are also fuzzier; they have very long, coarse hair all over their bodies. And the goats have very interesting horns that curl out horizontally. It seems a bit ackward to move around with.

And of course, another baby seal ^_^ I was cleaning (this job involves lots of cleaning) and was giving a seal a shower, and he just rolled over so he could enjoy the water belly up.

Pieterburen

I have had a day off, and spent the time wandering around the small town. There are nice paths everywhere, a beautiful windmill put up in 1846, and the beach is a short bike ride away. The beach isn't like those in Florida...it is blocked, and going down to the water is mostly mud that is unsafe to navigate. It is a sport here to go mud hiking, but illegal to do without official guides.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Another big difference between the grey and harbor seals' personality is there curiousity...harbor seals seem to be more skittish and stand-offish (some say like a cat). Grey seals typically are the opposite; today I was taking pictures with a group of grey seals, and they were constantly trying to get their noses to the camera. They would bark and slap each other to get the closest to you. I would say they are more of a dog...maybe some kind of lab ^_^

Daily dose of baby seal

So far I have only posted pics of common (harbor) seals, which are the majority of the seals we have here. But we also have grey seals, and I worked with them for the first time today. They are much darker, there noses are farther apart and the snout is a bit longer. The grey seal pups seem to have a bit more personality; they are very alert and watch people around the tank closely, and will pull themselves up next to you to watch what you are doing. While the common seals mostly swallow their food, the grey seals play with it. They toss the fish around, shake it, and tear it to bits. They are much messier, but they are so cute it is worth cleaning up after.

Angry babies

After tube feeding some of the sicker pups in quareentine I was cleaning up, which the seals enjoy. The babies will turn belly up in the water spray, just loving the hose. But when I need to dry the area, and bring out the squegee they get very upset. Talking with other staff and volunteers this is a common phenomenon; seals dislike squeegees taking away their water on the floor. They hiss and growl and flap their little flippers angrily.

Day three

It is colder here than it should be...it is staying right around freezing. With the outdoor tanks, as I clean the water freezes. Very slippery! But the seals seem to like it.

Busy

Things at the centre are very busy, but I promise that every day I will at least find the time to post a picture. The seals are to cute not to.

Also, when the seals get angry with each other or at us, there first line of defense is flapping their flipper at you. And with there body proportions, it is kind of like a t-rex...the tiny little arms flapping and trying to hit you. Two seals slapping ackwardly small flippers is ridiculously cute, especially considering the menace meant behind it.

Netherlands

Made it to the Netherlands safe and sound, though I am very glad I studied Dutch before leaving. One of Marc's friends who grew up here said it wasn't really necessary because everyone speaks English, but that is definitely not the case, and the majority of signs are not translated either.

The seal hospital is wonderful. They have over 200 seals at this time, with about 20 people like me volunteering and living on site. The other volunteers are from all over; Australia, Isreal, England, Dominican Republic, Germany, Austria....it goes on and on. The hospital itself is room amazingly smoothly, with better disease control than I have seen at any other facility. It has to be with that many sick animals. I feel like I am working for the CDC during an outbreak, we wear full suits, booties, masks, etc. All clothing is changed between working with different enclosures, complete with shower. It is the ideal most facilities would love to be able to do, but practically don't.

I have never seen anything nearly as heart breakingly cute as a seal pup begging for food. Dogs at the table don't stand a chance compared to a baby seal looking at you with hungry eyes, slowly scratching at the air pitifully.

Lowlands

One of the things I was most excited about when doing the tourist thing was to see the Scottish highlands. Marc and I had planned to take a Hairy Coo tour that goes into the start of the highlands up to Loch Katrine. This was simply not to be...the first day we tried, there was an online booking error and there was no room for us on the trip. The next...bus broke down. Then snow.

So we gave up today, and went to the lowlands instead. We went to Kirkcaldy by train on a mission to see the scenery but also to get Marc a VCR for his masters project. They are very tricky to find here. Kirkcaldy is in the fife lowlands, right on the coast. The water was beautiful, and the train traveled right up next to the water. I saw my first wild seal to! It was a challenge...but with Marc in his happy place on a train, and stuck in one spot, I finally got him to sit still to take a nice photo to. Well, maybe not still, and it did take almost 40 shots with the camera...but we got a photo :)

Panto Theatre

A very popular thing here is panto theatre productions - pantomime theatre which is a brittish traditional holiday christmas musical. Marc and I went to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the king's theatre, with famous comedians Grant Stott, Andy Gray, and Allan Stewart starring. It was great fun; the leads frequently improvised, giggled and broke character which made it more fun for the audience. The set was beautiful, with very fancy tech like a robotic giant. They dedicated entire numbers to making fun of Glee or the prime minister.

Marc of course enjoyed the more techinical aspects of the theatre...I guess they did some cool stuff with the scrim, and marc was doubtful of there fly system (though it seemed to pull off well). From the tech-y side of things, Marc seemed impressed to.

Ghost tour - City of the Dead

Marc and I went on a haunted tour in city centre. It took us through vaults hidden under one of the main bridges in Scotland, through grey friar's graveyard, and into the covenanters prison and black mausoleum. Interestingly, where we started out was just a parking lot that turned out to be a plague pit. They are all over city centre.

The vaults provided refuge for large populations of the poor during a time when being homeless was outlawed in Edinburgh. They lived in cold, damp, crowded conditions with lots of violent crime. The police at the time refused to pursue anyone in the vaults because of its reputation for disease and violence. The life expectancy within the vaults at that time was 18 months. They say that the ghost of children, a women in a yellow dress, and a dark being referred to as the entity have been spotted there.

We then went to Grey friar's graveyard. It is a large open space, with about 500 tombstones scattered around. But there are over a half million people buried there. It was the main graveyard of Edinburgh for years, and many plague victims reside there. Anywhere you step you are standing on dozens of bodies, and with all the rain erosion is starting to reveal the bodies. In the far corner is the covenanters prison, where religous rebels where inhumanely kept during the revolt. The most infamous poltergeist there is Bloody Mackenzie, one of the scots who tortured the covenanters, haunts the area as he is in a mausolem nearby.

The tour says it is common for people to get unexplainable scratches and bruises during the tour, attributed to the entity and bloody mackenzie. We did not experience anything supernatural...though many people have odd body sensations, and Marc did have a violently itchy elbow when we were in the mausoleum.

Deep Sea World Aquarium

I finally tried a full Scottish breakfast, complete with veggie haggis ^_^ I have Marc beat on that...he has not tried any form of haggis yet.

After breakfast, Marc, Camille, and I went to North Queensferry, about a 20 minute train ride from Edinburg to go to the aquarium. It was very small, but had nice staff with lots of talks. Instead of a normal touch tank, they had a suited up staff member in the tank bringing up animals to talk about. The better parts of the aquarium were a nice little conveyor belt ride through their shark tank, and a seal rehab hospital. We saw the feeding for two of the resident grey seals, which was an educational talk that showed off their well trained for husbandry behaviours.