One half of the Turtle Journal team researches the “beach scene” along the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida. Regal visitors such as these royal terns flock to the warm sands of Vanderbilt Beach in February. Shores abound in variety and vibrancy.
Contrasting with southerly vistas of glistening sands and bountiful wildlife in Florida, the other half of the Turtle Journal team slogs through jumbles of ice floes that clog bayside estuaries of Outer Cape Cod. January Wolf Moon tides piled multi-ton ice slabs onto the marsh like too generous servings of IHOP pancakes.
Ice Floes Clog Loagy Bay in South Wellfleet, Cape Cod
Today’s posting compares visual vignettes from the two research sites: a Dickensian Tale of Two Journals.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …“
Stone Crab on Vanderbilt Beach
Ice Clogged Inside “Elbow” of Cape Cod Bay
Whelk Egg Casing on Naples Beach
Arctic-Like Conditions at Point of Rocks, Brewster
Loggerhead Sea Turtle on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples
During the Turtle Journal beach patrol this morning in Southwest Florida, Sue Wieber Nourse found a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle that had washed ashore with the high tide on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples. This animal, covered with barnacles, likely is a remnant of the massive cold-stunning event that hit the Florida coast in January.
SW Florida Loggerhead Sea Turtle
The stranded animal was reported to appropriate authorities by Turtle Journal through the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples.
Cellphone Video of Stranded Florida Loggerhead
Other fun beach treasures found on the Turtle Journal morning patrol include the following.
Weekly Reader, which has been publishing educational material for children for more than a century, spotlighted Turtle Journal research on whelks in two of its recent news magazines.
Channeled Whelk Egg Casing from Cape Cod Bay
Photographs of channeled whelk casings, many of which were originally posted on Turtle Journal, appeared in Issue 14, Volume 18 of the Weekly Reader Senior Edition on January 22nd, 2010, as well as the same issue and volume of Edition 3 magazine.
Channel Whelk Egg Cases
Size of Channeled Whelk Egg Case in Centimeters
Baby Channeled Whelks in Egg Case
Baby Channeled Whelks under Microscopic Examination
