Archive for August, 2008

Run for Your Life

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

As tiny, defenseless, 1-inch, quarter ounce hatchlings emerge, their only hope for survival is a mad dash from exposed sandy dunes to the cover of vegetation and the nursery salt marsh.

Terrapin Hatchling Runs for Its Life

Not Every “Emergence Hole” Hosts Hatchlings

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Watch out below! Those perfectly circular holes on upland banks are not formed by hatchlings, but rather carved by the extremely aggressive Wolf Spider … not a critter who appreciates your apology after knocking on the wrong hole.

Aggressive Wolf Spider and Hole

Big year for baby diamondbacks on Cape Cod

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
 
Photo courtesy Sue Wieber Nourse, Cape Cod Consultants

Photo courtesy Sue Wieber Nourse, Cape Cod Consultants

Wellfleet tot Delilah Beebe gets to hold a diamondback hatchling.

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/state_news/x499365910/Big-year-for-baby-diamondbacks-on-Cape-Cod

Sea Nettles Invade Assonet Bay

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

As we released Little Dude into his natal habitat in Assonet Bay off the Taunton River in Freetown, we observed a bloom of sea nettles along the shoreline … and a deserted beach because of their presence.

Sea Nettles

Release of Little Dude

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

“Litte Dude,” a threatened diamondback terrapin, emerged on August 23rd, 2007 with 16 more live siblings from a nest on the Assonet Bay Shores Beach in Freetown. He weighed 6.6 grams at emergence, measured a smidgeon over an inch long and sported a large, pinkish yolk sac. His siblings were released within a week, but this character was “the runt of the litter,” and would not likely have survived. Overwintering with the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay, “Little Dude” grew to hockey puck size and was released today, August 9th, 2008 back into his natal habitat. Carl Brodeur & the Assonet Bay community, the NMLC team and Sue Wieber Nourse of Cape Cod Consultants released “Little Dude” at 2:30 pm this afternoon (August 9th, 2008).

Sue Wieber Nourse & Carl Brodeur Release “Little Dude”