Turtle Journal

Female Painted Turtle Basking on Goldwitz Bog Rock

A mild winter, a southerly breeze and 60 degree temperature enticed fresh water turtles in the Great White North to emerge from brumation to kick off the 2012 Turtle Year in Coastal Massachusetts.  Yesterday, with temps creeping into the high 50s, Turtle Journal inspected “the usual haunts” where fresh water turtles on the South Coast first emerge from winter slumber.  The Goldwitz Bog in Marion is the place that painted turtles are usually first found basking in mid-March; Brainard Marsh in East Marion holds a small, shallow pond where the first spotted turtles are normally seen each year.  Yet, yesterday not a turtle was seen.

Female Painted Turtle Basking in Goldwitz Bog

This morning, however, persistence paid dividends.  The first painted turtle of 2012, a large beautiful female, had crawled onto a large rock in the retaining pond of the abandoned Goldwitz Cranberry Bog.  March 8th is the earliest date we have recorded for painted turtle emergence on the South Coast.

Spotted Turtle Snorkeling in Brainard Marsh

With the painted turtle sighting under its belt, Turtle Journal slipped across town to Brainard Marsh to check for spotted turtles.  They are normally first seen basking on the mossy bank of the shallow fresh water pond.  The bank was empty and it looked at first sight that spotteds had not yet emerged from brumation.  Standing quietly on edge of the pond, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse discovered two spotted turtles hiding under water and camouflaged near the bottom.

Spotted Turtle Surfaces for Air in Brainard Marsh

One curious turtle straddled a subsurface log to get a good view of Sue.  This spotted snatched a quick breath and quickly disappeared under the oozy leaf matter at the bottom of the pond.  As with painted turtles, March 8th is the earliest record of emergence that we have in our database for the South Coast.

80-Pound, Cold-Stunned Juvenile Loggerhead

A crisp December 29th arrived with fresh westerly winds driving breakers onto the bayside shore of  Cape Cod.  Wind direction suggested any cold-stunned sea turtles that might remain in Cape Cod Bay would wash up on the high tide wrack line of west facing beaches from Orleans to Truro.  The Turtle Journal team decided to patrol the sandy bayside shore from Great Island in Wellfleet to Fisher Beach in south Truro.  As Sue Wieber Nourse walked the stretch from Duck Harbor to Ryder Beach, she discovered a very large cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) that had been deposited during the early morning high tide.

Sue Wieber Nourse, Rufus and Loggerhead

Easily identified by its massive neck and head that helped name this turtle after the enormous logger cleats of whaling boats, this juvenile loggerhead weighed in the range of 80 to 95 pounds.  Sue and Rufus sit beside the cold-stunned sea turtle to give a sense of perspective of its size, as we waited for a sled to drag her off the beach.

Epibiotic Community on Loggerhead Carapace

Loggerheads often arrive on Cape Cod with a dense epibiotic community of fauna and flora.  This one was no exception with large and small barnacles, as well as a dense layer of mussels.

Cold-Stunned Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley

About 50 feet to the south, a small, roughly 5 pound Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) had washed up higher on the wrack line.  Less than a foot long and probably about 2 years old, this turtle had traveled from the Gulf of Mexico through the Gulf Stream in Sargasso mats to end up trapped in Cape Cod Bay by dropping fall temperatures. 

Cold-Stunned ~ 2-Year-Old Kemp’s Ridley

Kemp’s ridleys, although arguably the most endangered of sea turtles, comprise the largest percentage of Cape Cod sea turtle strandings each fall, usually as high as 90%.  The second largest number of cold-stunned strandings has historically been loggerheads.  But during the last decade, green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) have seesawed with loggerheads for the dubious honor.  We suspect this situation indicates loggerheads have been doing poorly and greens have been faring a little better of late.  Americans can take the blame for the tragedy of declining loggerhead numbers because most of the nesting beaches and supporting habitat for this species lies under U.S. control.

Last 2011 Terrapin Hatchling

November 14th saw the release of the last diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2011.  What is a hatchling doing in the Great White North in mid November?  Good question!  As nests hatch out during the season, Turtle Journal often finds a few seemingly non-viable eggs lying at the bottom of the nest, looking in pretty sad condition.  They’re often sunken in and darkly discolored.  For all intents and purposes, they’re goners.  But we decided a decade ago to give these sorry-looking eggs a second chance; a last chance, really, to survive.  We place them in clean, moist sand and keep them in a warm environment.  Miraculously, we find a couple of hatchlings each year that earn that second chance at life, usually surfacing at the top of their bucket around Veterans Day or Thanksgiving or even Christmas.  Once such survivor emerged over the weekend.

Rufus Whispers “Bon Chance” to Last Hatchling

On Monday, the 14th, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus brought the lucky survivor back to her natal site at Turtle Point on South Wellfleet’s Lieutenant Island.  The weather was gorgeous with sunshine and nearly 70 degree temperature.  Rufus, who celebrated her first birthday this weekend, couldn’t allow the baby turtle to escape into vegetative camouflage without whispering a few woofs of advice and giving her a gentle doggie kiss for good luck. 

Last 2011 Hatchling Scrambles to Freedom

A little hesitant at first to trade the safe, warm conditions of Turtle Journal refuge for the unpredictable wilds of freedom on Outer Cape Cod, the hatchling slowly acclimated to her new surroundings.  Within a few minutes she decided on her course of action and headed slightly upland to the bear berry (hog cranberry) vegetation of the embankment at the edge of Turtle Point.  She will burrow into the soft sand and spend her first winter in the deep slumber of brumation, waiting for the warm sunny days of May.

Second Chance at Life for Lucky Hatchling

For now this sweetheart has the title of the last diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2011.  Of course, with any luck, we hope to see that record broken by another sorry-looking egg and second chancer that will emerge while the Turtle Journal family is gathered for Thanksgiving or perhaps even Christmas dinner.

SW Florida Loggerhead Hatchlings Scramble to Freedom

(Photo Courtesy of Ranger Randy Sarton)

Turtle Journal proudly salutes our colleagues in Southwest Flordia for their outstanding efforts in protecting sea turtle nests along the Gulf Coast. 

Ranger Randy Sarton, Ritz Carlton Nature’s Wonders

According to Turtle Journal’s friend and colleague Ranger Randy Sarton, who leads Nature’s Wonders at the Naples Ritz Carlton on Vanderbilt Beach, preliminary data for the 2011 sea turtle nesting season has been compiled. Randy reports that Collier County had a total of 761 nests this season; one more than last year. Lee County, says Ranger Randy, held steady with last year at 89 nests. Sarton summarizes that 2011 marks the second consecutive year with relatively good, or at least improved, numbers. On the beach in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel itself, Randy said they enjoyed five nests this last summer.

Ritz Carlton Male Gopher Tortoise

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse patrolled Vanderbilt Beach in Naples on November 1st and ran into this handsome male gopher tortoise strolling the beach near the Ritz Carlton.  While protecting sea turtles that choose to nest on the Gulf Coast of Florida is a noble venture, threatened gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) spend their entire lives within a few tens of meters of their burrows.  The survival of Florida’s gopher tortoises rests fully and completely in the hands of Floridians.  Whether gopher tortoises survive or fade into extinction is a decision for Florida to make.  They remain Turtle Journal’s favorite reptile species in Florida, and it would be a shame for Florida’s children and grandchildren and great grandchildren to lose the experience of these fabuluous native megafauna.  Turtles survived the dinosaurs, survived the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs, survived the giant lethal North American mammalian predators and even survived the arrival of humans on our shores, but they can’t seem to dodge the thoughtlessness of human modernity.  Thanks to the great work of Nature’s Wonders, protection of native species remains an important topic of study for youngsters from two to one hundred two.

35-Year Old Female Eastern Box Turtle

In mid August a dog walker spotted an Eastern box turtle strolling down the middle of Rockdale Avenue in urban New Bedford.  He snatched this beauty before she could be crushed by the morning traffic.  Not knowing what to do with her, he brought her to Buttonwood Park and luckily ran into Gina Purtell, the Director of Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary.  The Turtle Journal Team and Mass Audubon have been partners for more than a decade.  So, Gina called the Turtle Guy, Don Lewis, to work out a plan to rescue this gorgeous female box turtle.

Don Lewis Measures Eastern Box Turtle’s Girth

Since box turtles are territorial, releasing her in Buttonwood Park would have prompted her to dare the traffic once again and return to the busy streets of downtown New Bedford.  We decided to hold her until early October and release her in the quality box turtle habitat of the new Great Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Wareham.  Our hypothesis is that releasing her immediately before the long winter brumation may reset her geographic compass to the new location.  This 35-year-old, extremely healthy female weighed 675 grams.  Within minutes of her release about a quarter mile deep into the sanctuary, she burrowed into a turtle-made hummock of pine needles and disappeared from view.  An extremely healthy sign.  This lovely lady is marked as Eastern box turtle #2 and the Turtle Journal team will be checking on her progress come springtime.

Turtle Journal Takes Data before Release

See the Wareham Week/Village Soup story about this turtle rescue by clicking on the image above.