Today, April 5th, was mild in the mid-50s and overcast with some gentle rain. We had hoped the temperatures and the rain would continue into the dark to entice spotted salamanders to begin their mating congress. So, Turtle Journal drove to a nearby abandoned cranberry bog, the Goldwitz Bog, in Marion on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts to see what might be afoot. Unfortunately, temperatures had plunged to 41F and the rain had ceased.
Mating Pair of Wood Frogs
As we checked the shallow channels in the abandoned bog, Sue Wieber Nourse spotted a pair of mating frogs seemingly frozen at the surface of the water. She scooped them in her collection net for closer examination. Wood frogs are an early harbinger of springtime on the SouthCoast and may begin their mating rituals in temperatures around 41F.
Pair of Wood Frogs, SouthCoast of Massachusetts
Once we documented the adorable couple, we released them back into the bog to complete the evening’s dance card.
A light rain sprinkled the South Coast of Massachusetts on Friday night with temperatures still hovering in the high 30s/low 40s. We had not yet seen any sign of spotted salamander mating congresses and no egg sacs so far this season because temperatures have been unfavorable. In fact, we experienced an April Fool’s Day snow storm this year. Nothing to write home about, only a couple of inches of heavy flakes, but still enough to delay the kick start to spring. Even frogs and spring peepers have been few and far between. The wild seems eerily silent this year.
Spotted Salamander Individual Egg
After last night’s gentle rain, Turtle Journal opted to scour the shallow channels of Marion’s abandoned Goldwitz Bog this morning, and we found a small concentration of spotted salamander egg sacs in the very early stage of development. Obviously, since it was broad daylight, we saw no spotted salamander specimens.
Development of Spotted Salamander Eggs and Larvae
Combining original Turtle Journal footage from last season with material from Yale University in 1920, the video clip above documents the development phases of spotted salamander eggs. The eggs we found today in the abandoned Goldwitz cranberry bog, as pictured above, are clearly at early stages of development. You can read about last year’s nighttime adventure to discover the spotted salamander mating congress under Turtle Journal articles “Slithering Salamanders, Turtleman! Why Did the Spotted Salamander Cross the Road?” and “Portrait of a Spotted Salamander.” (ASIDE: Fortunately, you won’t have to read about how the Turtleman got a permanent “dueling” scar across his nose while scrambling through the bog’s thorny bushes in the dark of night.)
Spotted Salamander Egg Sacs in Goldwitz Bog
Today’s egg sacs were in the same approximate location of last year’s mating congress, although much, much fewer in number. We expect to see more mating activity over the coming nights, especially if there’s any warm rain in the forecast.
Close Up of Spotted Salamander Egg Sacs
Above our camera zooms in on the only egg sacs that we discovered today, April 2nd.
Close Inspection Show Early Developmental Stage of Eggs
And the camera zooms even further to show the eggs/embryos in early stages of development.
Extreme Close Up of Individual Egg Sacs
With an extreme close up of individual egg sacs, and comparing them to the video above, you can clearly see how early in the development process these larvae remain. We suspect … based on our continuing observations of this area … that the eggs may have been deposited last night, April 1st/2nd.
Entire Eco-System Springs to Life
Sometimes we forget how important these events are to the entire eco-system as colonies of interesting critters erupt around salamander and frog mating aggregations, a magical time on the South Coast when the entire bog springs to life and to sound. We leave you with a trilling chorus of “A Little Amphibian Night Music” … an original creation by the Slithering South Coast Croakers.
Halloween Pumpkins Stand Guard Against Wild Marauders
Halloween’s over and now garish pumpkins stand sentinel over Marion’s precious garbage. Yet nothing, not even these ghoulish masks, seems to dissuade roving gangs of wild turkeys from invading our gentle town.
Wild Turkey Gang Rumbles through Marion Suburbs
Toms and Hens; Jets and Sharks; they stormed through quiet side streets of Marion’s upscale “Village.” Where else in America are trash cans decorated with pagan totems for Monday pickup?
Rival Turkey Gangs Clash
Feathers ruffled as rival rafters crossed paths in the middle of the road. You can almost hear the driving rhythm of Bernstein’s West Side Story echoing in the autumn leaves.
 Turkeys Distracted
Then, as quickly as it flared, the clash subsided when turkeys caught the whiff of oily pumpkin seeds. Toms and Hens clucked and cackled in ululating unison, building bird-brained courage to assault another totem guarded treasure can. Turtle Journal asks, “Can Thanksgiving come too soon to rescue our gentrified towns from the horror of rampaging gangs of wild turkeys? Bring in your garbage, suburbia; the turkeys are coming!”
Turtle Journal and Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary led a November cruise to Billingsgate Shoals at the mouth of Wellfleet Bay as part of the Stranding Weekend Program offered by Mass Audubon.  After completing an afternoon of quahog harvesting in the bay, Captain Rick Merrill skippered the Naviator into Wellfleet Harbor to pick us up for the cruise. During spring and summer, the Naviator conducts exceptional marine life cruises with Mass Audubon naturalists aboard to help visitors explore the wildlife of Wellfleet Bay. Rick also charters the Naviator for fishing trips during season.Â
Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse and MAS Dennis Murley
Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse and Mass Audubon Dennis Murley, Stranding Weekend instructors, helped participants identify significant aspects of the Wellfleet Bay habitat and pointed out various wildlife species during the cruise. Collectively, they bring two lifetimes of experience as scientist, researcher, naturalist, adventurer, educator, conservationist, rescuer and explorer of Cape Cod geology, geography, history, flora and fauna.
Pre-Cruise Safey Briefing on Wellfleet Dock
We met on Wellfleet Pier a little after 3 pm. Stranding Weekend partcipants were joined by other Mass Audubon visitors for a cruise of Wellfleet Bay. Before boarding the Naviator, Dennis Murley reviewed safety procedures, introduced instructors and provided a preview of what to expect. While an important focus of the Stranding Weekend was tropical and semi-tropical sea turtles, the layered dress of participants clearly indicated that this cruise was anything but a tropical event.
Leaving Harbor for Wellfleet Bay
Winds blew from the north bringing in a gripping Arctic chill, especially when the boat cleared Wellfleet’s protected harbor and tacked into the breeze. The Naviator backed from its slip and cruised by the working fishing fleet tied to the town pier. We cruised west through the channel, pointed at Griffin Island (right) and Great Island (left), connected by the low tumbolo called the Gut. Once past the breakwater, the Naviator turned south (left) toward Billingsgate Shoals.
Bundling in the Bow
When we were heading north, the apparent wind transformed conditions aboard ship to a Shackleton expedition. Passengers ducked low under protective bulwarks and huddled together for warmth.
In Search of Tropical Sea Turtles!
They wrapped themselves in winter scarfs and hoodies, thrust hands deep inside the warmest pockets, and they endured …Â in best Shackleton tradition.
Approaching Billingsgate Shoals
But when the boat pointed south with the wind to our backs, decks came alive. Binoculars scanned the horizons for shorebirds and water fowl.
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 Brants in Wellfleet Bay at Dusk
Loons, gulls, gannets, ducks, geese and many more species dotted the horizon, which had begun to turn pinkish orange as an early dusk swept over Cape Cod Bay.
Gray Seals Occupy Billingsgate Shoals
Billingsgate Shoals rise from Cape Cod Bay each low tide. A century ago this once 60-acre island was still inhabited as a fishing community. But the ravages of erosive storms sank the island below Cape Cod Bay; the last lighthouse abandoned and destroyed in 1915. Today, Billingsgate is sometimes called the Atlantis of Cape Cod by oral historians and folklorists. Day trippers boat to the shoals to use its exposed tidal flats for picnicking and shellfishing. Eel grass beds around the shoals are rich in striped bass schoolies and blues in season. In the “off season,” another set of tourists arrive to exploit the low-tide exposed sandbars: gray seals. As we approached the shoals on Saturday, hundreds of seals, backlit by the rapidly setting sun, had already claimed prime spots on just emerging sands.
Gray Seals Hauled out on Billingsgate Shoals
Hauled out on the tidal flats, plump, well nourished seals spread their ample bodies across the sandbar, occasionally belly-crawling a few feet left or a couple of inches right or flopping a bit up or a tad down to optimize their level of comfort. In the fast flowing current around the island, seals played and wrestled and surfed. A few curious and courageous individuals spy-hopped their way toward the Naviator to examine the exotic critters (us) basking on this mysterious floating island. Come to think of it, with layers of clothing triple and quadruple wrapped around our bodies, perhaps we too waddled like seals as we spy-hopped above our bulwarks to examine the exotic creatures luxuriating on their mysterious rising island. Yes, I suppose the correct definition of “specimen” and “observer” depends on which side of the zoo’s bars you’re occupying.
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Gray Seals on Billingsgate Shoals
Shackleton would be proud that we returned to harbor with a full complement of crew, eager to endure yet another “on the edge” adventure during Stranding Weekend.
A perfect summer ends and fall brings dramatic change to Cape Cod.  Not just foliage, but the whole fabric of coastal life transforms from easy summer to harsh winter. Summer’s gentle breezes, cerulean skies and toasty beaches are blown away by autumn storms that howl across the bay. Summer ripples grow into towering breakers that reshape beaches and deposit oceans of treasure on the shoreline. Buried among seaweed, flotsam and jetsam lie adventure and discovery in the form of marine creatures that are tossed ashore to helplessly succumb to the elements. Yet, thanks to beach patrols launched by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, more than a thousand of the most endangered sea turtles in the world have been rescued from these impossible circumstances and restored back to the wild. Countless marine mammals, giant ocean fish and amazing denizens of the sea have been recovered, yielding breakthrough discoveries chronicled in nature magazines and scientific journals. And now you’re invited to experience this adventure first hand in Mass Audubon’s Marine Animal Stranding Weekend.
On the weekend of November 5th to 7th, Mass Audubon invites a few adventurous souls to join its crack team of coastal rescuers. From Friday to Sunday, teams will scour beaches, day and night, from Provincetown to Sagamore in search of distressed animals. In between high tide patrols, participants will take a bayside cruise to Billingsgate Shoal to gain a sea critter’s eye-view of the coastline, to search for pods of pre-stranding animals, and to investigate harbor and grey seal colonies, as well as overwintering seabirds and sea ducks.  Experts will reveal secrets of marine biology and coastal ecology in seminar settings and one-on-one lab work, and still have time to join participants for quiet dinner conversation about the future of the world’s oceans and their most precious species.
Still, the most extraordinary adventures come with midnight high tides. In crisp November skies, stars hang like Christmas tree ornaments suspended in a shimmering Milky Way garland stretching from Sagittarius in the south to Cassiopeia’s “Big W” in the north. Footsteps fall silently in the soft, moist sand. The only sound comes from pounding surf that explodes in your path as a 12-foot flood tide recedes to reveal secrets left behind in the seaweed strewn wrack line. The beam of your flashlight arcs from dune to sea and back again, searching for mysterious shapes hunkering in the dark shadows.Â
You never know what the night may reveal. Perhaps a cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtle tossed upside down on the beach by a northwesterly gale. Recovering this semi-tropical animal from the cold darkness before hypothermia sets in will make the difference between life and death for this turtle and may make the difference between survival and extinction for this critically endangered species.Â
Around another bend might lurk a giant ocean sunfish trapped on the flats by a receding tide. This bizarre looking creature represents the largest bony fish in the ocean and can be found on Cape Cod beaches each fall.Â
For an electrifying experience, don’t discount a large torpedo ray that stuns its prey with 220 volt charge. Ouch!  Last year brought nearly a dozen torpedo rays onto bayside beaches from Truro to Sandwich.Â
Nature, especially on the Outer Cape, offers no guarantee of weather or animals. Stranding events are driven by prolonged wind conditions, dropping water temperatures and tidal flows. Yet, early November marks the beginning of the historical stranding period. And, no matter what has been found in the past, what is absolutely guaranteed to greet you around the next bend in the shoreline is the challenge of the unknown and the adventure of a lifetime.
Mass Audubon’s Marine Animal Stranding Weekend offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the adventurer deep inside you; the one who remembers so fondly those great moments of summers past and who finds the walls of boardroom, classroom, operating room, living room, corner office or office cubicle a bit too claustrophobic to endure the whole, long winter without a refreshing breath of cutting edge discovery. Welcome to a weekend unlike anything you have ever experienced. Welcome to the Marine Animal Stranding Weekend at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
For more information about this unique opportunity, contact Melissa Lowe at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at mlowe@massaudubon.org  or 508-349-2615. For a virtual preview of the experiences that may greet you, click on Turtle Journal at http://www.turtlejournal.com/?p=3515 for photographs and video clips from last year’s stranding weekend.
