Turtle Journal

Blackfish Creek Rip at Low Tide

A break in the weather graced the morning with warming sunshine and a refreshing southeasterly breeze.  Water temperatures reached 60 degrees — again.  And terrapins, which had already awoken once from brumation, have dug out of a second time following a mid-May sleep-in.  While still not moving in large numbers, turtles have resumed their semi-diurnal tidal parade through Blackfish Creek. 

 Female Terrapin Caked in Brumation Ooze

Four terrapins were netted coming through the rip, two males and two females, all of whose cavities were caked in mud indicating recent emergence.  Passing through the rapids twice daily cleanses our turtles quicker than a front-loading, tumbler washing machine.  Two of today’s terrapins, the males, had been seen earlier this year, one on May 1st and the other on May 3rd.  The two females were first-time captures.

Female Terrapin $1074 Shows Blood Beneath Plastron

A disturbing observation was made on the plastron of female #1074, and to a lesser degree of male #1056, too.  There was a bright redness visible beneath the plastron scutes, which looked like bleeding.  [Editor’s note from March 2010:  After more than a decade of observations, this sub-plastron bleeding is noted in mature female diamondback terrapins in mating aggregations before nesting.]

 Male Terrapin #1056 Algae Gain Since May 3rd

Terrapin 1056 also showed how quickly these turtles can build up algae growth.  You’d hardly believe it was the same critter when you compare the 3 May photo on the left with today’s view.  On the other hand, chilly temperatures have probably kept him fairly inert the last couple of weeks.

Albany Visitors Release Terrapin Hatchling in Nursery Marsh

Finally, Memorial Weekend signals the return of summer volunteers to our Paludal Posse.  One couple stopped me on the causeway as they arrived from the mainland.  “How did our turtles do?”  These folks had found a terrapin laying a too shallow nest in their driveway last 29 June.  The eggs were relocated to a protected site.  “I guess no one will ever know?” they shrugged in disappointment.  Not so — I gave them baby pictures of their hatchlings as they emerged in late September.

Another refugee family from urban Albany called this morning with a surprise.  Two teenage guests found a hatchling in the wrack just outside their cottage — a prime nesting area on Lieutenant Island.  This baby was just 2.65 centimeters long and tipped the scales at 5 grams.  She had fully absorbed her yolk sac, and unlike the hatchlings found last week, she was not dehydrated.  Perhaps this long string of rainy days did some good after all.  Following a quick assessment of her health, this tiny dynamo was released back into the marsh by her finders — the newest volunteers in Wellfleet Bay’s Paludal Posse.

Is This Outfit Appropriate to Capture Cold-Blooded Animals? 

When on 22 April turtles began emerging from their winter sleep, and by 1 May when water temperature over the tidal flats had reached 72° Fahrenheit, it seemed the terrapin season had sprinted to a record start.  We should know better.  After ten days of persistent easterly winds blowing off the North Atlantic and storm fronts smothering the Cape in grayness, water temperatures have plummeted.  This morning’s reading barely hit 55°F, the apparent threshold temperature in Wellfleet Bay for terrapins to enter and leave brumation.  Yesterday not a single female was seen swimming through the channel nor had one been captured in Blackfish Creek this entire week.  Research assistant Maureen Ryan, who reported for duty from college in Wyoming on Tuesday, wondered aloud what had become of those balmy swimming trunk days I wrote about in early May.  Was it some cruel hoax?  If so, the turtles weren’t laughing.

Two Females and a Male Terrapin Return to Blackfish Creek

The three terrapins captured this morning were all caked in mud as though they had just emerged from brumation.  Yet, all three had already been seen this year.  Female 920 came through the rip paired with a male on 23 April; male 720 swam the channel on 29 April.  Terrapin 1006, another female, was spotted on both 5 and 10 May.  So, it was a surprise to see them all painted in mud, cold to the touch, and acting very sluggish.

Number 720, the male on the right, and #920, the female on the left, have both acquired a ring of light green algae clinging to their marginal scutes.  Both had absolutely clean carapaces when photographed in late April.

Female Terrapin #1006 Slips into Blackfish Creek

The change in Terrapin 1006 was equally dramatic, although not physical.  Her behavior had completely changed in the last two weeks.  When first observed on 5 May, she was described as “quite active”; on the 10th, she was termed “aggressive.”  Today, though, she was passive and sluggish.  She moved through the rip so slowly that no net was needed to capture her.  She could barely maintain controlled headway.

 Male Terrapin #1058

 The Cape continues to be battered by waves of storm clouds off the Atlantic.  Temperatures hover in the mid-50s, skies run the full spectrum from dark gray to black, and the bay is churned mucky by a persistent easterly blow.  Nevertheless, new moon tides present opportunities to observe terrapins in the creeks and today’s low came early.  We waded into Blackfish Creek and patrolled the rip line for about an hour before ebb tide.  We saw not a single female terrapin pass through the rapids, but we were able to net three males: one 6-year-old and two 7-year-olds.  Both 7-year-olds were recaptures.  Terrapin 702 had first been seen on 3 June 2000, and then again on 30 July 2000.

Male Terrapin #1058 with Rash on Tail 

Turtle 1058, last seen on 4 May, now shows a rash on his right front and right rear limbs. 

Three Male Terrapins Scramble Back into Blackfish Creek

Despite foul weather, these three fellows showed no hesitation to leave the sheltered processing case and scramble back into the chilly waters of Blackfish Creek. 

Terrapin Hatchling Knotch Returns to the Wild 

Today also marked freedom for the two rescued hatchlings who were recuperating in my lab.  Both had recovered sufficiently to return to the wild. Knotch had survived root predation and dehydration which had killed her 15 nest mates, a deformity caused by root strangling, and coyote predation of her nest.  A week of treatment with heat and humidity, and she seemed as good as new, raring to break for freedom.  I returned her to the Lieutenant Island nursery habitat and watched her weave her way into the dense marsh vegetation.  I defy anyone to find a trace of her former carapace deformity. 

Terrapin Hatchling Terry Released by Wellfleet Bay Naturalists

Terry, the desiccated hatchling found blindly crawling along the Goose Pond Trail by a group of Maryland high schoolers, also had recovered enough to earn her release.  Today was turtle day for the naturalists’ training class at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.  After a lecture on box turtles and terrapins, several of the students braved rain, wind, and chill to see Terry off in the salt marsh near Try Island.  Despite weather conditions, releases are the brightest moments for budding naturalists.

Easterly Storms Linger over Blackfish Creek 

Reversing a seasonal drought in one week calls for some seriously foul weather.  And when winds back out of the east and off the North Atlantic, conditions on the Cape deteriorate quickly.  Temperatures remained in the mild 50s, but raw gusty rain pelted the Land of Ooze, enticing terrapins to add another layer of mud and sleep passed their dawn wake-up call.

Male Diamondback Terrapin #1071

Yesterday, the 22nd, a single young male braved the elements.  Terrapin #1071 was propelled through the rapids at nearly dead low.  He looked a bit shell-shocked, to coin a turtle phrase, fully withdrawn inside and rather sluggish.  A strapping 6-year-old, he quickly warmed once protected from the blustery winds and returned with the incoming tide back to the sheltered safety of his paludal home.

Rainbow over Outer Cape Cod

This morning dawned with hope but little else.  As sunrise broke over Blackfish Creek, a towering rainbow stretched across the northern sky with faint promise of better days.  Yet, storm clouds soon swept in from the sea to repaint our backdrop in drizzly gray.  Unmoved by Nature’s twists and turns, turtles slept in — again.

Terrapin Hatchlings Knotch and Terry Await Release

On the brighter side, rescued hatchlings Knotch and Terry continue steady progress toward release on Thursday morning.  Knotch (left) has reached full normalcy and only awaits improved weather conditions; Terry still seems a bit affected by her severe dehydration and has taken to spending each night soaking in fresh water.  But she looks a lot better than her desiccated image as she was retrieved from the dusty Goose Pond Trail on Monday.

Seventy-two hours of warmth and hydration have transformed the tiny deformed hatchling Knotch.  Little remains of the distortions caused by root predation and drought.  Today she looks as normal as any emerging “fall” hatchling — with one minor exception (more of which anon).  The before and after shots are amazing and I would have suspected trick photography, had I not snapped the images myself.

Miraculous Improvement in “Knotch” Hatchling 

You recall the right side of her carapace was horribly dented and distorted. Yet, look at her shell today.

Amazing Improvement in “Knotch” Plastron 

Even her plastron has responded to treatment and has largely rebounded to near normal.  Only a slight indentation remains along the abdominal scutes on either side of her residual yolk sac, but you can see how much of the original distortion has evened out. 

Over-Wintered Hatchling “Knotch” Awaits Release

And what’s the “minor exception” that distinguishes Knotch (and Ott, too; see “Of Things Big and Small” on 12 May) from hatchlings that emerge from the nest in the fall?  I must admit that I missed it myself until I woke with a start in the middle of the night in a “Eureka!” moment.  “By Golly, that’s what seemed so odd.  I knew something was missing.” And, of course, it was.

What?  The egg tooth.  Those Wellfleet hatchlings, which overwinter in the nest, pip through the egg shell in the fall, but remain buried underground inside the opened shell in the nest’s egg chamber.  So it’s no surprise the egg tooth disappears during the winter before these late bloomers emerge in the springtime.

The weather has been a little chilly with temperatures still dropping into the mid-40s and the wind blowing off the Atlantic.  So, Knotch has remained in her makeshift terrarium for a little longer than anticipated.  It has all the comforts, and a lot more safety, than her nursery marsh habitat.  But even for tiny, defenseless hatchlings, there’s no place like home.