Turtle Journal

Frigid Conditions in Blackfish Creek

Winter returned to the Land of Ooze.  No snow nor sleet nor freezing rain — just plain cold.  The thermometer registered 41 degrees as I climbed the barrier dune to reach Blackfish Creek and face a stiff 15-knot wind blowing off the North Atlantic out of the northeast.  I’ll let you do the wind chill calculations.

Not only was the air cold, but two days of blustery conditions plunged creek water temperature back to 48 degrees — well below our terrapins 55°F wake-up call.  So, the sleeping beauties remain sleeping, but the poor critters that have already popped out of brumation are enduring some challenging moments.

Nothing seems to stop the horseshoe crabs, though.  Pairs locked in mating bliss flowed through the channel and cozied up to emerging sandbars to lay eggs.

Female Terrapin #774 Spins Upside Down through the Rip

I didn’t expect and hoped not to find many turtles out and about this morning.  So, I was not surprised that no heads popped up for most of the tidal flow.  But nearing ebb, I saw one female struggling through the rip.  So cold and sluggish was she, that as she tried to propel herself through the rapids, she flipped completely upside down.  Her orange plastron spun like a lighthouse beam to guide me through murk and turbulence to net her.

Terrapin 774 proved a very interesting recapture.  We saw her last on the evening of 4 June 2000, as she negotiated this same channel.  At the time, she was a pre-pubescent turtle of only 14.5 centimeters and 522 grams — both well below the 15.75-cm and 650-gram threshold for a nesting female.  Since then, this 8-year-old terrapin has spurted nearly 10% in linear dimensions and 20% in mass, so that 2001 may mark her first year of maturity.  Similar spurts were noted in three females last year as they, too, straddled the puberty line.

Examining her hind quarters, #774 showed signs of having freshly emerged from brumation with muddy residue apparent along her tail.

Six-Year-Old Male Terrapin Plops over the Rip

Only a moment or two later, a 6-year-old-male plopped over the rip.  His dark carapace matched the color of the day and the water.  The play of reflection and illusion under murky overcast yields a surreal portrait of these animals as they slip through the rippling current.

Two Cold Terrapins Head Back into Blackfish Creek

Both turtles were cold to the touch and seemed sluggishly disoriented.  So, it was with some concern that I released them and watched as they carved their separate paths back to the wild of Blackfish Creek.  With luck we’ll see #774 again this summer as she crawls ashore in June and again in July to deposit her first nests of soon-to-be strapping hatchlings to join our Wellfleet Bay population of diamondback terrapins.

Low Tide Drained Blackfish Creek Looking West

When temperature drops to 45 degrees, winds howl from the north at 20+ knots, wind chills plunge into the mid-20s, and you’re chest deep in frigid bay water wading across Blackfish Creek, you begin to question life’s fundamentals: the importance of research, the value of terrapin conservation, and most urgently, your sanity.  The sky was gray, the water grayer, sandbars gray, and my fingers ashen.

Mating Pair of Horseshoe Crabs (Female in Front)

Very little turtle activity in the creek.  The only critters stirring were horseshoe crabs.  Six pairs were mating in the low tide rip along sandbars and a single pair remained locked in warm embrace at the high tide mark on Lieutenant Island north beach …

Horseshoe Crab Mating Art

. . following a mating dance of some artistic proportion.

Male Diamondback Terrapin #1049 Slips through the Rip

I saw two mature female terrapins snorkeling in the main channel, but visibility proved impossible to locate them underwater.  Near the end of the tide, a lone male paddled by me.

Freezing Don Lewis Processes Male Terrapin #1049

Terrapin 1049 measured 11.7 centimeters carapace length and weighed in at 276 grams.  A passive fellow, he still showed muddy residue on his tail and cowl, indicating a very recent emergence from brumation.

Sea Gull Joins the Turtle Guy in the Rip

Low tide came at sunrise, and a lone sea gull joined me wading on the rip.  He taunted, “I can find terrapins as well as you.”  And I thought I had found an easy mark.  But a southwest breeze had kicked up overnight and churned Blackfish Creek into the consistency of Turkish coffee.  My toes disappeared in inch-deep water. 

Mature Female Terrapin #1048 Flows through Mucky Rip

I watched one large female float toward me, then plunge into the murk along with my disembodied toes somewhere down below.  For nearly an hour I watched and waited, but nothing broke through the haze.  Then, as tide reached maximum ebb, a head snorkeled about fifty feet ahead.  I checked the current and positioned myself within depth-charge splatter of where I thought she might surface.  Seconds passed . . . a minute . . . two minutes.  Had she slipped through the camouflaging muck?

Mud Caked Terrapin #1048 Recently Emerged from Brumation

Nope.  A whisper of a shell tumbled toward me and I netted Terrapin 1048, a 13-year-old female of nearly 18 centimeters carapace length and 1114 grams.  Most terrapins have not yet emerged from brumation, and #1048 showed signs of recently burrowing out of her winter hibernaculum.  Her rear quarters were caked in muddy brown pigment.

Feisty Terrapin #1048

Well, she may have just woken from six months sleep, but she was anything but groggy.  Described as aggressive and feisty, she let me know in unambiguous terms that she did not appreciate having her maiden swim spoiled by a visit with Turtleman.

Pre-Dawn Low Tide in Blackfish Creek

Low tide arrived a little before dawn.  The first “workable” tide of the season.  Bathed in salmon, Blackfish Creek seemed an impressionist’s canvas as I stumbled bleary eyed to the shoreline and prepared for the morning’s quest.  Temperatures hung in the low fifties and I could feel the swift, cool bay through my waders as I slogged midway across the channel to reach the rip.

The “Rip” Forms as Salt Marshes Drain at Low Tide

The rip forms as acres of abutting marsh are drained by Wellfleet’s 15-foot tidal swing and water gushes through the shrinking “hose” of Blackfish Creek.  At the rip itself, water levels drop to inches when ebb tide approaches and sandbars further constrict the flow.  Diamondback terrapins, surprised to find their habitat disappeared beneath them, are flushed through the rip with each tidal swing.  Last evening, I saw the first terrapin of the season paddling through the channel.  So, this morning might offer the first capture of the year.

Mature Female Terrapin #920 Tumbles through the Rip

Visibility ranged from good to lousy depending on location.  In the center of the flow, algae and seaweed oozed through the channel as if it were a giant vacuum cleaner sucking out winter’s debris.  At the edges and in eddies, the water provided enough clarity to see critters flowing by.  The first big carapace I saw wasn’t a turtle but a large female horseshoe crab that clawed its way onto the rim of the rip and burrowed down.  Further up channel, I saw four mating pairs of horseshoe crabs, females digging into the soft sand and males hanging on for dear life and flapping wildly in the turbulent current.  A flounder whooshed by me, and then I caught sight of a mature female (Terrapin 920) zooming out of control, spinning and tumbling as she bounced over the rip.

Eager Male Terrapin #1046 Follows #920 through the Rip

Number 920 had last been observed on the morning of 30 August as she basked off a nearby sandbar.  At the time she was plump and ready — at 1400 grams — to handle six months of brumation.  Today, she still seemed in excellent shape, although she had lost 36 grams over winter.  Immediately following her came Terrapin 1046, an eager 7-year-old male, hot in pursuit and equally out of control in the rapids.

Male Diamondback Terrapin #1047 Streams through the Rip

And finally, ten minutes later, a dark colored mature male (Terrapin 1047) came streaming through the channel.

Mature Female Terrapin #920 Returns to Blackfish Creek

After getting assessed, measured, weighed, and (for the two males who had not been previously seen) marked, the threesome hot-footed across the beach and, with a swish of the tail and a critical hiss, they disappeared once again into depths of Blackfish Creek … with stories to tell their awakening comrades.