Weather and winds have been crazy and fickle this fall. Earlier this week temperatures soared into the 60°s and winds have blown around the compass, scattering wrack, flotsam, jetsam and sea turtles from Provincetown to Yarmouthport. Last night weather struck again with a northerly gale and sporatic snow showers, pushing flood tides over seaside roadways. Turtle Journal received a wake-up call at our 24/7 hotline (508-274-5108) from a beachwalker in Dennis to report two Kemp’s ridley sea turtles at Howes Beach.
December Sea Turtle Patrol on Bayside Truro Beaches
If you have a few minutes, join the Turtle Journal team on a virtual daylight patrol from Ryder Beach to Fisher Beach on the bayside of Truro on the Outer Cape. Why Truro? Because southwest and west-southwest breezes blow turtles trapped in Cape Cod onto the shores of Truro and Provincetown.
Cold-Stunned Toad at Bound Brook in North Wellfleet
The fickle fall weather of Cape Cod tricks not only sea turtles, but many other northern critters … including the two legged variety. As the Turtle Journal team crossed the dunes at Bound Brook in North Wellfleet, we discovered a cold-stunned toad that had been seduced out of its hibernaculum by too warm conditions on Thursday and had succumbed to plunging temperatures Thursday night. Regular readers may recall a similar incident at the EXACT SAME SPOT that occurred in mid-November 2008 (see Leapfrogging Sea Turtle Patrol Yields Surprise). As noted in earlier postings, this year’s season has been delayed several weeks by bizarre weather conditions. We provided the specimen to the National Park Service at the Cape Cod National Seashore for more detailed study. We’ll let Turtle Journal readers know what scientists at the NPS discover.
Taylor the Turtle Dog Samples First Seasonal Snowfall
“A night not fit for man nor beast,” as W.C. Fields might say, with winds howling from the west-northwest at a steady 25-to-30 knots, punctuated by an occasional 50 mph gust. Unfortunately, these are the very conditions in which tropical sea turtles strand each fall on bayside beaches. Trapped by the geological seine called Cape Cod jutting forty miles into the North Atlantic, tropical sea turtles become cold-stunned as bay water temperatures plunge below 50º F. By an accident of their natural lifecycle, most of these trapped and cold-stunned turtles are two and three year old Kemp’s ridleys, a critically endangered species and one of the rarest sea turtles in the world. So, on this night not fit for human or reptile, turtles would be tossed ashore like flotsam and jetsam, condemned to certain hypothermic death unless rescued from the beach by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers from Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
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Bob Prescott, sanctuary director, and Dennis Murley, senior naturalist, watch wind and weather conditions throughout the day to best deploy rescuers for night patrols. What during daylight seems a “walk on the beach” transforms at night into a dangerous obstacle course exacerbated by blinding darkness, pounding surf, scouring sandblasts and deafening winds. “Don’t attempt this on your own. Leave it to the pros.”
Sue Wieber Nourse and Jared Nourse Rescue 10-Inch Ridley
This Saturday night, they decided to send out patrols to bayside beaches from Eastham through Orleans and Brewster to Dennis; that is, beaches in the reciprocal direction of the prevailing wind. The Turtle Journal team drew the westernmost stretch from Chapin Beach to Sea Street in Dennis. As rescue nights go, this one rated a 10 with a waxing gibbous moon on high and the Constellation Orion rising in the eastern sky. Heck, it wasn’t snowing; not even raining!
Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley Rescued from Chapin Beach
About a quarter mile east of the Chapin Beach ramp, the Turtle Journal team of Sue Wieber Nourse (senior partner, Cape Cod Consultants) and Jared Nourse (Williams College) found a juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtle rolling in the waves.  Measuring a mere 10-inch carapace (top shell) length, the turtle was tossed upside down on the beach. “It looked just like salty brine foam in the moonlight,” observed Ms. Nourse. She plucked the turtle from receding waves before it was pulled back out to sea and examined it carefully. She pronounced it “quite lively.”
Rescued Ridley and Wind-Teared Sue Wieber Nourse
Since Sue had to walk the animal back into the teeth of the WNW blow, she placed the little turtle under her top coat to protect it from the hypothermic effect of the blasting wind. So, back at the Turtle Journal research vehicle, the protected ridley was doing just fine (thank you) while Sue’s exposed eyes were tearing in the relentless wind.
Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Measures 25.5Â Cm Carapace LengthÂ
The Turtle Journal team searched six more miles of coastline, but found no other cold-stunned turtle in Dennis. In Brewster, Dennis Murley and Mark Faherty recovered one Kemp’s ridley each. Bob Prescott hit the jackpot with one Kemp’s ridley from Boat Meadow in Eastham, plus one Kemp’s ridley and one good-sized green sea turtle from Skaket Beach in Orleans. All told, Mass Audubon rescuers had saved six cold-stunned sea turtles; five critically endangered Kemp’s ridleys and one threatened green sea turtle.
Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley Strands with High Tide
“How Can I Help Save Stranded Sea Turtles?”
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If you encounter a sea turtle on the beach, first DO NOT put it back into the water. Doing so will condemn the animal to almost certain death. DO NOT remove the animal from the beach. A special license is required to transport federally protected species. Instead, DO move the turtle above the high water line. DO cover the animal with dry seaweed to prevent the wind from causing additional hypothermia. DO mark the covered turtle with a gaudy piece of flotsam or jetsam, perhaps a buoy or anything unusual … so that rescuers can easily find the critter hidden under a pile of seaweed. DO call Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at (508) 349-2615 to report the turtle. If there is difficulty getting through to this number, you can always reach the Turtle Journal team at our 24/7 hotline (508-274-5108). When giving directions from the landing or beach to the turtle, DO use left and right (when facing the water) rather than cardinal directions. DO give the walking time it takes to reach the turtle from the landing (turn right and walk five minutes) rather than describing distance in feet, yards or fractions of miles.
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Thank you for helping save these rare and beautiful creatures. If you’d like to volunteer to patrol beaches during the day or drive rescued animals to Boston for medical care, contact Cynthia Franklin (cfranklin@massaudubon.org), volunteer coordinator at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (508-349-2615).
With fog so thick you could be forgiven for mistaking Wellfleet Harbor for the Thames, Outer Cape Cod enjoys lingering mild temperatures as Thanksgiving dawns. Chilled surface waters and warm bay breezes stir a ghostly brew of mists, clouds and dampened echoes. While not actually “raining,” you soak clean through to the bone just walking down the beach.
Small Torpedo Ray Emerges from Fog
A stranded torpedo ray had been reported by cove residents earlier this week and had been spied by Mass Audubon staff last weekend near the boat ramp at Shirttail Point. The last sighting was “under the high bank at Chipman’s Cove,” which stretches from Duck Creek in the north to the springtime terrapin mating aggregation in the south. From Old Pier Landing we walked the bank south and found only a decomposing 7-foot ocean sunfish that had been buried, but was now re-surfacing through weathering tides. We headed north and discovered the torpedo ray carcass in front of a seawall and high bank opposite the town pier at Shirttail Point.
Small Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Harbor
This carcass had been heavily depredated and was quite decomposed. It measured just a tad over one foot wide and only two & a half foot long from snout to the trailing edge of the tail fin.Â
Phil the Ring Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)
Whatever one’s personal viewpoint on hunting and fishing, and most of us exhibit a complex set of contradictory and complementary opinions on these topics, pheasant hunting season on Cape Cod magnifies these feelings. According to the Humane Society of the United States (see Cape Cod National Seashore “The Killing Fields“), ring necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are not natives of Cape Cod, but of Asia.  They are farm raised off Cape and “transported weekly in Massachusetts state-owned trucks and unceremoniously dumped into the cool night air in stumpy forests of scrub pine and scrub oak.” According to the Humane Society, these animals “lack the basic skills to survive in this foreign habitat.” Consequently, some say pheasants offer an easy shot for beginners who may go on to develop into lifelong hunters.
Salt Marsh Trail at Sandy Neck Park, Barnstable
Several days ago the Turtle Journal Team visited Sandy Neck Park in Barnstable. The barrier beach and dunes protect the expansive salt marsh ecosystem of Barnstable Harbor which hosts the second largest population of threatened diamondback terrapins in Massachusetts (and perhaps all of New England). The salt marsh trail falls between nesting dunes on the north (left) and salt marsh on the south (right). Walking this road in September and October, you can be guaranteed to encounter a terrapin hatchling scrambling from its nest into the safety of the salt marsh nursery habitat … or at least sets of hatchling tracks that evidence babies that have recently crossed the dirt road.
Ring Necked Pheasant Runs onto Trail
Instead of a hatchling we were surprised to encounter Phil, a very nervous ring necked pheasant, scurrying along the salt marsh trail. When Phil saw us, he slipped into the dense vegetation to hide … as quietly as a bulldozer with backup alarm blaring. Since that tactic obviously wasn’t working, Phil jumped back onto the dirt road and sped down the path like a bowlegged roadrunner stuck in first gear.
Pheasant Hunting Season through November 28th
We remembered the sign we had glanced on entering the back trail and wondered whether Phil would be able to acclimate to this foreign environment before hunters and dogs chased him down and flushed him out for a clear shot. Heck, his amateurish evasive skills placed him face to face with the Turtle Journal Team for long enough for us to get a dozen close-up “shots” and to stare him eyeball to eyeball. There’s almost no dense cover to provide safety and camouflage for a non-native ring-necked pheasant.
Sue Wieber Nourse at Sandy Neck Park
We left Phil to his own devices and privacy as we crossed over the dunes to the bayside beach to search for stranded sea turtles at high tide. We forgot about our friend Phil as we enjoyed the stark beauty of Sandy Neck in mid November.
Hunters and Dog Scouring the Scrub Brush for Phil
Tranquility soon faded as bright orange gear dotted the horizon and a barking dog zigzagged across the dunes scouring the terrain for scent of Phil. As we proceeded to the bayside, more hunters appeared on dune tops and more dogs howled to the chase. We wondered how poor disoriented Phil had survived this long into the day and wondered if he’d ever see another night. In fact, we even worried a bit about ourselves as the lone non-hunters crossing the dunes without bright orange gear.
More Traditional Thanksgiving Prey
Native American Wild Turkey
A more traditional Thanksgiving prey and a wiley critter that can hold its own in its native habitat is the American wild turkey, Ben Franklin’s nominee as the emblematic symbol for the fledgling United States of America. Ben thought eagles paled in the face of a brave, valient American turkey. At least a wild turkey understands the Cape Cod ecosystem and wouldn’t get caught dead (or more preferably alive) in a barren barrier dune. Then again, we don’t dump wild turkeys into foreign habitats in the … excuse the phrase … dead of night.
We’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving with a look back at last fall when Turtle Journal posted several articles on our native wild turkeys. We’ve seen a lot of turkeys this season, too, but they’ve managed to avoid that perfect “traffic stopping moment” documented below.
Happy Thanksgiving from the entire Turtle Journal Family. We wish you another year of discovery. We hope you’ll join us in the joy of saving the world, just one species at a time … turtle, ocean sunfish, harbor seal, pilot whale, wild turkey, channel whelk, nine-spotted ladybug or even ring necked pheasant. If it crawls, swims, flies, slithers, scampers, hops or just exists, it’s worth saving.
