Gobblers, decked in drab brown gang colors offset by bright red neck & leg wear, roam wildly through Marion Village, heart of the SouthCoast sailing aristocracy. Strutting down this harbor town’s main drag, hopping privacy barriers and disrespecting centuries old stone fences, they peck through manicured Tabor Academy, despoil the lawn of President Cleveland’s vacation home, heckle the gentry at the Beverly Yacht Club and ruffle feathers at the Sippican Tennis and Croquet Society. Tensions mount near Burr Brothers Marina when rafter and gaggle cross paths. Clucking American turkeys face off, claw to claw and beak to beak, with honking Canada geese. West Side Story redux. Oh, the horror of these nationalist gangs!
Rafter of Wild Turkeys Ride Roughshod Over Marion Gentry
You may think that herding cats is tough, but it takes a powerful tom to lead a gang of wild turkeys. This one drove his rafter through the Marion Art Center and into the church triangle on hallowed Front Street where cameras cornered the gang scratching for booty in total disregard of frightened Marionettes barricaded behind frozen doors.
Marion Turkey
Gobblers running amok in the tony town of Marion? True, there have been reliable records of two-legged turkeys haunting the streets, boardrooms and even bedrooms of Sippican for decades. But a gang of gaudy toms? Mon dieu; say it isn’t so! At the very least, they should respect the town’s preppy dress code.
The two-headed diamondback terrapin hatchling(s) discovered last August in Eastham on the Outer Cape (see Two-Headed Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling) is/are doing just fine in their winter quarters. Luckily, they have been absolved of trying to survive this brutal winter burrowed under mounds of solid ice and crunchy mud.  During our visit to the Outer Cape on Tuesday to retrieve the juvenile Kemp’s ridley found in South Wellfleet (see Tropical Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle on Ice), we couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit these plucky critters to check on their progress.
In the middle of an Arctic blast bringing some of the rawest, coldest conditions to the Outer Cape in several years, a tiny Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was discovered frozen in a cove off Blackfish Creek in South Wellfleet. Weighing in at 1500 grams, this one-and-a-half to two-year-old juvenile arrived too late in the season for any plausible chance of rescue, but it will add information to the collaborative research effort to learn more about this rarest sea turtle in the world in order to prevent future losses.
Alison Palmer of Old Wharf peninsula in South Wellfleet spotted seagulls pecking at an object in the cove beneath her home on Blackfish Creek. At first she thought the birds had stumbled onto one of the carcasses from dophin strandings over the last few weeks. Alison bundled warmly and braved frozen conditions to struggle down her steep bank to the shore. She found a “heart shaped” carapace, indicative of a Kemp’s ridley, and she retrieved it from the wrack line. As Alison notes in her interview, this turtle represented her first Kemp’s ridley in many years of watching out for these critically endangered critters. As an aside, Alison is always the first person to report diamondback terrapin awakenings each spring as they appear in the protected cove below her cottage.
Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Measurements
After we recovered the Kemp’s ridley from Alison, the Turtle Journal team brought it to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The triage center has mostly been broken down for the season, as conditions make the rescue of a live tropical or semi-tropical sea turtle more than a miracle. Still, we delivered the turtle to the wet lab, and we measured, weighed and documented the animal’s condition. Results are shown in the image above.
You’ve heard our description of frigid conditions and you’ve read our tales of waves “flash freezing” on the beach as soon as they touch the frozen sand and are exposed to the Arctic air. We suspect many have chuckled at these fish stories, thinking, “It couldn’t really be THAT cold.” For those who haven’t felt an Arctic blast on bare skin, for those who haven’t seen ice floes sealing harbors shut, for those who haven’t witnessed waves freezing in place as the tide floods in with the full moon, we offer this video of Wellfleet Harbor at the zenith of “warmth” this afternoon at 1 o’clock.
Inside the nature center at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, you find live displays and informational exhibits that showcase the varied animals and the rare habitats of southwest Florida. The center’s reach stretches geographically from Naples in the north to the Everglades in the south; it spans habitats from woodsy uplands; through fresh water ecosystems, estuarine mangrove channels and protected bays; to Gulf beaches, inter-tidal shorelines, Everglade marshlands and tropical reefs. A very rich, exquisitely beautiful, but extremely fragile set of habitats and ecosystems.Â
Florida Mud TurtleÂ
Fresh water tanks illustrate the variety of flora and fauna unique to southwest Florida ecosystems, all extremely sensitive to human overuse and abuse of the aquifer and the watershed.
No visit to the nature center would be complete without admiring the antics of a Florida gator. One wonders, though, whether the red-eared slider and the fish earn a dangerous pay bonus for sharing a tank and ecosytem with the gator.
Display Tanks Integrated Among “Red Mangroves”
A section of the nature center captures the brackish, estuarine ecosystem with display tanks woven among red mangroves.
Who else would be more at home among the mangrove roots than the diamondback terrapin?
Conservancy Touch Tank of Back Bay and Shoreline Critters
Moving to saltier habitats, the nature center sports a large touch tank with illustrative critters from protected bays and the inter-tidal zone along shore lines.Â
Along the Gulf beaches of southwest Florida, loggerhead sea turtles come ashore each spring through summer to lay nests above the high water line. The eggs incubate for an average of about two months and hatchlings generally emerge at night to head for the “brightest horizon,” which normally means the sea … unless a callous business or homeowner blares bright lights during the hatching season.
While not currently in the nature center, juvenile loggerheads (Caretta caretta) have graced the tropical tank. When present, they are a wonder to observe. The juvenile in the video was two or three years old in the first clip, but had obviously grown a couple of years by the end of the video. Large loggerheads present a challenge for rehabilitators. They are rather jealously possessive of their own tank and brook no rivals. So, as they grow it increases the incentive for their return to the wild.
The Conservancy Is Committed toTurtle Conservation
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is committed to endangered turtle conservation. Many exhibits and posters document the work of the Conservancy throughout this area.  When you visit the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Turtle Journal recommends that you plan an extended stay to savor everything it has to offer. For children from five to one hundred five, there’s unlimited opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Return to Turtle Journal soon to go behind the scenes of the Conservancy’s animal hospital to learn about rescue and rehabilitation of endangered and injured animals. Â
The Turtle Journal team has been exploring the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples for several decades. And each time we visit, we learn new things about the complex and delicate ecosystems of the area, and the multiple initiatives of the Conservancy to protect southwest Florida habitats, to save endangered species and to rescue injured animals. In the next few posting, we will explore with you the Conservancy in three parts.
#1. Water Adventure: Conservancy Electric Boat
First, we will bring you on a water adventure through the estuarine channels of Naples, Florida leading to the Gulf of Mexico.
#2. Nature Center: Diamondback Terrapin
Next, we’ll explore the Conservancy’s Nature Center where you find a wide variety of local species and tons of information about the southwest Florida ecosystem and habitats.
#3. Animal Hospital: Treatment Room
Finally, we will take you behind the scenes of the Conservancy’s animal hospital where the staff works magic to rescue and rehabilitate injured critters.
Water Adventure
“Welcome to the Conservancy”
Twisting and turning like an aquatic labyrinth, estuarine channels of Naples’ back bay showcase a wide variety of wildlife among abutting mangrove banks and islands. Whether an irascible waterfowl quacking solo, a duet of predatory ospreys, …
Osprey Duet
.. or a the trio of basking turtles (see above), you may find treasures around every bend. But keep a sharp eye because they’re all camouflaged beyond recognition by mere mortals!
