{"id":1060,"date":"2008-10-22T16:12:05","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2008-10-27T10:33:06","modified_gmt":"2008-10-27T14:33:06","slug":"tiny-hatchling-beats-cold-front-by-a-nose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1060","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Hatchling Beats Cold Front by a Nose"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three\u00c2\u00a0Gram Second-Chance Terrapin Hatchling<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“There’s always one more.”\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the motto of the Paludal Posse, our terrapin research and conservation team on Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always one more nest to find, one more nest to hatch, one more turtle in the nest, one more hatchling to emerge, one more turtle to save.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, there’s always one more.\u00c2\u00a0 And so it was proven again this weekend as we prepared our last batch of terrapin hatchlings for release on Tuesday, a promised mild October day.<\/p>\n

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Terrapin Hatchling and Second-Chance Egg from Nest 996<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Sue counted\u00c2\u00a020 second-chance hatchlings soaking in 70F water to\u00c2\u00a0prepare for their sprint to freedom.\u00c2\u00a0 Second-chance hatchlings?\u00c2\u00a0 What the heck are second-chance hatchlings?\u00c2\u00a0 As we harvest emerging nests that have mostly hatched\u00c2\u00a0and other nests that have been exposed by predators, we often find a couple of unhatched eggs left behind.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of these eggs are in good shape and need only a\u00c2\u00a0couple days more incubation.\u00c2\u00a0 A few, though, look pretty sad; dimpled, dented, dehydrated, discolored, and so on.\u00c2\u00a0 These eggs wouldn’t make it in the wild.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, we prefer to give every turtle egg a chance even if it has only\u00c2\u00a0a small probability\u00c2\u00a0of survival.\u00c2\u00a0 So, these long-shot eggs go into our mystical, magical second-chance bucket, filled wtih clean, moist natal sand and warmed first naturally in our sun room until\u00c2\u00a0early October and then under a heat lamp in our lab until successfully hatched or all hope is exhausted.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00c2\u00a0always have\u00c2\u00a0Halloween\u00c2\u00a0hatchlings, usually have Thanksgiving babies and occasionally find a pair of cute\u00c2\u00a0dark eyes staring up at us\u00c2\u00a0on Christmas morning.\u00c2\u00a0 (ASIDE:\u00c2\u00a0 Can there be a more powerful\u00c2\u00a0holiday message?)\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, as Sue collected the 20 lucky babies for their trip back into the wild, she scanned the second-chance bucket and yelled in exclamation, “We’ve got another one!”\u00c2\u00a0 To which I sagely replied, “Yep.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always one more.”<\/p>\n

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Perfect October Day for Second-Chance Hatchling Release<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We made it to Turtle Point on Lieutenant Island while the weather held; 63F, gentle breeze and warming sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0 But\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0careful look at the clouds streaming above reminded us that a storm front approached.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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2nd Chance Hatchling and 20 Siblings Released at Turtle Point<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sand at Turtle Point had baked through the morning and reflected warmth as we sat down to release our 21 charges.\u00c2\u00a0 Placing them in a single bunch near the wrack line on the downward sloping dune, we watched as they scattered in random directions and power bursts.\u00c2\u00a0 Soon they had all disappeared into the nursery surroundings, some into upland vegetation, others into downland wrack and Spartina<\/em> salt marsh, and still others burrowed into the warm dune sand.<\/p>\n

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Last Sailboat Dances\u00c2\u00a0with Northeast Blow in Blackfish Creek<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Within an hour the weather had closed in.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The cold front arrived\u00c2\u00a0with\u00c2\u00a0gusts whistling across the narrow Outer Cape peninsula from the North Atlantic.\u00c2\u00a0 Clouds\u00c2\u00a0massed and grayed; white caps appeared; and we were\u00c2\u00a0doused\u00c2\u00a0in cold droplets whether from rain or briny spray we couldn’t tell.<\/p>\n

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“There’s Always One More” Egg in Second-Chance Bucket<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in\u00c2\u00a0our warm,\u00c2\u00a0comfortable\u00c2\u00a0lab office\u00c2\u00a0Tuesday evening we inventoried our terrapin assets.\u00c2\u00a0 Tanks empty and ready.\u00c2\u00a0 Second-chance bucket filled with potential.\u00c2\u00a0 And our hopes high for one more miracle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three\u00c2\u00a0Gram Second-Chance Terrapin Hatchling “There’s always one more.”\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the motto of the Paludal Posse, our terrapin research and conservation team on Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always one more nest to find, one more nest to hatch, one more turtle in the nest, one more hatchling to emerge, one more turtle to save.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[387,776,12,778,774,6,76,225,140,780,475,71,770,769,779,768,772,777,773,9,771,520,775,10,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}