{"id":11148,"date":"2012-06-07T16:46:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T21:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=11148"},"modified":"2012-06-07T16:46:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T21:46:32","slug":"terrapin-nesting-wave-hits-barrier-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=11148","title":{"rendered":"Terrapin Nesting Wave Hits Barrier Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Terrapin #303 Nesting on Barrier Beach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Bright sunshine, a line of threatening thunderstorms and this morning’s high tide in Buzzards Bay prompted female terrapins to crawl onto the barrier beach\u00c2\u00a0of Aucoot Cove to nest.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal team reached the shore thirty minutes before high tide to discover turtles, turtles everywhere; all of whom proved to be old friends whom we have been following for some time.<\/p>\n

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Female Diamondback Terrapin #303<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We first saw Terrapin #303 on July 9th, 2006 when she came ashore at Aucoot Cove for her second nest of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 We observed her the following year, on June 30th, when she again came ashore to nest.\u00c2\u00a0 Back then she weighed only 890 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, she hit the scales at 1167 grams and has grown more than a centimeter in linear length.<\/p>\n

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Female Diamondback Terrapin #273<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Terrapin #273 has been under observation since 22 June 2005, when she was nesting on the barrier beach at Aucoot Cove.\u00c2\u00a0 This morning we spotted her hiding in the shade of a kayak after wandering around and digging a series of false nests.\u00c2\u00a0 She, too, has grown more than a centimeter and has increased her mass from 1003 grams to 1143 grams in the intervening seven years.<\/p>\n

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Female Diamondback Terrapin #910<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Terrapin #910 is a more recent turtle.\u00c2\u00a0 We first saw this female on 21 June 2011 when she came ashore to deposit her first nest of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 She measured 18.7 centimeters long and weighed 1073 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost a year later, Terrapin #910 is the same length, but has gained 32 grams.<\/p>\n

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Female Diamondback Terrapin #299<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We have a special love for Terrapin #299.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtle Journal saw her first on 20 July 2005 when she crawled onto the barrier beach at Aucoot Cove to deposit her second clutch of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 She was already a huge turtle at 20.4 centimeters length and 1134 grams, despite the injury she had suffered\u00c2\u00a0to both front limbs.\u00c2\u00a0 We observed her again on 5 July 2006, 28 June 2007, and 20 June 2009.\u00c2\u00a0 And we saw her again this year on May 31st when she tipped the scales at 1410 grams while only increasing her length by a mere .1 centimeter.\u00c2\u00a0 With her handicapped limbs, it takes Terrapin #299 considerable time to nest, and usually many runs before she is successful.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, she still held the same eggs as eight days ago, but they had dropped a lot further down\u00c2\u00a0in the oviducts.\u00c2\u00a0 She is now what we turtlers describe as “VERY gravid.”<\/p>\n

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Don Lewis Measures Diamondback Terrapin #273<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We examined, measured and weighed each of these terrapin ladies\u00c2\u00a0on site and immediately released them back where they were found.<\/p>\n

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Terrapin Released in Buzzards Bay (in Turtle Time)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As Sue Wieber Nourse brought each terrapin back after processing, she watched them return to their estuarine habitat … in good ole turtle time; that is, in motion which can best be captured in time lapse photography.\u00c2\u00a0 Still,\u00c2\u00a0Sue decided to\u00c2\u00a0film the event for your enjoyment as she released Terrapin #273 into the salt marsh channel behind the Aucoot Cove barrier beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Watch … with infinite patience.\u00c2\u00a0 They are, after all, turtles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terrapin #303 Nesting on Barrier Beach Bright sunshine, a line of threatening thunderstorms and this morning’s high tide in Buzzards Bay prompted female terrapins to crawl onto the barrier beach\u00c2\u00a0of Aucoot Cove to nest.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal team reached the shore thirty minutes before high tide to discover turtles, turtles everywhere; all of whom proved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11148"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11181,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions\/11181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}