{"id":13589,"date":"2013-08-21T12:39:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T17:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=13589"},"modified":"2013-08-21T18:55:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T23:55:57","slug":"first-hammets-cove-hatchling-of-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=13589","title":{"rendered":"First Hammetts Cove Hatchling of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-hammets-hatchling-001-cropped-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13590\" title=\"post hammets hatchling 001 cropped 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-hammets-hatchling-001-cropped-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-hammets-hatchling-001-cropped-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-hammets-hatchling-001-cropped-480-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>First Hammetts Cove Terrapin Hatchling of 2013<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Turtle Journal&#8217;s Sue Wieber Nourse found the first diamondback terrapin hatchling at the Hammetts Cove nesting site in Marion Wednesday morning.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sue spotted an emergence hole at the bottom of stairs to the compacted gravel pathway leading to the community boat dock in the Cove development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Nest-300-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13596\" title=\"Post Hammets Nest 300 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Nest-300-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Nest-300-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Nest-300-480-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Hammetts Cove Nest in Hard-Packed Gravel Pathway<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When Sue excavated\u00c2\u00a0 the hole, she discovered shards of two hatchlings that had already emerged, two infertile eggs, three hatchlings that had been devoured by fly maggots while still in their eggs, and a lonely little hatchling workings its way to the surface.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-Hammets-nest-001-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-13594\" title=\"post Hammets nest 001 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-Hammets-nest-001-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-Hammets-nest-001-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/post-Hammets-nest-001-480-300x287.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Hard, Compacted Gravel Pathway Nest (and Hatchling)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This pathway had traditionally served as prime nesting habitat for diamondback terrapins in the Hammetts Creek estuary off Sippican Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 More recently, the pathway was compacted and graveled by the Cove development, creating a significant obstacle to terrapin nesting at this site.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, tough old females can&#8217;t be easily discouraged and they continue to dig through sharp gravel and ground packed as hard as concrete.\u00c2\u00a0 For 1\/4 ounce hatchlings, though, tunneling back to the surface can be quite a feat.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually, they must wait until drenching rains soften the sand above them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Hatchling-Turned-001-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13606\" title=\"Post Hammets Hatchling Turned 001 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Hatchling-Turned-001-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Hatchling-Turned-001-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Post-Hammets-Hatchling-Turned-001-480-300x285.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling Carapace<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When hatchlings linger in their pipped eggs and nest too long, fly maggots attack, devouring them before they can escape &#8230; as they did with three of this hatchling&#8217;s siblings.\u00c2\u00a0 Lucky for this little baby, Sue was on hand to give it a boost to the surface, help it escape from the maggots\u00c2\u00a0and release it into the safety if the nursery salt marsh\u00c2\u00a0abutting Hammetts Creek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Hammetts Cove Terrapin Hatchling of 2013 Turtle Journal&#8217;s Sue Wieber Nourse found the first diamondback terrapin hatchling at the Hammetts Cove nesting site in Marion Wednesday morning.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sue spotted an emergence hole at the bottom of stairs to the compacted gravel pathway leading to the community boat dock in the Cove development. Hammetts Cove [&hellip;]<\/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\/13589"}],"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=13589"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13612,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589\/revisions\/13612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}