{"id":1539,"date":"2008-11-10T23:00:16","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T03:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2008-11-10T23:11:40","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T03:11:40","slug":"battle-of-shirttail-point-seals-versus-seagulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1539","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Shirttail Point — Seals Versus Seagulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Town of Wellfleet Seal(s)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps they do look a bit like Roswell aliens (You know, the grays with big eyes!), but harbor seals\u00c2\u00a0appear to have\u00c2\u00a0taken permanent winter residence in Wellfleet.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00c2\u00a0gulp down fish until their bellies roll, which never takes too long in the rich, oozy waters of the inner harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they search for a\u00c2\u00a0protected point to bask on soft, moist sand under the brilliant fall sun.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtle Journal wonders whether Wellfleet might consider a small adjustment to its town seal to\u00c2\u00a0welcome our newest residents.<\/p>\n

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Seagulls\u00c2\u00a0Open Negotiations for Possession of Shirttail Point<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone is happy with the arrival of harbor seals in this Outer Cape hamlet.\u00c2\u00a0 Seagulls, who have had no real competition for the riches of Wellfleet Bay and who have had full, free and complete access to every low-tide drained sandbar and point, saw these aliens as unwanted invaders and unfair competitors.\u00c2\u00a0 While it’s true that cormorants also effectively hunt underwater\u00c2\u00a0for fish in Wellfleet Harbor, they can be rather easily intimidated by a pesky flock of seagulls who steal fish like schoolyard bullies.\u00c2\u00a0 Seals don’t suffer the same initimidation.<\/p>\n

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Negotiations Break Down as Harbor Seal Stands Its Ground<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A sated harbor seal\u00c2\u00a0hauled out on the tip of Shirttail Point a little after noon.\u00c2\u00a0 Soon, a seagull spokesperson arrived to demand that the alien seal give up its position on the point to the native seagulls.\u00c2\u00a0 It didn’t take long for the seal to tire of these meddlesome negotations and\u00c2\u00a0to break\u00c2\u00a0off the talks with a sharp bark.\u00c2\u00a0 And so the Battle of Shirttail Point began.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Battle of Shirttail Point – Seals Versus Seagulls<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What the seagulls lacked in size they made up for in numbers, raucous noise\u00c2\u00a0and annoying personalities.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, the seal held its ground and once reinforcements arrived, the battle turned quickly in favor of the aliens.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re\u00c2\u00a0on the Outer Cape during low tide, you may wish to stop by the Wellfleet Pier\u00c2\u00a0to get a glimpse of our newest residents.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember to give them space.\u00c2\u00a0 Marine mammals are protected from human disturbance by federal rules and regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Town of Wellfleet Seal(s) Perhaps they do look a bit like Roswell aliens (You know, the grays with big eyes!), but harbor seals\u00c2\u00a0appear to have\u00c2\u00a0taken permanent winter residence in Wellfleet.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00c2\u00a0gulp down fish until their bellies roll, which never takes too long in the rich, oozy waters of the inner harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they search for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[823],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539"}],"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=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1548,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}