{"id":4773,"date":"2001-02-26T15:42:12","date_gmt":"2001-02-26T20:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4773"},"modified":"2010-03-03T16:03:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T21:03:16","slug":"close-encounter-%e2%80%94-26-february-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4773","title":{"rendered":"Close Encounter \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 26 February 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">On a New England crisp night when stars pop from the skyscape like alien spacecraft, one might be forgiven for an\u00c2\u00a0open-mouth doubletake on an unexpectedly close encounter\u00c2\u00a0of a very different kind.\u00c2\u00a0 A big gray ET?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, the color\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right.\u00c2\u00a0 And the eyes look fairly Roswellian.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-1-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4775\" title=\"02-26-1 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-1-480.jpg\" alt=\"02-26-1 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-1-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-1-480-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Seal Blocks the Lieutenant Island Causeway<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Bouncing over the tinkertoy\u00c2\u00a0bridge, the jeep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s headlights captured a strange shape guarding the causeway approach to Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0 Colors blending perfectly against mottled gray asphalt dotted with splattered shellfish dropped by Wellfleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too smart sea gulls, a harp seal spanned the roadway.\u00c2\u00a0 Had she not raised her head as the car approached, it would have been a close call whether or not she could have been spotted in time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-2-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4776\" title=\"02-26-2 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-2-480.jpg\" alt=\"02-26-2 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-2-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-2-480-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Soaking Up Radiational Heating from Asphalt Causeway<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Obviously well nourished, she probably slipped onto the asphalt causeway to soak up the remnants of a sunny day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heat buildup, because radiational cooling under a dry, cloudless sky had begun to drive temperatures below freezing.\u00c2\u00a0 And she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about to surrender her heating blanket without a protest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-3-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4777\" title=\"02-26-3 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-3-480.jpg\" alt=\"02-26-3 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-3-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/02\/02-26-3-480-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Tire Tracks Bisecting Causeway Where Seal Lies<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But with tire tracks bisecting her body, prudence called for her to skedaddle.\u00c2\u00a0 So, despite her barking protests, I escorted this fair maiden into the abutting salt marsh, looking over my shoulder every few minutes to be sure no strange blinking lights appeared overhead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a New England crisp night when stars pop from the skyscape like alien spacecraft, one might be forgiven for an\u00c2\u00a0open-mouth doubletake on an unexpectedly close encounter\u00c2\u00a0of a very different kind.\u00c2\u00a0 A big gray ET?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, the color\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right.\u00c2\u00a0 And the eyes look fairly Roswellian. Seal Blocks the Lieutenant Island Causeway Bouncing over the tinkertoy\u00c2\u00a0bridge, [&hellip;]<\/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\/4773"}],"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=4773"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4781,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773\/revisions\/4781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}