{"id":4864,"date":"2001-03-31T18:02:11","date_gmt":"2001-03-31T23:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4864"},"modified":"2010-03-03T18:15:02","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T23:15:02","slug":"pre%e2%80%93easter-egg-hunt-%e2%80%94-31-march-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4864","title":{"rendered":"Pre\u00e2\u20ac\u201cEaster Egg Hunt \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 31 March 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Nothing is more exciting to a field researcher than discovering a new nesting site.\u00c2\u00a0 It signifies a wealth of possibilities for our threatened friends, as they claim yet another beachhead from which to cling to survival.\u00c2\u00a0 So, join with me in celebrating a wonderful find on this last day of March.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">In the center of Wellfleet lies Duck Creek, once crossed by a long abandoned railroad line stretching out here to the end of the universe.\u00c2\u00a0 The creek runs into the Wellfleet basin and pier, which bustle in frenetic activity each summer as urbanites frantically scramble to relax in our rustic hamlet.\u00c2\u00a0 The mutts and I braved a set of intimidating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153PRIVATE: NO TRESPASSING\u00e2\u20ac\u009d signs as we checked the wrack line for any terrapins which may have been dislodged from their winter hibernacula by the last set of new moon tides.\u00c2\u00a0 The area is dotted with vacation cottages, now boarded and ghostly in the chilly March overcast.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-1-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4866\" title=\"03-31-1 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-1-480.jpg\" alt=\"03-31-1 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-1-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-1-480-300x296.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Wellfleet Town Center on Duck Creek<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">On an easy facing knoll, opposite the old railroad bridge, I spotted a series of scratchings and indentations which could only signify \u00e2\u20ac\u201d at least to this terrapin researcher \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a nesting site.\u00c2\u00a0 On closer examination, the entire hill was pocked with digs.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, to an untrained eye these signs may have pointed to a oft-visited dog run.\u00c2\u00a0 But, no, I was sure I had found an unknown terrapin nesting site.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem, of course, is that with no evidence other than earth disturbances, my assessment would be mere speculation.\u00c2\u00a0 And March is a bit late in the year to expect to find remnants of nesting activity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">But the gods smiled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4867\" title=\"03-31-2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-2.jpg\" alt=\"03-31-2\" width=\"480\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-2.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-2-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Diamondback Terrapin Egg Shard<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Tucked near a tuft of vegetation I spotted the first terrapin egg shell.\u00c2\u00a0 Tracing a line back to the nearest dig, I found some more hatched shells.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-3.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4868\" title=\"03-31-3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-3.jpg\" alt=\"03-31-3\" width=\"480\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-3.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-3-300x251.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>More Terrapin Egg Shards<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">And, finally, excavating the nest itself yielded a total of 15 hatched terrapin eggs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4869\" title=\"03-31-4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-4.jpg\" alt=\"03-31-4\" width=\"480\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-4.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/03-31-4-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Terrapin Egg Shards Bagged for Analysis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">The Duck Creek terrapins have a new nesting site, or at least one we never found before.\u00c2\u00a0 And tourists who invade the surrounding cottages each summer will have a bit of natural miracle hatching right under their bedroom windows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nothing is more exciting to a field researcher than discovering a new nesting site.\u00c2\u00a0 It signifies a wealth of possibilities for our threatened friends, as they claim yet another beachhead from which to cling to survival.\u00c2\u00a0 So, join with me in celebrating a wonderful find on this last day of March. In the center of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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\/4864"}],"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=4864"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4874,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4864\/revisions\/4874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}