{"id":5036,"date":"2001-04-24T20:33:21","date_gmt":"2001-04-25T01:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5036"},"modified":"2010-03-08T20:43:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T01:43:26","slug":"the-awakening-%e2%80%94-24-april-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5036","title":{"rendered":"The Awakening \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 24 April 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"04-24-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea Gull Joins the Turtle Guy in the Rip<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Low tide came at sunrise, and a lone sea gull joined me wading on the rip.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He taunted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can find terrapins as well as you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 And I thought I had found an easy mark.\u00c2\u00a0 But a southwest breeze had kicked up overnight and churned Blackfish Creek into the consistency of Turkish coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 My toes disappeared in inch-deep water.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"04-24-2<\/a><\/p>\n

Mature Female Terrapin #1048 Flows through Mucky Rip<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I watched one large female float toward me, then plunge into the murk along with my disembodied toes somewhere down below.\u00c2\u00a0 For nearly an hour I watched and waited, but nothing broke through the haze.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, as tide reached maximum ebb, a head snorkeled about fifty feet ahead.\u00c2\u00a0 I checked the current and positioned myself within depth-charge splatter of where I thought she might surface.\u00c2\u00a0 Seconds passed . . . a minute . . . two minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Had she slipped through the camouflaging muck?<\/p>\n

\"04-24-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mud Caked Terrapin #1048 Recently Emerged from Brumation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nope.\u00c2\u00a0 A whisper of a shell tumbled toward me and I netted Terrapin 1048, a 13-year-old female of nearly 18 centimeters carapace length and 1114 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 Most terrapins have not yet\u00c2\u00a0emerged from brumation, and #1048 showed signs of recently burrowing out of her winter hibernaculum.\u00c2\u00a0 Her rear quarters were caked in muddy brown pigment.<\/p>\n

\"04-24-4<\/a><\/p>\n

Feisty Terrapin #1048<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, she may have just woken from six months sleep, but she was anything but groggy.\u00c2\u00a0 Described as aggressive and feisty, she let me know in unambiguous terms that she did not appreciate having her maiden swim spoiled by a visit with Turtleman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sea Gull Joins the Turtle Guy in the Rip Low tide came at sunrise, and a lone sea gull joined me wading on the rip.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He taunted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can find terrapins as well as you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 And I thought I had found an easy mark.\u00c2\u00a0 But a southwest breeze had kicked up overnight and churned Blackfish Creek […]<\/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\/5036"}],"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=5036"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5045,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions\/5045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}