{"id":514,"date":"2008-09-16T23:45:54","date_gmt":"2008-09-17T03:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=514"},"modified":"2008-09-29T21:43:09","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T01:43:09","slug":"headcount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=514","title":{"rendered":"Headcount!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Emergence\u00c2\u00a0Hole About 1.5 Inches\u00c2\u00a0Long x 0.5 Inch Wide<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today brought a cool overcast to the Outer Cape as September’s autumn preview now grips the Land of Ooze.\u00c2\u00a0 Hatching had slowed to a crawl\u00c2\u00a0as temperatures\u00c2\u00a0fell and clouds rose.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we expected little from our afternoon rounds that began at Griffin Island where the truly northernmost terrapins in the world reside, stopped by Indian Neck on the north shore of Blackfish Creek and crossed over to Lieutenant Island on the south shore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another Emerge Hole, Same Size as Previous<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Surprise!\u00c2\u00a0 Emergence\u00c2\u00a0holes and emerging nests greeted us at every stop.\u00c2\u00a0 Two on Griffin Island:\u00c2\u00a0 one on the shoulder of an asphalt road and only about five inches deep because mother hit pavement, and the other along a boardwalk leading to the Herring River salt marsh.\u00c2\u00a0 Eight live hatchlings emerged from the first nest and four succumbed to maggot depredation.\u00c2\u00a0 Sixteen hatchlings escaped from the second nest into the salt marsh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Camouflaged Emergence Hole<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I spotted the emergence hole for the second nest, I burst into laughter.\u00c2\u00a0 A clump of pine needles had obviously been blown atop the hole by\u00c2\u00a0a recent storm.\u00c2\u00a0 But it looked so carefuly placed so as to\u00c2\u00a0camouflage the nest and give emerging hatchlings cover from predators as they bolted into the safety of the Herring River marsh.<\/p>\n

I also hadn’t noticed until this posting the near identical similarity in shape of the first two emergence holes pictured above.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, these critters are nearly identically sized at the hatchling stage, ~ 2.7 cm carapace length and ~ 6 grams mass; but\u00c2\u00a0after observing the chaos of an emerging nest (see the video clip below), I’m amazed by the twin shapes.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Count the Heads as They Emerge<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We arrived at the Indian Neck nest just as the clutch began to broil.\u00c2\u00a0 Heads popped up for a peek of their brave new world and quickly receded again under the dirt … to be replaced by a new set of\u00c2\u00a0darting eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 Try keeping a headcount as babies appear.\u00c2\u00a0 These thirteen lively characters could easily convert this performance art into a comedy circus routine that I would gladly book for a World Tour.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hatchling Emerges from Nest; Note Pointy Egg Tooth<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The shifting dune sand on the Hook of Lieutenant Island makes finding an emergence hole impossible, except immediately after a drenching rain storm.\u00c2\u00a0 No such meteorological assist was in the cards.\u00c2\u00a0 One hundred percent overcast, but no rain.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, luck played in our favor.\u00c2\u00a0 We first spotted a collection of hatchling tracks slaloming across the dune slopes.\u00c2\u00a0 Tracing these signs back to a convergence point, we ran smack dab into a terrapin hatchling just emerging from the nest.\u00c2\u00a0 Behind this baby, three more waited their turn to make a break for freedom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nest Completely Depredated by Fly Maggots<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While we\u00c2\u00a0rejoiced in\u00c2\u00a0more than 75 live emerged hatchlings documented during our rounds this afternoon, we did have one sad encounter.\u00c2\u00a0 Nest 210,\u00c2\u00a0which we had been monitoring since June on the Boathouse dune, had been completely depredated by fly maggots that had consumed all the hatchlings, leaving\u00c2\u00a0 behind only a thin layer of\u00c2\u00a0each carapace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergence\u00c2\u00a0Hole About 1.5 Inches\u00c2\u00a0Long x 0.5 Inch Wide Today brought a cool overcast to the Outer Cape as September’s autumn preview now grips the Land of Ooze.\u00c2\u00a0 Hatching had slowed to a crawl\u00c2\u00a0as temperatures\u00c2\u00a0fell and clouds rose.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we expected little from our afternoon rounds that began at Griffin Island where the truly northernmost terrapins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[387,393,388,384,6,382,389,391,386,3,76,390,392,385,383,366],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514"}],"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=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}