{"id":5396,"date":"2001-06-01T14:20:58","date_gmt":"2001-06-01T19:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5396"},"modified":"2010-03-15T14:26:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T19:26:57","slug":"serendipity-%e2%80%94-1-june-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5396","title":{"rendered":"Serendipity \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 1 June 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"06-01-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Kayaking in Blackfish Creek at Mid Tide<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If anyone asks whether you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d prefer to be good or lucky, pick lucky.\u00c2\u00a0 Good only describes process, while luck produces results.\u00c2\u00a0 Today proved another case in point.<\/p>\n

Midway through a lunar cycle means tides are not workable for locating and netting turtles in Blackfish Creek.\u00c2\u00a0 We pulled up stakes for a few days until things improve as the full moon approaches.\u00c2\u00a0 A wayward jet stream has blown constant winds and white caps across the bay reducing water visibility to zero.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I took the day off from research to introduce a house guest to the joys of kayaking.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, we arrived at the shore a couple of hours before low tide.\u00c2\u00a0 I outfitted my companions with life vests, shoehorned them into kayaks, handed them paddles, and shoved them off into Wellfleet Bay \u00e2\u20ac\u201d leaving me to my own devices with nothing productive to do.<\/p>\n

\"06-01-2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0Male Terrapin #1081 and Female Terrapin #785<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As luck would have it, I had advertently (!) brought along a net \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just in case.\u00c2\u00a0 I kayaked across to the flooded rip, jumped out, and waded hip deep in water with the boat lashed to my life vest.\u00c2\u00a0 For just a few moments, the wind dropped to near calm and the murk parted enough to see shadows as the tide ebbed.<\/p>\n

And, as luck would have it, two turtles tried to swim the rapids just in front of me.<\/p>\n

Terrapin 785 is a beautiful pre-pubescent female about 8 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 I first saw her on 29 July 1999 when she was only 13.3 centimeters long and 408 grams in weight.\u00c2\u00a0 Since then she has grown nearly 1.5 centimeters and 150 grams as she nudges the puberty threshold. I suspect next year (2002) will mark her first nesting season.\u00c2\u00a0 The second turtle was marked 1081.\u00c2\u00a0 He is a 7-year-old, mature male at nearly 11.9 centimeters length and 283 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 He showed muddy residue in his frontal cavity and along the rear, while #785 was clean of all vestiges of brumation.\u00c2\u00a0 She did, however, have a ring of light green seaweed clinging to her rear marginals.<\/p>\n

\"06-01-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Don Lewis Examine Male Diamondback Terrapin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One interesting observation:\u00c2\u00a0 In July 1999, I had noted a pimple-like growth in Terrapin 785\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 Today it was clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as luck would have it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kayaking in Blackfish Creek at Mid Tide If anyone asks whether you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d prefer to be good or lucky, pick lucky.\u00c2\u00a0 Good only describes process, while luck produces results.\u00c2\u00a0 Today proved another case in point. Midway through a lunar cycle means tides are not workable for locating and netting turtles in Blackfish Creek.\u00c2\u00a0 We pulled up […]<\/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\/5396"}],"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=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5404,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}