{"id":6102,"date":"2010-04-30T20:36:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T01:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=6102"},"modified":"2010-04-30T20:46:13","modified_gmt":"2010-05-01T01:46:13","slug":"blue-bird-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=6102","title":{"rendered":"Blue Bird of Happiness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brief Visit to Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/span><\/h2>\n

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

Blue Bird of Happiness?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve Gotta Be Kidding<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, it was a tough day.\u00c2\u00a0 The forecast said warm and sunny.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather delivered chilly and overcast with stiff northwesterly winds.\u00c2\u00a0 So, it was the perfect spring day we had been promised.\u00c2\u00a0 So, not a single diamondback terrapin woke from burrowed slumber underneath the oozy bottom of Wellfleet Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 So, mating horseshoe crabs had plowed under layers of muck to stay warm.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, is that any reason for the blue bird of happiness to have a chip on its shoulder?<\/p>\n

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

One Really Grouchy Blue Bird<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After a really frustrating couple of hours surveying Chipman’s Cove for terrapins, Turtle Journal headed for Mass Audubon’s <\/span>Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/span><\/a> for a few minutes of decompression.\u00c2\u00a0 As soon as we arrived, we heard that a cold-stunned diamondback terrapin had washed ashore on Sunken Meadow Beach!\u00c2\u00a0 We searched for Eastern box turtles that might have emerged from brumation, but\u00c2\u00a0with no success.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we visited the butterfly garden to see what amusing, happy critters might be found and this blue bird of happiness (sic) greeted us.\u00c2\u00a0 Not exactly what we were looking for.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Painted Turtles Basking in the Shallow Pond<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We moved on to the shallow pond at the entrance to the walking trails and spied four painted turtles basking in the filtered sunlight.\u00c2\u00a0 No question; we were moving in the right direction on the happiness compass.\u00c2\u00a0 These critters were almost smiling; well, as close as a turtle in stupor comes to smiling, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"red<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Red-Winged Blackbird<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Above the quartet of sleeping turtles sat a red-winged blackbird in alert sentry.\u00c2\u00a0 We moved down the path to the Silver Spring trail where one can always find something to ogle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Delicately Balanced Painted Turtle<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In Silver Spring we encountered another sleeping painted turtle clearly auditioning for Cirqe du Soleil.\u00c2\u00a0 She had managed to delicately balance herself on a set of reeds with only her left rear foot to provide support.\u00c2\u00a0 She let me approach within a few feet for the photograph without so much as ackowledging my presence.\u00c2\u00a0 Like any self-respecting turtle, had she actually acknowledged my presence as a threat, she would have had to plop down from the reeds … and then laboriously climb back again after I departed.\u00c2\u00a0 What a drag!\u00c2\u00a0 So, she ignored me, instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Thumper!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We did find one critter that seemed to enjoy this day at the Sanctuary:\u00c2\u00a0 Thumper!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

What’s Up, Doc?<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, that’s a contented rabbit.\u00c2\u00a0 “Maybe humans call it a butterfly garden, but I call it Supper!”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brief Visit to Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary Blue Bird of Happiness?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Okay, it was a tough day.\u00c2\u00a0 The forecast said warm and sunny.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather delivered chilly and overcast with stiff northwesterly winds.\u00c2\u00a0 So, it was the perfect spring day we had been promised.\u00c2\u00a0 So, not a single diamondback terrapin woke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[654],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102"}],"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=6102"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6135,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6102\/revisions\/6135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}