{"id":7763,"date":"2010-11-08T22:55:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T03:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=7763"},"modified":"2010-11-14T13:57:56","modified_gmt":"2010-11-14T18:57:56","slug":"stranding-weekend-night-patrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=7763","title":{"rendered":"Stranding Weekend: Night Patrol"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Night\u00c2\u00a0 Patrol Examines Wrack Line Discovery<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most awe-inspiring, the most beautiful, the most powerful and the most dangerous aspect of sea turtle rescues is the night patrol, when\u00c2\u00a0gentle\u00c2\u00a0dunes are transformed\u00c2\u00a0by shadow and wind and\u00c2\u00a0tide\u00c2\u00a0into a\u00c2\u00a0dream-like world of surreal shapes and psychedelic colors.\u00c2\u00a0 Daytime familiar\u00c2\u00a0vanishes; nighttime mystery appears.\u00c2\u00a0 As\u00c2\u00a0westerly\u00c2\u00a0gales toss breakers against the beach, sound\u00c2\u00a0itself is altered and dominated\u00c2\u00a0by rumbles and crashes and whistles\u00c2\u00a0that flood\u00c2\u00a0the air.<\/p>\n

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

\u00c2\u00a0Don Lewis\u00c2\u00a0Opens Channeled Whelk Egg Casing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday night, participants in Mass Audubon’s Stranding Weekend, which was co-led by the Turtle Journal team, headed to Duck Harbor in northwest Wellfleet for their first sea turtle patrol.\u00c2\u00a0 After a candlelight dinner in the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, they learned about cold-stunned sea turtles and various other marine species that strand on bayside beaches in autumn.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they were ready for their first field action.<\/p>\n

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

Shooting Stars Streaks the Night Sky<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With a westerly breeze blowing inshore, Don Lewis suggested they patrol from Duck Harbor in Wellfleet to Ryder Beach in Truro, about a 1.5 mile hike.\u00c2\u00a0 After a day of on and off rain, the skies had cleared as the group approached the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 The moon was in new phase, and as only Carl Sagan could say, billions and billions of stars adorned the night sky with the Milky Way stunningly bright as it stretched from Cassiopeia (the Great “W”) in the north to Sagittarius in the south.\u00c2\u00a0 We stared northward above the twinkling\u00c2\u00a0lights of Provincetown and we were dazzled as a brilliant shooting star danced across the sky to a chorus of “ohs” and “ahs.”<\/p>\n

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

1.5 Mile Night Patrol from Wellfleet to Truro<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While no cold-stunned sea turtles were discovered, various critters were unmasked beneath the seaweed wrack.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse found\u00c2\u00a0a horseshoe crab molt from a juvenile specimen that\u00c2\u00a0offered a perfect lesson plan on this important tidal species\u00c2\u00a0which has contributed so much to medical research and scientific discovery, including at least one Nobel prize.\u00c2\u00a0 A channeled whelk casing opened another lesson as the group marched northward to the\u00c2\u00a0cadence of the pounding surf.<\/p>\n

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

Another Shooting Star Blazed across the Night Sky<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly an hour later, as we gathered at Ryder Beach to review our discoveries, another magnificent shooting star exploded across the night sky as if to punctuate this unique\u00c2\u00a0moment we had all\u00c2\u00a0experienced on the darkened, windswept beaches of Outer Cape Cod.<\/p>\n