{"id":9031,"date":"2011-05-03T14:48:47","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T19:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=9031"},"modified":"2011-05-03T16:10:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T21:10:57","slug":"mating-aggregation-builds-in-wellfleet-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=9031","title":{"rendered":"Mating Aggregation Builds in Wellfleet Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Adorable Terrapin Couple:\u00c2\u00a0 Male Smaller<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With a slight break in overcast weather, Sue Wieber Nourse of Turtle Journal ventured to Chipman’s Cove in Wellfleet Bay for the mid-day high tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Chipman’s Cove serves as the location\u00c2\u00a0of the major diamondback terrapin\u00c2\u00a0mating aggregation in the Wellfleet Bay system.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtles from throughout the various Wellfleet estuaries paddle to the cove to meet and to court and to mate as water temperatures warm each spring.\u00c2\u00a0 The peak of the aggregation usually comes in the third and fourth weeks of May.\u00c2\u00a0 It begins to build once terrapins have emerged from winter brumation and have gained enough internal body heat to begin foraging and to contemplate social engagements.<\/p>\n

\"915<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Diamondback Terrapin #915<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue spotted a small number of mating pairs in the cove as the high tide flooded in.\u00c2\u00a0 She netted nine turtles, including three courting pairs.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Five of the terrapins were adult females and four were males.\u00c2\u00a0 Two of\u00c2\u00a0nine were recaptures and seven were seen for the first time today.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the recaptures, pictured above, was Female Terrapin #915.\u00c2\u00a0 She had first been captured by Jim Quigley on a nesting run near the Blasch cottage on Griffin Island in June 2000.\u00c2\u00a0 She was next seen in the Chipman’s Cove mating aggregation in 2002, but she had sustained a crack in her plastron’s femoral scute which was healing.\u00c2\u00a0 She was observed once more in the 2004 mating aggregation in the cove before today’s capture.<\/p>\n

\"90a26Aug02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Terrapin #90 (August 2002)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue’s other recapture was an old, old friend: Female Terrapin #90.\u00c2\u00a0 This lady was originally captured in Chipman’s Cove 22 years ago in June 1989 when she was already a large mature turtle.\u00c2\u00a0 In 2002, Don Lewis found her back in Chipman’s Cove in late August, and she had sustained a gouge\u00c2\u00a0in the left edge of her carapace (see photo).\u00c2\u00a0 Don found her nesting on Indian Neck two years later … the last time she was seen before today.<\/p>\n

\"90<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Terrapin #90 (May 2011)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With today’s capture in the Chipman’s Cove mating aggregation, #90 shows a second\u00c2\u00a0deep gouge on the right side of her carapace.\u00c2\u00a0 She also sports two lovely oyster spats on either side of her rear carapace.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the joys of our 32 year longitudinal study of terrapins in Wellfleet Bay is that each recapture hints at an epic story of survival\u00c2\u00a0about these magnificent creatures.\u00c2\u00a0 Many cracks and chips and gouges come from encounters with vehicles as female terrapins proceed upland each June and July to nest.\u00c2\u00a0 A smaller portion come from boat strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adorable Terrapin Couple:\u00c2\u00a0 Male Smaller With a slight break in overcast weather, Sue Wieber Nourse of Turtle Journal ventured to Chipman’s Cove in Wellfleet Bay for the mid-day high tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Chipman’s Cove serves as the location\u00c2\u00a0of the major diamondback terrapin\u00c2\u00a0mating aggregation in the Wellfleet Bay system.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtles from throughout the various Wellfleet estuaries paddle to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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\/9031"}],"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=9031"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9048,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9031\/revisions\/9048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}