Turtle Journal

Allens Pond Diamondback Terrapin Hatchlings

Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Westport, Massachusetts offers good habitat for threatened diamondback terrapins, including abundant nesting areas within its expansive dunes and a rich salt marsh nursery.  The Turtle Journal team in partnership with the Allens Pond staff has been monitoring this area for several years with the goal of locating and protecting  terrapin nests to reverse the population decline in Buzzards Bay.  The sprawling geography of Allens Pond, fragmented by private cottages and roadways, creates a significant challenge for researchers.  In this exciting case, the quest to save baby terrapins was also handicapped by nighttime darkness.

Pete Deichmann and Female Terrapin #6

As Allens Pond coastal waterbird monitor Pete Deichmann patrolled the dunes and shoreline on the evening of June 20th, he caught sight of a female terrapin scratching the sand around dusk.  Pete immediately called the Turtle Journal team via cell phone.  Sue Wieber Nourse responded to Pete’s call and she sped to Westport from Marion as darkness enveloped the South Coast.  Before venturing into the night to locate the nest in the deserted coastal dunes, Sue documented the female terrapin that Pete had hand-captured.  A new capture, Terrapin #6 from Allens Pond was blind in her left eye.  She weighed 969 grams after dropping her eggs, and her carapace (top shell) measured 7.25 inches long.

Finding Diamondback Terrapin Nest in the Dark

Now comes the challenging part of this night’s adventure.  A waxing gibbous moon had risen over Buzzards Bay offering an exquisite backdrop, but little illumination, to guide the night’s rescue.  Based on experience, Sue knew predators would be fast on the prowl, and the longer it took to recover these vulnerable eggs, the more likely hungry mammals would reach them first.  Pete had found Terrapin #6 on a high tide nesting run in an isolated sandy overwash.  Even knowing its general location, finding the exact spot of the disguised nest itself among acres of homogenous sandy dunes … at night, by flashlight alone … would be a needle-in-a-haystack trick.  Yet, with Sue’s turtle expertise and Pete’s knowledge of the terrain, they discovered the undisturbed nest before predators reached the site.

Saving Rare Terrapin Nest by Moonlight

Nightfall magnifies the magic of turtle rescues.  The unseen surf thunders in the background.  Stars shimmer in the darkness, and the glow of a gibbous moon transforms  a once familiar landscape into haunting mystery with hints of wispy shadows.  Under dim moonlight Sue probed the nest blindly with her fingertips; she gently located the egg chamber to confirm a clutch of freshly laid terrapin eggs.  Sue assessed that these eggs were extremely vulnerable to both tidal overwash and depredation with a near zero probability of survival.

Fourteen Perfect Diamondback Terrapin Eggs

Sue harvested 14 pinkish eggs, gently packed them in moist sand for safe transportation and brought them to the Turtle Journal headquarters.  Sue dug a nest in the TJ rescue garden similar to the one that Terrapin #6 had dug at Allens Pond.  Sue gently filled the nest with the eggs and the natal sand she had retrieved from Allens Pond.  She covered the nest with a predator excluder cage to ensure that these eggs could incubate in perfect safety, completing the nest relocation around midnight.

Allens Pond Terrapin Babies Begin to Pip

On September 10th, after 82 days of incubation, Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse checked on the progress of these babies.  They discovered that several of the eggs had “pipped;” that is, the hatchlings had scratched through the eggshell with their egg tooth, and had begun shredding the egg with their powerful tiny claws.  Don and Sue reburied the nest because it usually takes three to five days after pipping for the hatchlings to emerge.

Allens Pond Terrapin Babies Hatch

Sure enough, on the morning of Lucky Friday the 13th, three days later, the Allens Pond babies dug an emergence hole to the surface and scrambled for the sunshine.  Of the 14 eggs, every one had successfully hatched.  A 100% hatch rate!

Newly Born Allens Pond Diamondback Terrapin Hatchlings

On September 19th, these 14 beautiful, healthy babies will return to Allens Pond for release.  They will have beaten most of the odds against survival.  As many as 95% of terrapin nests are destroyed by predators.  Of the few eggs that naturally hatch, perhaps 1-in-250 to 1-in-1000 survive to adulthood.  Most babies are picked off by predators as they try to reach the safety of their nursery habitat where they must hide for their first three years of maximum vulnerability.  So, these lucky Friday the Thirteenth babies have been given a huge boost to survival and the terrapin population of Buzzards Bay has been equally helped with a new generation of healthy recruits.

Two Terrapin Hatchlings and Egg from Schaefer Nest

Two rare diamondback terrapin nests hatched at Tabor Academy’s Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab this morning, August 28th.  These two nests yielded 20 emerged hatchlings and two viable eggs; an excellent harvest to potentially reverse the decline of the terrapin population in Sippican Harbor.  On June 9th, the Turtle Journal team found the first terrapin female of the season on a nesting run at the Schaefer Lab (See Threatened Terrapin Nesting @ Tabor Academy’s Schaefer Lab.)

First Terrapin Emergence Hole at Old Schaefer Lab

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse confirmed the existence of terrapins in Sippican Harbor in the late 1990s when she discovered a hatchling at the Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab and observed adults snorkeling in the estuary.  As the inaugural holder of Tabor’s Jaeger Chair for Marine Studies, Wieber Nourse advanced original terrapin research and conservation in Buzzards Bay through a prestigious grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Fund.  She and her students identified the shore immediately surrounding the Schaefer Lab as a key nesting site for this threatened species and formally reported this scientific finding to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.

Two Diamondback Terrapin Hatchlings @ Schaefer Lab

This morning Wieber Nourse found the first emergence hole midway between the lab and the beach.  She excavated to discover two perfect hatchlings remaining in the nest, one viable egg, egg shards from six emerged hatchlings, and three undeveloped eggs.

Carapace & Plastron of Two Schaefer Lab Terrapin Hatchlings

The beautiful hatchlings were in perfect physical condition.  Their yolk sacs were mostly absorbed.  Both babies sported carapace anomalies with extra scutes; nothing that will affect their survival, but still worth noting as a potential identification mark when we see these babies again as sub-adults in another four or five years.

Second Terrapin Emergence Hole at Old Schaefer Lab

Wieber Nourse found a second emergence hole a little closer to the beach.  In this nest, Sue discovered another viable egg and the egg shards from 12 hatchlings that had already emerged.  This morning’s discoveries, plus an additional Schaefer Lab nest being protected by the Turtle Journal team, confirm the critical importance of this nesting site for survival of the Sippican population of threatened diamondback terrapins. 

First Hammetts Cove Terrapin Hatchling of 2013

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse found the first diamondback terrapin hatchling at the Hammetts Cove nesting site in Marion Wednesday morning.   Sue spotted an emergence hole at the bottom of stairs to the compacted gravel pathway leading to the community boat dock in the Cove development.

Hammetts Cove Nest in Hard-Packed Gravel Pathway

When Sue excavated  the hole, she discovered shards of two hatchlings that had already emerged, two infertile eggs, three hatchlings that had been devoured by fly maggots while still in their eggs, and a lonely little hatchling workings its way to the surface. 

Hard, Compacted Gravel Pathway Nest (and Hatchling)

This pathway had traditionally served as prime nesting habitat for diamondback terrapins in the Hammetts Creek estuary off Sippican Harbor.  More recently, the pathway was compacted and graveled by the Cove development, creating a significant obstacle to terrapin nesting at this site.  Still, tough old females can’t be easily discouraged and they continue to dig through sharp gravel and ground packed as hard as concrete.  For 1/4 ounce hatchlings, though, tunneling back to the surface can be quite a feat.  Usually, they must wait until drenching rains soften the sand above them.

Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling Carapace

When hatchlings linger in their pipped eggs and nest too long, fly maggots attack, devouring them before they can escape … as they did with three of this hatchling’s siblings.  Lucky for this little baby, Sue was on hand to give it a boost to the surface, help it escape from the maggots and release it into the safety if the nursery salt marsh abutting Hammetts Creek.

First SouthCoast Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling of 2013

After a long, hot summer baking under steamy sands of a SouthCoast barrier beach, the first diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2013 emerged Monday afternoon. Piercing its eggshell with a razor sharp egg tooth at the tip of its beak, this 1/4 ounce, inch-long dynamo tunneled to the surface. In glaring sunlight, the tiny turtle scrambled across dunes, seekiing safety in the salt marsh where it will spend the first three years of its life, hiding from predators while it reaches hockey puck size and its shell hardens from potato chip crunchy to rock solid.

Ripening Beach Plums Presage Turtle Hatching Season

Back in springtime, every turtle’s thoughts turned to love and securing the next generation of shelled critters. In late May and early June, female terrapins swam ashore from Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay to revisit their natal nesting spots with near perfect site fidelity. Similarly, snapping turtles and painted turtles and spotted turtles and rare red-bellied cooters left their ponds and creeks and wetlands to lay nests. Box turtles came out of the woodlands to find sun-soaked spots in gardens and driveways and neighborhood lawns to deposit their clutch of eggs. And while we humans savored summer sunshine as we surfed and fished and grilled and campfired and golfed and sailed, those few turtle nests that had eluded spring predators cradled eggs that incubated a few inches under our toes in the searing heat. (Not only does heat incubate eggs, but nest temperature also determines the gender of the hatchlings with warmer temps yielding females and cooler producing males.) Then, when beach plums begin to ripen along the East Coast, the first hatchlings of the year start to emerge.

Terrapin Hatchling Hides in Clump of Beach Grass

This last week with beach plums beginning to change hue from yellow and red to a deep, inviting blue, Turtle Journal’s Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse have been patrolling coastal nesting sites. Monday afternoon they discovered the first definitive tracks of an emerged hatchling in the noon-day sands of a barrier beach in Marion. They followed the tracks until they disappeared and then began searching nearby until they discovered an elusive diamondback terrapin hatchling “hiding in plain sight,” perfectly blending into the vegetative debris at the base of a beach grass clump. To the untrained eye, this tiny baby turtle seemed like just another wind-blown leaf.

Quarter Sized Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling

About the size of a U.S. quarter, tiny terrapin hatchlings are extremely vulnerable to a host of predators. The most dangerous moments of their lives comprise the trek from nest to safety in the nearest salt marsh where they hide for their first three years of greatest vulnerability. As many as 90% of turtle nests are eaten by predators immediately after being laid or just as they to begin to hatch. Emerged hatchlings face equally improbable odds of survival with estimates of only 1-in-a-thousand to 1-in-250 likely to reach adulthood. And with human intrusion into their nesting, nursery, mating and foraging habitats, the odds for turtle survival remain bleak … without a conservation assist.

Teaspoon Sized Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling

Once the greatest threat to diamondback terrapins was a haute cuisine palate with thousands of barrels of turtles shipped to metropolitan restaurants in the last century. While largely protected today, terrapins are still being driven toward extinction in many communities by coastal development. Development has accelerated loss of shoreside nesting habitat and nursery salt marshes. Human activity has intruded into formerly isolated mating aggregations. Once bountiful foraging areas have been depleted and polluted. Unlike their ocean-going sea turtle cousins, terrapins are non-migratory and must live in shallow coastal waters within shouting distance of humans; yet, so shy and elusive, terrapins are rarely seen. Without a conservation strategy to balance the scales, terrapins can easily and quickly and even unknowingly be extirpated from one estuary after another. In Massachusetts, they are listed as threatened; in Rhode Island, they are an endangered species.

First 2013 SouthCoast Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling

In the arduous trek from nest to salt marsh, many hatchlings lose their lives. Most succumb to predators; others to fatigue and dehydration. It’s a long, hard scramble to reach safety and camouflage of the marsh grasses. The little critter discovered Monday afternoon already showed signs of exhaustion and dehydration from the midday sun and steamy dune sand. Lewis and Wieber Nourse decided to rest and rehydrate the terrapin baby before releasing it back into its natal salt marsh. Rehydration and a head-start in reaching the safety of the marsh greatly increase its odds of survival.

Terrapin (Left), Box (Middle), Snapper (Top) and Spotted (Bottom Right)

From now until October frost forms on pumpkins, turtle hatchlings will be emerging in Massachusetts; diamondback terrapins on the coastline, box turtles in backyards, snappers around any pond or creek, spotted turtles near wetlands and bogs, and red-bellied cooters at Plymouth County lakes. During the next ten weeks, look down at the unnoticed world around your feet. Watch the lawn as you’re mowing. Check the driveway as you move the car. If you find a hatchling and you’d like advice on how to tilt the scales in favor of its survival, call the Turtle Journal team at 508-274-5108. Because of the unique reproductive strategy of turtles, saving just a few extra hatchlings each year can have a huge impact on the survival of these charismatic wild creatures for future generations. Many adventurer, outdoor enthusiast, scientist, teacher, oceanologist and nature lover has been inspired by an early life, surprise encounter with a hard-shelled critter in backyard or beach, pond or ocean, that sparked a lifetime of exploration and discovery. You can help create tomorrow’s explorers by saving today’s world one tiny turtle at a time.

Rufus the Turtle Dog Greets First 2013 Terrapin Hatchling

Rufus bade farewell to the tiny hatchling, wishing it godspeed as it hides from predators for the next three years in a nursery salt marsh.

Ten Perfect Diamondback Terrapin Eggs @ Holly Beach

Resident Mark Brown and the Turtle Journal team found the first diamondback terrapin nest this year at Sippican Harbor’s Holly Beach.  TJ’s Don Lewis, on his mid-morning run, jogged along Holly Beach to check for nesting terrapins.  In the distance, Don spotted Mark Brown examining the beach sand.

Diamondback Terrapin Nesting Run Tracks @ Holly Beach

Don confirmed the fresh diamondback terrapin nesting tracks and pointed out the directionality of movement.  Together, Don and Mark walked the terrapin tracks, first encountering a “false nest” — an abandoned dig, and then resuming the search

Camouflaged Diamondback Terrapin Nest @ Holly Beach

Don pointed out a patch of disturbed and discolored sand, slightly darker than the surrounding dirt.  The mother turtle had covered the nest and had disguised it with debris.  Within an hour or so, this camouflage would have totally obscured the dig and hidden the nest from everyone … except a predator’s nose.

Diamondback Terrapin Egg Chamber @ Holly Beach

Gently probing the nest with fingertips, Don located the “sweet spot,” the soft soil leading from the surface to the egg chamber.  Delicately brushing aside layers of sand to avoid damage to the fragile eggs, Don disclosed the top eggs tucked about three to four inches deep.  A total of 10 perfect, pink eggs filled the chamber, each weighing between 9 and 10 grams.

Sue Wieber Nourse @ Holly Beach Nest

This first of the season nest at Holly Beach is the second viable nest ever that we have discovered at this new nesting site.  Last July 11th, the Turtle Journal team found Terrapin #272 nesting about 75 feet upland of this June 10th, 2013 nest.  See Research “Home Run” with First Protected Terrapin Nest @ Holly Beach.  Today’s eggs have been placed in a protected location.  With a warm summer and plenty of sunshine, they should hatch in mid-August for return to Holly Beach for release by the community.