One half of the Turtle Journal team researches the “beach scene” along the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida. Regal visitors such as these royal terns flock to the warm sands of Vanderbilt Beach in February.  Shores abound in variety and vibrancy.
Contrasting with southerly vistas of glistening sands and bountiful wildlife in Florida, the other half of the Turtle Journal team slogs through jumbles of ice floes that clog bayside estuaries of Outer Cape Cod. January Wolf Moon tides piled multi-ton ice slabs onto the marsh like too generous servings of IHOP pancakes.
Ice Floes Clog Loagy Bay in South Wellfleet, Cape Cod
Today’s posting compares visual vignettes from the two research sites: a Dickensian Tale of Two Journals.Â
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …“
Tropical Coconut Washes Ashore on Gulf Coast
Ice Clogged Inside “Elbow” of Cape Cod Bay
Stone Crab on Vanderbilt Beach
Arctic-Like Conditions at Point of Rocks, Brewster
Loggerhead Sea Turtle on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples
During the Turtle Journal beach patrol this morning in Southwest Florida, Sue Wieber Nourse found a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle that had washed ashore with the high tide on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples. This animal, covered with barnacles, likely is a remnant of the massive cold-stunning event that hit the Florida coast in January.
SW Florida Loggerhead Sea Turtle
The stranded animal was reported to appropriate authorities by Turtle Journal through the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples.
Cellphone Video of Stranded Florida Loggerhead
Other fun beach treasures found on the Turtle Journal morning patrol include the following.
Weekly Reader, which has been publishing educational material for children for more than a century, spotlighted Turtle Journal research on whelks in two of its recent news magazines.Â
Channeled Whelk Egg Casing from Cape Cod Bay
Photographs of channeled whelk casings, many of which were originally posted on Turtle Journal, appeared in Issue 14, Volume 18 of the Weekly Reader Senior Edition on January 22nd, 2010, as well as the same issue and volume of Edition 3 magazine.
Channel Whelk Egg Cases
Size of Channeled Whelk Egg Case in Centimeters
Baby Channeled Whelks in Egg Case
Baby Channeled Whelks under Microscopic Examination
The Turtle Journal team arrived in Naples, Florida this afternoon for an annual update of our research observations along the southwest Florida coastline. As the journal awaits the latest research material to arrive from the south, the moment seems ripe to reflect on the marvelously varied and colorful wildlife of the Gulf area.
Brown Pelican
Juvenile Alligator
Snail Shell and Sand Dollar
Gopher Tortoise on the Ritz Carlton Beach
Assortment of Shells from Vanderbilt Beach
Seahorse
Royal Tern
Next week at this time the Turtle Journal will begin posting results of this year’s expedition to the Sunshine State.
Male Lady Crab Found Under Lieutenant Island Bridge
Beautifully colored and comically aggressive, lady crabs (Ovalipes ocellatus), also called calico crabs, are medium sized crustaceans found in sandy, shallow inter-tidal zones along the Atlantic coastline of the United States from Cape Cod to Texas. On Outer Cape Cod thousands of lady crabs populate the shallow tidal flats and submerged sandbars south of Lieutenant Island.Â
Lady Crab Carapace (Note Paddle-Shaped Swimming Legs)
Lady crabs dart quickly across the shallow tidal flats and burrow into the soft sand for stealth and protection. When confronted in the open, they display fiercely aggressive behavior.  Lady crabs attack whatever comes within reach of their subsurface hiding spots, which provides an excellent and compelling reason to wear water shoes whenever strolling these shores.  The Turtle Journal team has been attacked with great frequency, especially when turbulent surf creates turbid water conditions.
Lady Crab Bottom; Again Note Rear Swimming Legs
Females have a broad abdominal flap under which they carry eggs; males have narrow flaps, sometimes termed the “Washington Monument.”Â
Lady Crab Molt from Lieutenant Island on Cape Cod
Lady crabs molt as they grow to their full size of approximately four inches width. As we patrol the salt marsh along the Lieutenant Island shoreline early each spring, we find hundreds and hundreds of molts (empty shells) washed ashore.
Squid from Wellfleet Bay
These crabs are hunting and scavenging carnivores. They like fish that may unsuspectingly swim by their hiding spot, as well as clams and crabs. We inadvertently discovered during a 2008 Mass Audubon Marine Life Cruise in Wellfleet Bay that lady crabs LOVE squid.
Squid Eggs Washed Ashore on Lieutenant Island
During our Crab Field School in July 2008, we found this large assemblage of squid eggs that had washed ashore on the west coastline of Lieutenant Island where we were sampling crab population numbers and diversity. See our Crabs 2008 Facebook page for photographic and video coverage of this exciting and unique field adventure.
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Love at First Bite: “Off With Their Heads!”
We had collected a lady crab in a scallop drag on the Marine Life Cruise during our Crabs Field School in the summer 2008. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whether you are crustacean or cephalopod or observer, the lady crab and a small squid ended up in the same retaining tank aboard the Naviator. The video above documents the outcome of that fateful encounter. Word puzzle of the day: What does one call a beheaded cephalopod?
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Lady Crab Mating Pair: “How ‘Bout a Little Privacy?”
As we patrol the flats in late spring, hundreds of mating pairs of lady crabs scatter across the submerged sandbars … with partner lovingly cradled for protection and possession.
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Thousands of Juvenile Lady Crabs Frolic on Tidal Flats
When they reach subadult form and size after a few molts, many thousands of small juveniles swarm across the Lieutenant Island tidal flats in summer.Â
One observation we have noted during our diamondback terrapin research in these waters is that the presence of crabs, on any given day, indicates an absence of turtles, and conversely, the presence of turtles presages an absence of crabs on that day. Not too surprising, since crabs provide the principal staple for the adult female terrapin diet!
