Sue Wieber Nourse with Diamondback Terrapin #601
The Turtle Journal team has been monitoring SouthCoast mating aggregations again this year. Even before this weekend’s cold front, the aggregations had already been thinning. Today, only a couple of female turtles remained in the large Sippican Harbor mating aggregation. Most females have dispersed to their nesting locations.
Sue Wieber Nourse Examines Female Terrapin #601
Sue Wieber Nourse captured one of the remaining females for a closeup examination. She was Terrapin #601 whom we have been tracking in the Sippican aggregation throughout May. With most of the other females gone, we wanted to examine #601 to see why she may be dawdling. She was not palpably gravid, which indicates that #601 is still probably a couple of weeks from nesting, which may explain why she has not yet dispersed to the area of her nesting site.
Female Diamondback Terrapin #601 Being Released
Here on the SouthCoast we expect nesting runs to begin soon; perhaps as early as the heat wave predicted for later this week. Females will return to mating aggregations after depositing their first clutch, and then they will disperse once again to nesting areas in late June or early July.