Adorable Terrapin Couple:Â 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. Chipman’s Cove serves as the location of the major diamondback terrapin mating aggregation in the Wellfleet Bay system. 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. The peak of the aggregation usually comes in the third and fourth weeks of May. 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.
Female Diamondback Terrapin #915
Sue spotted a small number of mating pairs in the cove as the high tide flooded in. She netted nine turtles, including three courting pairs.  Five of the terrapins were adult females and four were males. Two of nine were recaptures and seven were seen for the first time today. One of the recaptures, pictured above, was Female Terrapin #915. She had first been captured by Jim Quigley on a nesting run near the Blasch cottage on Griffin Island in June 2000. 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. She was observed once more in the 2004 mating aggregation in the cove before today’s capture.
Female Terrapin #90 (August 2002)
Sue’s other recapture was an old, old friend: Female Terrapin #90. This lady was originally captured in Chipman’s Cove 22 years ago in June 1989 when she was already a large mature turtle. In 2002, Don Lewis found her back in Chipman’s Cove in late August, and she had sustained a gouge in the left edge of her carapace (see photo). Don found her nesting on Indian Neck two years later … the last time she was seen before today.
Female Terrapin #90 (May 2011)
With today’s capture in the Chipman’s Cove mating aggregation, #90 shows a second deep gouge on the right side of her carapace. She also sports two lovely oyster spats on either side of her rear carapace. 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 about these magnificent creatures. Many cracks and chips and gouges come from encounters with vehicles as female terrapins proceed upland each June and July to nest. A smaller portion come from boat strikes.