Blasch Del Mar Project near Wellfleet’s Great Island
Crews at the Blasch Del Mar construction project at the end of Chequessett Neck Road in Wellfleet saved another threatened diamondback terrapin nest last weekend. In the three seasons this project has spanned, crews at the site have saved at least one terrapin nest each year and have protected numerous turtles from tourist vehicles turning around at the site. The entire project operates under a state-approved Turtle Protection Plan, but the crews have reached out beyond the boundaries of their project to ensure that these endangered turtles and their nests are protected.
Threatened Diamondback Terrapin Nest
The construction crew spotted a turtle wandering back and forth across the asphalt road in front of the project. The worker installing the alarm system in the new home called the Turtle Journal 24/7 hotline to alert us. The builder watched as the turtle began digging a nest just beyond the asphalt road and a couple of feet east of the public footpath to the bay. Once the turtle had finished her nest, the crew sped to the site and constructed a wooden box around the nest to ensure that vehicles and walkers stayed clear of the fragile eggs.
Cellphone Video of Saved Terrapin Nest
Turtle Journal arrived later to document the nest and to install a predator excluder. Unfortunately, the only camera I had on hand was my cell phone.
Blasch Workmen Protected Endangered Nest
Crews at the Blasch Del Mar project have saved other terrapin nests in 2008 and 2009, yielding more than thirty live hatchlings as recruits to the Wellfleet Bay population.
Protected Terrapin Nest at Blasch Del Mar
With warm sunshine through June and July, we can expect these eggs to incubate well and hatch sometime in mid-August thanks to the vigilant actions of the Blasch Del Mar construction team.
For more than a decade, Turtle Journal has teamed with local residents of Outer Cape Cod and partnered with Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to restore the region’s threatened population of northern diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin). These elusive coastal turtles have thrived in the salt marsh systems of Cape Cod for centuries, if not millennia, only coming under existential pressure since the arrival of European settlers and most recently the press of human development into their fragile marsh environment and its abutting sandy uplands. Thankfully, for these magnificent reptiles, intense human exploitation of the Outermost Cape came late enough to allow a small remnant population to survive and affording us the honor to restore it. In neighoring regions such as Massachusetts’ South Coast, civilizaton and modernity have nearly wiped out diamondback terrapins from the habitat.
Freshly Laid Diamondback Terrapin Egg
Not willing or able to settle the long standing argument of which came first the turtle or the egg, Turtle Journal will simply assert that our successful restoration of the Outer Cape terrapin population began with protecting eggs, whether being carried by females or buried in the ground. We focused our conservation initiative on preventing disturbance, injury and death to female terrapins lugging their eggs landward to their natal nesting sites, on finding nests before the predators, and on protecting about 5% of nests from incubation to hatching in the late summer and early fall. We hypothesized that substantially increasing live hatchlings entering the nursery habitat would result in a dramatic increase in recruits into the sub-adult and adult population. This hypothesis proved as correct in practice as it did on the drawing board. Starting withs 9 gram (1/3 ouce) eggs we would create a new world of terrapins.
Freshly Depredated Diamondback Terrapin Egg
We never intended to stop all predation. After all, the mammal population of Outer Cape Cod depends on turtle eggs to feed their spring born young. And turtle survival strategy depends on over-producing eggs on the likelihood that as high as 99% of eggs and hatchlings will be consumed by predators before reaching adulthood. Our goal was to modestly protect perhaps 5% of nests and to assist the successful offspring of natural, unprotected nests to reach the safety of the nursery salt marsh in the fall. Still, on an emotional level, seeing a terrapin egg destroyed by a predator creates a bit of anger and frustration even in the most scientific of the Turtle Journal team.
Protected Diamondback Terrapin Nest on Outer Cape Cod
On the other hand, what brings unbridled joy to Turtle Journal is the accumulation of protected terrapin nests along the uplands of Outer Cape Cod with tiny blue flags snapping in the summer breeze. They offer the promise of survival for the northernmost diamondback terrapin population.
Outer Cape Terrapin Nesting in Tire Tracks
Protecting egg production means protecting mothers.  Some of the favored nesting locations for terrapins on the Outer Cape are dirt roads, especially on sandy Lieutenant Island which has become the densest nesting spot for terrapins perhaps in all of New England. While obviously nesting in the middle of tire tracks on a well traveled summer road can be extremely life threatening for the mother who blends in perfectly with the surroundings, these dirt roads have proven extremely productive for hatchlings. If the female can successfully bury her architecturally sound nest in the hard-packed dirt, our movement across the road with our cars, dogs and garbage keeps predators at bay. Depredation rates in Outer Cape dirt roads can be one tenth the level of predation in isolated dunes. Still, protecting these vulnerable females can be a challenge. We post signs and alert visitors, but the best protection for nesting terrapins comes from vigilant and pro-active residents. Last Friday a great friend and long-time resident of Lieutenant Island literally threw himself in front of speeding workmen who were about to crush a nesting female. Jim waved them off and quipped, “I’d rather have them hit me than her.” Such is the support that these quirky diamondback terrapins have elicited from their co-inhabitants of the island.
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Four Saved Eggs from Depredated Terrapin Nest
On Saturday, Turtle Journal discovered the first depredated nest on Lieutenant Island’s Turtle Point. Crestfallen, we saw that the predator had largely wasted the protein, digging up the eggs, cracking them open, but abandoning them unconsumed. Instead, an army of ants darted back and forth across the eggs collecting nutrients. Turtle Journal checked the egg chamber of the depredated nest, and rejoiced in finding four intact, potentially viable eggs still tucked in the bottom edges of the nest. Four eggs that may yield four fall hatchlings! We cleaned and relocated the eggs to a new “salvage” nest where we will incubate eggs from partially depredated nests that we find during the next several weeks.
Northern Diamondback Terrapin
Every terrapin seems to have a story to tell … if we could only understand them. This beautiful female nester from the Outer Cape wanted to tell the tale of how her nest at the dune off the Boathouse Beach path was discovered and protected by Turtle Journal in Saturday afternoon’s rain storm.
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Tracking Turtles, Saving Nests
We reached Lieutenant Island’s “Hook” at the northeast corner in early afternoon. Clouds had socked in and the morning’s drizzle had transformed into a hard rain. Just to the east of the Boathouse Beach footpath, we spotted terrapin tracks that were rapidly disappearing in the downpour. We could see how she had crisscrossed the dune, climbing up and slaloming down, stopping every few feet to dig a test hole as she looked for the perfect spot to deposit her eggs. One spot looked particularly lucrative as the most likely site for her nest and our excavation yielded sixteen perfect pink eggs that had been freshly laid within the hour.
Nest 111 on Boathouse Beach Path Dune
Nest #111 with predator excluder cage and blue flag now marks the spot where these sixteen eggs will incubate through June and July and August. We can all watch as the sun’s heat penetrates to the eggs, warming some enough to create females, leaving others as males, and finally incubating them enough to pierce their eggshell and emerge into a brave new world where terrapins once again thrive on Outer Cape Cod.
Diamondback terrapins in the Taunton River?  Twenty-five miles from open water and tucked into a small protected bay ten miles from the mouth of the Taunton River, we find an isolated population of threatened diamondback terrapins more than 25 miles its closest neighbor.Â
Assonet Bay Shores Beach Terrapin Nesting Site
Four years ago, Turtle Journal’s Don Lewis confirmed the existence of this terrapin population when he found forty hatched and depredated nests concentrated at Assonet Bay Shores beach on Wescott Island in Assonet Bay (see map above). Since then, Turtle Journal has partnered with local resident volunteers to document these turtles.
Carl Brodeur Proudly Shows Terrapin Eggs
Leading the investigative team in Assonet Bay is Carl Brodeur of Arborcare with Ropes ‘n Saddles who lives on Wescott Island and has been a powerful advocate within the community for diamondback terrapins as a bellwether species within the bay to reveal the state of the local environment. Carl captured the first terrapin specimen in Assonet Bay and has been actively engaged in documenting this local population.
Three Diamondback Terrapin Females at Assonet Bay Shores
On June 6th, Carl found three mature female terrapins coming ashore onto the beach at Assonet Bay Shores for a nesting run. These beautiful turtles, all heavy with eggs, show the same general characteristics and size as terrapins found in Barrington, Rhode Island, the nearest known neighboring population 25 miles away … as well as those terrapins that have been observed in the estuaries of Buzzards Bay 40 miles to the southeast.
Sam Brown Release Terrapin into Assonet Bay
The Brown Family (see photo at top of posting), friends of Carl Brodeur, had the great opportunity to release these magnificent diamondback terrapins back into the waters of Assonet Bay in Freetown, Massachusetts. For more information on Assonet Bay terrapins, see Release of Little Dude and Three-Year-Old Finds First Terrapin of Season in Assonet Bay.
More heat, more thunderstorms, more turtle nests … it must be summer on the south coast of New England. The Turtle Journal team and volunteers investigated diamondback terrapin nesting sites from Outer Cape Cod to the Taunton River today. A visitor to Lieutenant Island in South Wellfleet called the Mass Audubon Sanctuary to report that a terrapin had nested in the middle of Way 100 (Marsh Road), a one-lane dirt road along the south side of the island that has become one of the densest nesting locations in all of New England. Carl Brodeur, Turtle Journal’s eyes and ears on the Taunton River, called to report he had captured a female on a nesting run at Assonet Bay Shores Beach in Freetown and that perhaps a dozen terrapins had nested the previous day on the beach. Unfortunately, most nests had been depredated overnight.
 Freshly Depredated Terrapin Nest on Aucoot Cove
Sue Wieber Nourse and Don Lewis from Turtle Journal checked Aucoot Cove between Marion and Mattapoisett off Buzzards Bay this afternoon. We found one freshly depredated nest with eleven still moist yolks. Aucoot Cove serves as the largest nesting location that has been documented so far on the west bank of Buzzards Bay.
Aucoot Cove Nest with 14 Depredated EggsÂ
Another nest at the elbow of Aucoot Cove contained fourteen recently depredated eggs, probably consumed by predators last night. We found no turtles either at Aucoot Cove or Hammetts Cove on the east side of Sippican Harbor, probably because heavy winds and storm clouds have taken command of the afternoon sky. Severe thunderstorm alerts and a rare tornado warning are in effect.
HELLO, FRIENDS. Young Sean Whitkens is surrounded by turtles, courtesy of Don Lewis, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts, during a recent lecture program on coastal turtles at Buttonwood Park Zoo. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA STYANT/The Chronicle
“NEW BEDFORD – Known as “The Turtle Guy,” Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts Don Lewis recently delivered an informative and sometimes humorous talk on the “Turtles of Coastal Massachusetts” at the Buttonwood Park Zoo.”
A BIG TURTLE: Research scientist Sue Wieber Nourse lets youngsters attending a lecture on the Turtles of Coastal Massachusetts at Buttonwood Park Zoo have some hands-on time with the real thing. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA STYAN
“Research scientist and master educator Sue Wieber Nourse, CEO of Cape Cod Consultants, was on hand to introduce several live turtles to the adults and youngsters attending the lecture.”
For the full story from the Dartmouth-Westport Chronicle, clink on the pictures above or the hyperlink on the newspaper name to the left.
