NESTING DIAMOND-BACKS

     Over several years, I've seen female box turtles and female snapping turtles laying eggs in holes they dug with their hind legs in loose soil in June.  And yesterday, June 5, 2024, for the first time, by a live camera on an osprey nest and our computer screen, I saw several female diamond-backed terrapins digging holes and laying eggs in a vacant lot of sand in a housing development on Long Beach Island, a barrier island between Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  I saw some female diamond-backs plodding across a salt marsh to get to that sandy lot to lay eggs while other females were trudging back to the bay after laying their eggs.  It was an arduous, dangerous venture for all those terrapins because they had to cross a road to get to their spawning grounds.

     Interestingly, a few women were helping terrapins cross the road, both ways.  And when a female terrapin was done digging with her back legs and laying eggs, one of the women placed an open, metal cage over the sand-covered eggs to keep them safe from animals, and people.  On June 5 I saw about 20 of those cages on the sandy lot, but I knew there would be more nests of terrapins through June because I saw a photograph of about 40 of those cages that was taken in August of 2023.  Young terrapins hatch in August or September.  And some hatchlings stay dormant in the sand through their first winter.  Hatchlings are probably helped across the road so they can get to Barnegat Bay.

     There are beaches along Barnegat Bay these terrapins could use more conveniently.  But those beaches flood a lot, which would drown terrapin embryos.  Female terrapins avoid those beaches.

     I read that if female terrapins are disturbed while digging nest holes, they will abandon them and move on.  But the terrapins I saw on June 5 were not disturbed by the women near the turtle nests.  I think those female terrapins spawned there before and are use to be handled by the helping women.   

     Diamond-backed terrapins live in the brackish water of harbors, estuaries, tidal creeks and salt marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachusets to Texas.  That is a long, narrow habitat where they consume mollusks, fish, aquatic worms and carrion.    

     Several locations, including The Wetlands Institute and Margate City in New Jersey, a nature park just north of Route 50 on Kent Island on the east shore of Chesapeake Bay, the Port Mahon/Little Creek areas along Delaware Bay in Delaware and other places are dedicated to helping diamond-backed terrapins survive as a species.  People from those agencies, and other folks, rescue terrapins, remove them from roads, hatch viable eggs retrieved from road-killed terrapins, put cages over terrapin nests in salt marshes and do other things to decrease terrapin fatalities and promote awareness of terrapins' plight and increase their numbers.  

     Still terrapins are declining in numbers because of habitat loss, road kills, hit by speeding boats and increased predation by fur-bearers, herons, gulls, crows and other creatures.  I am glad that agencies and private individuals, including those women on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, are helping terrapins thrive as an interesting species in brackish water.       

     

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DADDY-LONG-LEGS

     During summer, over the years in southeastern Pennsylvania, I've seen many daddy-long-legs on the bark of tree trunks on lawns, and in parks and woods.  They blend into the color of tree bark well and are difficult to see.  Many people never see them at all until those camouflaged little critters are pointed out by people in the know about them.        Daddy-long-legs have eight, really long, thin legs, but they are not spiders.  But they are arachnids, and related to spiders.  These attractive, little creatures, called daddy-long-legs because of their long legs, have quarter-inch, compact bodies raised on stilt-like legs.  They have two dark eyes and feel the vibrations of birds and other predators with their legs.  But these arachnids have no venom, or silk to make webs.        Daddy-long-legs, like all other living beings, are part of several food chains.  They consume tiny invertebrates and decaying plant and animal materials they find on tree bark.  And, in turn, many of
Read more

SPRING ON THE UPPER CHESAPEAKE

      I visited the Upper Chesapeake Bay at the Community Park of Northeast, Maryland one afternoon about the middle of March a few years ago, as I had several times in different seasons before that day.  This time, I went there to spot migrating water birds of various kinds.        Because of their high numbers, gulls and ducks were the dominant birds on the ice, and strips of open water among the slabs of ice because of the warming weather in March.  Most of the handsome ring-billed, herring and great black-backed gulls stood picturesquely on slabs of ice.        The attractive, adult ring-billed and herring gulls are mostly gray on top, white below, and look much alike, except the herrings are larger and have a red mark on their beaks, whereas each ring-bill has a black "ring" around its bill.  Largest of these gulls, the stately, mature black-backs have black backs and upper wings and are white below, making a striking, attractive plumage pattern.        All three of thos
Read more

MY FAVORITE DRAGONFLIES

     Visibly active during summer months, white-tailed and twelve-spotted skimmers are common, related species of dragonflies living in southeastern Pennsylvania, and much of the United States.  These kinds of dragonflies have characteristics in common, which demonstrates their shared ancestry.  And they are my favorite dragonflies.   They are large enough to be easily seen in rapid flight, have attractive color patterns and are excitedly fast when sweeping low over cattail-bordered ponds, grass-lined, slow-moving creeks and bordering farmland after flying insects, including lots of mosquitoes, which they catch and eat.  And, interestingly, they hover like helicopters.  Dragonflies are thrilling, entertaining and inspiring to watch, without fear of being stung or bitten by them.  Their beauties and dashing flamboyance help make summer waters come to life.      Both these kinds of skimmers are two inches long and have three inch wing spans, making them quite visible in flight.  They are
Read more