Why the grass is not always greener on someone else's lawn or why scientists need permits

Hi everybody! I would have posted last night but the power went out, meh. It really stinks when every thing in the house runs on electricity…and you were in the process of making pasta. But, the power is back on so I’ll just lump 2 posts into 1!

Wednesday

Turtles are very sneaky, they don’t look like it, but they are. Yesterday we found some turtles on the side of the road. So Emily and I hung back and let them do their thing…bad idea. Both of them crawled up into private property, one disappeared while the other went trundling along for about 20 minutes looking like she was going to build a nest, dig, and then stick her nose up at the spot! I know this is a behavior called false nesting (they make a divet and decide not to nest there) but it felt like she was mocking me! Do you know how humiliating it is to be mocked by a turtle? I was so focused on the one that by the time I noticed the second one come out she was half way across the road, but I caught her! She wasn’t too happy about it though; she kept trying to bite me. On a side note did you know diamond back terrapins can bend their neck over the carapus (top of the shell)? Makes holding them a game of hot potato, or is it hot turtle? We ended up finding 3 turtles in all and tried to catch turtles in the estuary; the key word is “try”. Between the 2 of us we kicked up enough mud to obscure anything we would have found, the out going tide didn’t help. We did get to chat with a vacationing elderly couple out kayaking on the way back though. They were so friendly and interested in what we were doing; it’s nice to have people appreciate your work. I thought we were done for the day; we unloaded the car, made lunch and was just about to take a nap when my phone rang…apparently Mass Autoban had terrapins coming up with the second tide at the sanctuary and wanted us to check Great Island again. So we packed up again and walked the trail, we didn’t find anything…fantastic (heavy sarcasm ahoy).

Thursday

There must be some sort of turtle convention at this one house on the beach because every time I go there at least 5 turtles pop out of now where. That's what they do; you’re just walking along and all of a sudden, if you’re looking, there’s a turtle! We even found one on Stumpy’s Hill! It wasn’t Stumpy though. You would think that the turtles would go to convenient locations first, but the places we’ve been finding them are ridiculous! We’ve found them is places like on top of hills and people’s lawns. It’s quite a trek for such a little creature! Diamond back terrapins are also veeeerrrry indecisive. I tailed one for over half an hour as she walked up and down dunes, on to the beach front, and then back into the dunes. It was like watching a watching a very confused and lost person driving randomly around town, but they’re too stubborn to ask directions. She looked motivated though; wherever you wanted to get to little turtle, I hope you got there! I find it really unfair that turtles can wander on to private property and not get into any legal trouble; scientists (a.k.a. us) endure strange looks and need to carry around permits to show people we are neither crazy (that’s debatable) or burglars. It’s really awkward to stand in front of someone’s yard as you watch a turtle mosey through someone’s lawn pretending to dig a nest and when you dig for it there’s no eggs! The turtles, they are mocking me! We’re not supposed to catch them if we think they’re in the process of nesting and they usually disappear before we can. The owners are really nice about it, and they love to hear about what we’re doing. We did have one turtle nest but she didn’t cover up the nest and laid only one egg, which is strange. And the nest was right next to someone’s dive way…*face palm*. Because when you think of a good place to lay your eggs you think of big rolling tons of steel that can crush baby turtles like grapes. Maybe we sacred her, too bad I can’t ask her; I don’t speak turtle (but I do speak whale). We tried to find turtles in the estuary but it was so cloudy that we couldn’t see anything. Just as we turned to head back guess what we saw? A turtle! These turtles are hilarious so far and I can’t wait to see how they’ll surprise me next!

Total turtle tally: 12

PS- I’ll be posting pictures on my facebook account!