Wellfleet Bay Natural History Notes

Important Events at the Sanctuary

Did you see the Chronicle program on Mass Audubon? It prominently featured the sanctuary. See the archived program here.

The Annual State of Wellfleet Harbor Conference will be held Saturday, November 14 at Wellfleet Elementary School beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Harlequin Duck

According to Birds of North America online “this sea duck occupies a niche that is unique among North American waterfowl. The Harlequin Duck uses clear, fast-flowing rivers and streams for breeding and is able to move swiftly and with great agility in turbulent white water, diving to river bottoms to feed. After breeding, individuals migrate to the coasts of North America and Greenland, where they occupy the shallow intertidal zones of rocky coastlines. They forage close to shore and consume a varied diet, including small crabs, barnacles, and other small marine food items.”

The Harlequin appears dark overall from a distance.  As one draws closer, the plumage becomes more dazzling and colorful. The body is slate blue with chestnut brown sides.  It has white stripes and spots on its head, neck and sides. It also has rusty and white crown stripes on the top of its very round head along with a white vertical crescent between the back of the eye and the small blue gray bill.  A distinctive white facial dot is located behind each eye. Click here to hear the call of the Harlequin with its distinctive mouse like squeak.

These images were captured on Sun. Nov. 1, 2009 at Scusset Beach State Reservation located in Sandwich. Skies were overcast with light winds. The ducks were bobbing in the surf and diving for food among the rocks at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal entry jetty. During the fall migration cycle, this is an excellent location to observe both migrant and wintering waterfowl. According to “Birding Cape Cod,” published by the Cape Cod Bird Club “this may be one of the best spots on the Cape to find the King Eider.” Other common migrating and wintering species found in this location may include: Northern Gannets, Common Loons, Common Eiders, Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters. Please click here for additional recent images of the Harlequin.

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay provides an online Cape Cod Weekly Bird Sightings roundup. The recent edition noted that “it's the time of year when interesting waterfowl begin to show up on the Cape. Ducks found during a recent birding round-up in Barnstable included a gadwall, a Eurasian wigeon, 96 American wigeon, 3 blue-winged teal, a green-winged teal, 101 ring-necked ducks, a bufflehead, a hooded merganser, 5 common loons, 5 pied-billed grebes, plus a blue grosbeak found in Marstons Mills.” The sightings list is updated weekly.

Enjoy!

Craig Gibson
Woods Hole

What a Long, Strange Terrapin Season It's Been

Diamondback terrapin season has officially come to a close with the water temperature dropping and the turtles starting to go into hibernation. At the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, we had 59 total nests this year with 29 of them found and protected before skunks and raccoons could get to the eggs. Once hatching was underway, we were pleasantly surprised to find an additional 2 nests that had been missed by staff, volunteers, and the predators, bringing our nest total to 31! In addition to the terrapin nests, we also had 1 protected box turtle nest and 5 protected painted turtle nests.

We had a 68% success rate this year. No hatchlings or eggs were lost to maggots and only one to ants, but 14% were lost to root depredation, likely because of all the rain we had in June. We also lost 4 nests to a fox that figured out how to get under the predator excluders. The biggest loss was eggs that just didn't develop (32%), the vast majority of which were in nests that were laid in the last 10 days of the season. Despite everything, nearly 300 hatchlings were released back at the edge of the sanctuary's salt marshes.

This season the first nest was laid on June 13th and the last on July 27th, making this year's season 20 days longer than last year's! The first nest to emerge was on Labor Day after 86 days of incubation, which just shows how much the cool and rainy June affected the season when considering that the first nest last year emerged after 68 days.

So another successful terrapin season is now behind us, and it couldn't have been accomplished without our dedicated volunteers. If you would like to help us with this work next season, contact our volunteer coordinator, Cynthia Franklin.

Emily Goczalk

State of Wellfleet Harbor Conference

The Annual “State of Wellfleet Harbor” Conference will be held on Saturday, November 14, from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM at the Wellfleet Elementary School.   The conference agenda is as follows:

8:30 - 9:00    Continental Breakfast, Sign In

9:00 - 9:10    Opening Remarks - Jerry Houk

Moderator - Ned Hitchcock

9:10 – 9:30    Monitoring Program for Herring River Restoration -Tim Smith                                 

9:30 – 9:50    Tidal Restoration and the Coastal GroundwaterAquifer - John Portnoy

9:50  – 10:10  Native Sea Run Brook Trout Restoration - Steve Hurley

10:10 – 10:30  Q and A Session

10:30 – 11:00  Poster Presentations and Break

11:00 – 11:20  Ocean Management Act as it applies to Wellfleet - Jack Clarke

11:20 – 11:40  Pharmaceuticals and Hormones in Ponds and Groundwater on Cape Cod - Laurel Schaider

11:40 – 12:00  Q and A Session

12:00 – 12:45  Lunch (bring your own brown bag lunch)

12:45 – 1:05   Oyster Habitat Restoration - Mark Faherty

1:05  – 1:25   2009 Herring Count - Wellfleet Results - Jo Ann Muramoto

1:25  – 1:45   Methodology for Sampling Fin Fish - Ethan Estey

1:45  – 2:00   Q and A Session / Closing Remarks

The goals of the conference are to distribute information about current and ongoing research and monitoring projects that are taking place in Wellfleet Harbor and to identify citizen's concerns and questions about the health of Wellfleet Harbor.
 

The conference is free.  A continental breakfast is included.  No registration is required.

Debbie Strange

Where Are the Wild Things? See Mass Audubon Featured on Chronicle!

 Did you miss it? See the program here!

Get your popcorn ready and make plans to be in front of the TV next Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7:30pm for a special episode of Chronicle on WCVB-TV (Channel 5)!

The show is focused on Mass Audubon as a whole, but there were segments taped here at the sanctuary – it looks like the terrapins made the cut based on Chronicle’s description of the show. Some of you were involved in the craziness of the day Chronicle came to tape, but you should all try to catch the results this Tuesday night – and tell your friends - it looks to be an interesting program!

Jan Kruse and Cynthia Franklin

Neighborhood Party Turns Wild!: Loggerhead “crashes” party, washes ashore the next day

On Sunday October 11th, Joe and Sharon Tatulli, long-time Mass Audubon members, were enjoying an afternoon party at a friend’s home that overlooks Drummer Cove in South Wellfleet. Despite the good company and fine conversation, Joe’s attention was distracted while he was gazing out over the marsh because he noticed a large animal moving through the water. He quickly left the party and hurried down to the water’s edge to see what it was.
What it turned out to be was a 175 pound, female Loggerhead turtle! However, she swam away and was not seen again that evening. But she’d be back….

Joe recounts the rest of the story:

“On Monday morning I headed back to Drummer Cove to see what I could find. The tide was low and I trekked across the mud flats to the small stream that runs through the marsh where I had last seen the turtle. There she was.

Mrs. Santos (the host of the previous day’s party) had called Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife  Sanctuary earlier and left a message. It was 8:37 when I called and got Wellfleet Bay’s Diane Reynolds. Diane sent her co-worker James Nielsen down with a pickup truck and we proceeded to pull the turtle out of the stream and carry it to James' pick-up and then to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

Wellfleet Bay staff contacted the New England Aquarium in Boston. Biologist Adam Kennedy came down to the Cape and picked up the seemingly healthy turtle for blood tests and an x-ray back at the aquarium.

As of this post I am awaiting news on the turtle's condition and where and when she will be released back into the ocean for her long swim south for the winter.”

Check out New England Aquarium’s blog post from October 12 that also chronicles this event.

Each fall and winter, typically starting in November, but as early as the end of October, cold-stunned sea turtles are found stranded on bayside beaches. Succumbing to dropping water temperatures, these rare marine reptiles wash ashore—most of the immobile and appear lifeless. Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary staff and scores of volunteers canvass the beaches in search of stranded turtles and send them to the New England Aquarium for rehabilitation.

This large Loggerhead was a big surprise because the smaller individuals, the juvenile turtles, typically strand early—and it is usually Kemp’s Ridley and Green sea turtles that come ashore first. And what makes this turtle even more unique was that she was the second largest Loggerhead known to strand on Cape Cod beaches. Perhaps her health was compromised in other ways—only time and tests will tell. But it was a good sign that she was active and feisty!

We thank Joe and Sharon Tatulli for their commitment to this turtle and Mass Audubon. And thanks to Joe for contributing to the blog post and for the great images.

You can learn more about stranded wildlife in Wellfleet Bay’s special Marine Animal Stranding Weekend for adults coming up next month. Click here for program information. Email me directly for a detailed itinerary.

Melissa Lowe

Egrets, I've Had A Few!

Snowy Egrets are staging in growing numbers along with Great Egrets in many salt marsh locations on the Cape.  With the nesting season over, they are preparing for migration to Central and South America.  The beautiful snow white plumage provides a striking contrast from the marsh grass in the early morning light at Great Sippewissett Marsh. 

  

 

 

The first two images shows the Snowy Egret extending its wings and droping down its black legs with yellow feet for a soft landing.  The other two images show their graceful flight motions.  Click here for more recent images of Snowy and Great Egrets.

Enjoy!

Craig Gibson
Woods Hole

Green Heron

The Green Heron is one of the smaller wading birds.  The Green Heron is very difficult to locate and observe.  It is darkly colored and about the size of crow.  It is mostly a solitary and secretive bird and most often found around dawn and dusk.  The Green Heron is found in saltwater and freshwater wetlands, marshes, ponds and streams with thick vegetation. Green Herons typically stand quietly and still in shallow water or perch upon branches to find and strike their prey.  They usually feed on small fish.  Green Herons have a tendency to fly away from a disturbance while making a loud squawking noise.

 

 These images of a juvenile Green Heron show its brownish upperparts with white speckles on the wings.  They have heavily streaked chestnut brown and white underparts with distinctive yellow eyes.  They have greenish yellow legs and a thin straight yellow and blackish bill.  These close up images were captured with a handheld long lens near Hadley Harbor on Naushon Island from a kayak. Click here for more wading bird images.

According to Birds of New England by Petersen and Burrows, “Green Herons sometimes drop small debris, including twigs, vegetation and feathers, onto the water’s surface as a form of bait to attract fish within striking range.” This unique fishing method sets the Green Heron apart from all others!

Enjoy!

Craig Gibson
Woods Hole

Semipalmated Plover

The Semipalmated Plover is probably the most common small plover on Cape Cod. These plovers gather in loose flocks during fall migration on open mudflats and sandy beaches. They are noted for their run and stop feeding style.  They have a high pitched, two part whistled call that sounds like “chu-wee.” This plover is easy to identify with a single dark breast band, a black-tipped orange bill, long orange legs along with white underparts and dark brown upperparts.
 
According to Wayne Petersen in Birds of New England, “there is tremendous pressure for these long distance migrants to complete their breeding duties before the end of the short northern summer. Fall migration is more relaxed, with adults first appearing on Cape Cod in July, followed in late August by the first juveniles.”

Thanks to local lighthouse and nature photographer, Brian Tague, I had a chance to join him on a shorebird trip to South Monomoy for a visit to the lighthouse and the Powder Hole area. We encounted lots of semipalmated plovers on our visit.  Here’s a little back ground on Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. According to the National Wildlife Service “it was taken over by the US government just before World War II. Monomoy was established in 1944 to provide habitat for migratory birds. Sand stretches for eight miles (13 km) off the elbow of Cape Cod, forming the barrier islands of North and South Monomoy. In addition to the two islands, a 40 acre unit on Morris Island is also part of the refuge. This is where the headquarters and visitor center are located, including hiking trails and a scenic overlook of the Atlantic Ocean. The total size of the refuge is 7,604 acres (31 km²) with varied habitats of oceans, salt and freshwater marshes, dunes, freshwater ponds, and some historic manmade structures, such as the Monomoy Point Light and keeper's quarters (now decommissioned but open to the public). The refuge provides important resting, nesting and feeding habitat for migratory birds, including the Federally protected piping plover and roseate tern. More than ten species of seabirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds nest on the islands. The refuge also supports the second largest nesting colony of common terns on the Atlantic seaboard with over 8,000 nesting pairs.

 

Enjoy!

Craig Gibson
Woods Hole

Wellfleet Audubon tells it like it is

Ed. Note: Sarah Durham is the principal of Big Duck (www.bigducknyc.com), a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits, and regular visitor to Wellfleet. She blogs at www.bigducknyc.com/blog. She posted this on her Duck Call blog on September 1 and we are reprinting it with her permission.


Every summer, I have the great good fortune to spend time with family in Wellfleet, Massachusetts- arguably the most charming town on Cape Cod. This year, my kids attended day camp at the local Audubon- three hours of mucking around in the tidal flats, learning about brackish water, poking at hermit crabs, and imbibing ‘leave no trace’ principals. What could be better for two kids from Brooklyn?

                                 

In addition to effectively implementing their mission to build an appreciation of nature at the programmatic level, the Wellfleet Audubon does lots of things well. One of the best examples of in-person communications I’ve seen recently is the signage in their new buildings. A few years ago, they redid their programs buiidings using the latest in green technologies- recycled materials, composting toilets, and more. But rather than describe it only in their newsletters and other member-focused communications, they wove explanations about these items through the spaces themselves.

Using green circles about a foot in diameter, they tell the stories behind each item in their construction. As you walk through, you can read them or ignore them- but there’s no doubt this organization is ‘walking the talk’ and demonstrating the value of sustainability in this key venue, where most audiences connect with them.

How is your organization walking the talk?

For more on our green building, view Bob Prescott's video

"You're Free as the Roaring Tide"

On August 26th at Dowses Beach in Osterville, the New England Aquarium (NEAq) and the University of New England's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center (MARC) released six sea turtles who had been recovered by the Wellfleet Bay Audubon during the 2008 cold-stun season. NEAq brought four Kemp's ridleys (Casper, Bubba, Iceman, and Dash) and one green sea turtle (Goose, who was outfitted with a satellite tag and can be followed  here and MARC brought the hybrid sea turtle (Simba) who had been found by our very own director, Bob Prescott, on Skaket Beach.

Once the turtles were taken out of the air-conditioned comfort of their respective vans and ambulances, they were taken on the Walk of Fame to be shown to the crowd. I was fortunate to get to handle Iceman who had tripled in weight since being rescued off an Eastham beach last November! The handlers then lined up to put the turtles down at the same time for everyone to watch them race back to the ocean. Iceman was the first to enter the water!

A fun time was had by all who were there, the crowd asking a lot of questions and cheering on the turtles as they made their way to the water and applauding once they entered the surf. I, for one, enjoyed seeing the turtles all clean and fat and healthy after seeing them emaciated and half-dead when they were brought off the beaches in November and December.

NEAq also has blog entries about tagging and releasing the sea turtles:

Getting Ready to Say Goodbye!
Photos of the Sea Turtle Release
Even Spiderman attended the sea turtle release!
Oh where oh where could our little turtle be?

Interested in walking beaches this fall for cold-stunned sea turtles or driving some to the New England Aquarium for treatment? Contact our volunteer coordinator, Cynthia Franklin, at cfranklin@massaudubon.org or (508) 349-2615.

Emily Goczalk with slideshow photos courtesy of Sarah Martinez, Bill Allan, and Lily Calderwood