Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary News

In the Schools This Week

This week we had three naturalists in three different schools doing lessons. Leah Dower was at Chatham Middle School teaching about owls. Mary Richmond was at the K.C. Coombs School in Mashpee working with second graders on a lesson about sea turtles and sea turtle rescues. Amy Ferreira was at the Chatham Elementary School on Monday and at the Eddy School in Brewster on Tuesday. The following piece was written by Amy and all the photos of her lesson were taken by her as well.

4^th graders at Chatham Elementary learned about an important topic today (Mon., Dec. 17) –invasive species. Most of the students had not heard of these species before, so we spent time discussing what this means, where these species are coming from, how & why they get here, and what issues arise because of their presence. We looked at Asian Shore Crabs, codium seaweed, hydrilla, asian bittersweet, and more. Students left with a better understanding of this growing threat to our habitats.

 

Squid! The name often provokes thoughts of calamari or bait for fishing, but for the 3^rd graders at Eddy Elementary in Brewster it brings thoughts of amazing adaptations and behavior. On Tuesday, Dec. 18, 4 classes of 3^rd graders dissected a squid. Prior to dissecting it students learned about its adaptations, such as chromatophores, large eyes, arms & tentacles, & beak. After examining the external anatomy the students were able to dissect it. The students were amazed to see their thin esophagus connected to the “mouth” of the squid.

They were surprised to see how small the ink sac was. And all were curious to find out if theirs was a male or female. At the end each student pulled the “pen” out of the squid, punctured the ink sac, and wrote their names in squid ink on their paper. It was quite an experience –messy, smelly, and a whole lot of fun!

Have you ever thought about going to camp in the winter? If so, why don’t you come to Wellfleet Bay after the holidays? On Thursday and Friday, December 27 & 28 we’ll have “vacation adventures” for kids from 9am-12:30pm. Kids will explore the Sanctuary trails, look for signs of winter wildlife, make crafts, play games, and have fun with some new friends. If you’re interested please call the Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 to register.

Snowy Sanctuary

In the spirit of the season we thought it would be nice to share some photos of the sanctuary after the recent snow storm. These photos were taken on a walk with the kids in the After School Nature Club on Friday afternoon last week.

Winter berries waiting for winter birds.

A young Cooper's hawk watching for unwary birds at the feeders.

No turtles or frogs hanging out at Silver Springs on this afternoon!

View of the marsh from Goose Pond

Working our way down the trail toward the beach.

Sun setting over the hill....

Over the marsh.....

One last look.

If you have pictures of the sanctuary you'd like to share please leave a comment so we can get back to you.

Mola Mola

  Adam Glahn sent over this photo of the Mola mola or ocean sunfish found last week at Linnell Landing.

Mola molas are mostly tropical but often travel north on the Gulf Stream, following their favorite food, jelly fish. They are related to pufferfish, file fish and porcupinefish and the female is believed to produce more eggs than any other vertebrate.

Their natural predators are sharks in this area, sea lions and orcas in other areas. They are also often caught accidentally in gill nets.

Mola molas are not caught for food in our area though they are considered a delicacy in areas like Japan and Taiwan.

  (Information gathered from various staff naturalists, fish books and internet sources.)

Sea Turtle Update

Adam Glahn has written the following update on stranded sea turtles.

As this sea turtle stranding season progresses, the weather is getting colder.  This has had ill effects on the sea turtles stranding on Cape Cod.  The colder water has been causing the stranding of larger turtles and a decreased survival rate for those recovered.  As of December 1^st, a few loggerhead sea turtles have been washing ashore with one weighing as much as 110 pounds.  Through December 13, a total of 35 sea turtles have been recovered from the beaches of Cape Cod Bay and one from Nantucket.  There have been 26 Kemp’s Ridley, four Loggerhead, five Green and one possible Kemp’s Ridley-Loggerhead hybrid (the blood work is still being performed).  Of these, 16 are alive and are being rehabilitated at the New England Aquarium.  It looks as though the season is slowing down and possibly coming to a close early this year but we will see where it leads in the weeks to come.

You can click on the photo of the map to enlarge it and see where the stranded sea turtles have been found this year.

Unusual Beach Sightings

At this time of year the wind and waves often combine efforts to leave us samplings of underwater life we might not see otherwise. Animals that visit our food rich waters in the summer months don't always get out of the bay before the cold sets in and their remains may be seen along bayside beaches in the late fall and early winter. According to naturalist Dennis Murley and sanctuary director Bob Prescott there is often an expected order to what animals may be seen when. Usually mola molas or ocean sunfish will be seen washed up on the beach first, followed by sightings of torpedo rays. After them come the sea turtles that have become cold stunned.

This year the order has been a bit reversed. The turtles came first in many instances. A mola mola was found at Linnell Landing in Brewster and a torpedo ray was found at Skaket Beach in Orleans this Tuesday during two school field trips looking for stranded turtles.

Please let us know of any unusual sightings you may have and feel free to send pictures so we can post them on the blog. Of course neither naturalist leader had a camera with them on Tuesday so we have no pictures.

The photo in this post was taken by Mary Richmond at Great Hollow Beach in Truro.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog here at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. It is our goal to create an interactive forum for our staff, researchers, volunteers and members so that we can share information and resources. We will be updating the blog almost daily with new pictures, research reports, staff interviews and reports from the field so please drop in often. Remember, a blog is different than a website. You can comment and respond to the comments of others easily and we invite you to do so.

As we begin our new online adventure here's a word from our director, Bob Prescott.

This is so 21st century.

Thanking you for logging on to the launch of our new adventure. So many people ask what do you all do there at Wellfleet Bay, especially after all the summer folks go home?

We have many stories to share. There is so much going on and we want you to know the latest. Most members, let alone the public, don’t know of our extensive in-school classes, all the citizen science projects that are being conducted, and all the ecological management and ecological restoration projects that are underway.

Our goal is to share all those wonderful stories, get your comments and suggestions. There will be lots of images of landscapes, birds, wildlife, classes, and people enjoying nature. We hope you will share your stories with us.

Our goal is to have a couple of new postings each week. Staff and volunteers will be sharing their adventures and their work with you. Let us know what you think.

For me, a closet Luddite, this seems so futuristic. Of course it has been going on for a while everywhere. Let’s join the new information highway and have some fun with this. We are looking forward to getting to know you.

Bob Prescott

Sea Turtle Rescue Season

Adam Glahn is an intern working with sea turtles this fall on the sanctuary. He wrote the following piece.

Come fall every year, juvenile sea turtles become cold stunned and wash ashore in Cape Cod Bay. Due to the unique shape of Cape Cod Bay, young sea turtles coming in from the open ocean become trapped and unable to continue their journey south. As a cold-blooded reptile, when the water temperature gets too cold, the sea turtles slow and their bodies begin to shut down. On days of strong wind, the turtles are blown with it to the shore and are left stranded on the beach after the high tide.

 This season has gotten off to a good start with 19 strandings as of November 27^th. Of the 19, 15 have been Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles and four Green sea turtles. At the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, our primary responsibility is to remove the turtles from the beaches so they can be rehabilitated. By accessing the wind and tides from day to day, we are able to determine the most likely locations of the strandings. After bringing the turtles back to the sanctuary, their sizes are measured and visible injuries are documented. Within a day, the turtle is driven up to the New England Aquarium where the rehabilitation takes place. They determine the initial health of the turtle and slowly warm it a couple of degrees per day until it is at a healthy temperature. As the season moves on, and the aquarium fills up, some of the turtles may be transported to facilities as far as Florida to finish their rehabilitation. All of the turtles that successfully recover are released between late spring and August to continue their trip to warmer waters.

The turtle in the photograph is a Kemps-ridley, one of the rarest and most endangered of the sea turtles.

Bat Research at Wellfleet Bay

Maryalice Walker and Mark Faherty are working at the sanctuary researching bats and the possible effects of our proposed wind turbine. Maryalice Walker has written the following post.

Welcome to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary’s bat cave!

Wind turbines have quickly become a more popular source of alternative energy on the Cape. Here at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, we are investigating the possibility of constructing a small-scale wind turbine to generate clean, low cost electricity for the sanctuary facilities. Unfortunately, wind turbines are associated with bird, and more so, bat mortalities. Research indicates mortality is low (around 1.3 and 38 bats/turbine/year at 5 surveyed sites, Kunz et all, 2007*), but we want to be sure the same is true here at the sanctuary.

In October, we began recording bat calls at Silver Spring. Our goal is to find out what species are present at the sanctuary, to monitor their activity over the course of the night and to relate bat activity to local weather patterns. We will use this preliminary data to help us design and carry out pre-construction field research in the spring of 2008.

 

Bats use loud, high frequency calls to hunt their prey and navigate at night. These calls are well above the range of human hearing (20-210 kHz) so we use a sensitive microphone called a bat detector with specially designed acoustic software to record them. The bat detector we use at Silver Spring is an AR125 full-bandwidth detector, meaning it allows us to pick up calls of different frequencies simultaneously. Combined with our recording software, SPECTR, we can leave the equipment in the field to record bat calls from dusk to dawn.

We can often identify what kinds of bats are present on the sanctuary by looking at various characteristics of their calls such as frequency, duration and shape. The bats on the sanctuary are all insectivorous species using FM, or frequency modulated, calls. The sonograms displayed here with the program Sonobat show calls of three species found on the sanctuary.

We have recorded at least five different bat species. These include little brown bats, big brown bats (or silver-haired bats, as the calls of these two species are almost identical), red bats, eastern pipistrelles, and hoary bats. The relatively warm October nights brought a diversity of bats both local and migratory to Silver Spring, active just after dusk until just before dawn. When nights became colder during the first week of November, however, only our common resident species – little brown and big brown bats – were recorded, for a short period of time between one and three hours after sunset. As temperatures drop and food becomes scarce, our local bat species should go into torpor, living mainly off fat stores. But for now, it seems there are still some brave – and hungry – individuals venturing out to Silver Spring on these cold fall nights.

*Kunz, T.H., Arnett, E.B., Cooper, B.M., Erickson, W.P., Larkin, R.P., Mabee, T., Morrison, M.L., Strickland, M.D. and Szewczak, J.M. 2007. Assessing impacts of wind-energy development on nocturnally active birds and bats: a guidance document. Journal of Wildlife Management 71(8): 2449-2486.

Photo of Eastern Red Bat by Robert Barclay, U. of Calgary

Other photos by Maryalice Walker

Photo of Eastern Red Bat by R