During the months of June & July is the height of the nesting season for the Diamondback Terrapin's here in Long Beach Island, NJ. I enjoyed volunteering and learning about the terrapin's. My job was simple spot a turtle, follow it,
wait until she has dug her nest,
lays her eggs,
then mark the nest, and cover it.
and does what we call the "happy dance." She covers the nest so well that if your not there to mark the nest you would never find it.
You need to cover so you can find it but mostly so the crows do not get to it.
Simple, until you start seeing turtles everywhere. Driving down Long beach island blvd. I see a biker stop, a truck coming, and a turtle crossing in the middle of the road. I quickly pulled over, the biker runs out grabs the turtle which is now spinning from the car that just missed it as the truck is coming, and then hands it to me to take to a safe nesting spot. Now I too am driving with turtles.
Other days we are running down the street to get one from the middle of the road.
It was surprising to me the number of females there are nesting around the island and most of the nest will never make it due to conditions of the soil in which they are now nesting.
This one is digging in someones garden but can only dig so far because of roots getting in the way. She quits after a while and moves to another spot. Still the soil is not sand and the eggs will most likely not survive.
This girl was all done nesting but after I picked her up had just one more egg.
Another part of the project is collecting data on the terrapins. Once the females are done nesting, they are measured, weighted, and marked.
We then give the girls a little help getting back in the water.
Now it is time to watch and wait for the babies to hatch.
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