Terrapin training...

Last Wednesday, all of us (Kelly, Nicki, Matt, Stacy, and Chris) went to the Wellfleet Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary to get training on finding the nests of diamondback terrapins, a protected species. They have very impressive facilities and I recommend anyone visiting Cape Cod to stop by their new green visitor center and then take a walk around the sanctuary, it's amazing!

This is a male diamondback terrapin...















This is what we need to look for to find the nest. The eggs will be buried underneath what is called a "disturbance." Once she lays her eggs, the female will walk around and try to make the nest unnoticeable. She does a good job...















This is a PE, a predator excluder, which we put over the nest once we've found it, to protect the eggs from being dug up by raccoons and other predators...















This is our instructor showing us how to bury the PE...















This is a picture of some of the Wildlife Sanctuary. It is incredibly pretty there...















So, we start looking for nests within the next week or so. The babies hatch in around August so we'll miss that part but hopefully we'll get to set up some PEs to get the nests protected.