Hi all,

We are on the cusp of the start of the nesting season for terrapins in NJ! With a new moon and temperatures in the mid-high 80s, coastal waters are warming up quickly! From the mid-60s 5 days ago to the mid-70s today, females and males are amassing in breeding congregations in brackish water near established nesting areas (this is always magical to witness!). Soon the adult females will emerge from their aquatic habitat to find suitable nesting areas and lay eggs.

It is our duty to ensure that these females are able to complete their life cycle. Without your help, this conservation project would not be possible!

Thank you all for your contributions over the years!

Ben

The start of a new year means summarizing data from 2021 and preparation for the coming nesting season (only 150 days until the start of the nesting season!). As we seem to have (almost) fully transitioned to online/digital data entry, my work consists of downloading and manipulating data from iNaturalist for our annual report, which is submitted to NJ Fish & Wildlife. We then submit a new permit application to NJDFW for renewal of our scientific collecting permit.
I will be looking carefully at observations and their respective location data, which has been problematic in the past. Hopefully as users become more familiar with the app, they can contribute more accurate data. Any points or observations that are not accurate (not on a road where terrapins are known to occur) then it will be deleted/removed from our project summary.

Looking forward to another great year for nesting terrapins!

Happy new year!

Ben

Hi all, so far the start to the terrapin nesting season has been slow. The unseasonably cool May has left water temps cooler than average as well. We are just now starting to see more and more females come up to nest. Your sightings of terrapins using iNaturalist are greatly appreciated! I will be sure to update this journal more frequently as we are asking more of our volunteers to use iNaturalist if they want to do more surveys without our shared equipment.

Ben

I consistently neglect this journal... I'd like to say thanks to all who contribute to the Great Bay Terrapin Project. I am currently summarizing data from the 2019 field season for our annual report, which is due at the end of the month, when we renew our State permits for 2020.

Right now we are anticipating the start of patrols to begin during the first full week of June (June 5). The full moon that week is on June 9 (Friday). While moon phases do play a role in their reproduction, the weather plays a more important role, so once it starts to warm up more than we could see nesting leading up to the full moon.

We are working with LEHT to get some new "official" signs installed along the road. I'll be giving a short presentation at the local town council meeting on Thursday, May 25, to explain our project and to stress the importance of drivers using caution during the summer months to avoid road kills within the township.

Ben

Hey everyone,

I just figured I'd introduce myself and explain what's happening with this and how we intend to use it...

I'm Ben Wurst. I'm the Habitat Program Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ. I have been working to document and reduce road kills of terrapins since 2009. I saw that too many were being hit by car when conducting other field work. I knew that something had to be done to help curb such road kills. With that, the Great Bay Terrapin Conservation Project was born.

I started using this app this spring and and hoped that it would make recording and sharing observations more easily for us and the agencies who are responsible for their management (NJ Fish and Wildlife). This project on here is more experimental this year. I have high hopes that it will work out in the long run and can possibly be put to use for documenting other species who are also in decline, like the eastern box turtle.

Cheers and thanks for helping our hard shelled friends.

--Ben
ben.wurst@conservewildlifenj.org