Rip It, Roll It and Punch it

Good news everybody…and much to my surprise… we had a fairly non-eventful staff party for a change, well at least by Intrigued standards. No police, no ambulances, no fire trucks and the always present neighborhood complaints in the inbox were minimal – clearly we are starting to show our age around here. I am sure Brad’s idea to warn our legal department that they were on double secret probation for previous year’s stunts was a tremendous help in keeping things somewhat under control. Note, the clever individual who managed to pick the lock on our copier room will be found, forced to write bad checks and required to disinfect the copier glass.

Needless to say, things are quickly coming to close around here. There are only a few in the office these days mainly working on year end expense reports and finishing up their proposals for next year’s field assignments. I should be working on performance reviews, but I find that is NOT advantageous to the staff this soon after the party sooooo……let’s feature another find at the Port Aransas Jetty.

“Let go…and see where the current, ” I mean jump “takes you“.

“We’re gonna have a great jump today. Okay, first crank and a hard cutback as you hit the wall. There’s a screaming bottom curve, so watch out. Remember, rip it, roll it and punch it!“

Ah, Squirt you truly embody the essence of life. To be honest I kind of let this feature out of the bag when I was writing the previous post on the fish guzzling Cormorant. If you recall, the reason I didn’t get the official downing of the fish is because I was distracted by a “Sea Turtle”. Based on the comments, a few of your ears perked up at that tidbit.

I wasn’t just using that as a cop-out for not executing on the final gorging – I was honestly distracted by a Sea Turtle that happened to poke its head out of the water just down from where I was standing. Sea Turtles are one of the few things that take precedence over birds while out in the field. Wolves, Bears, Moose and Otters pretty much rounds out the rest of that list. I would include Snakes, but if Linda saw that she would likely tell Santa and I don’t need any more bad checks next to my name. All those alternatives have one thing in common and that is “scarcity”. In those few times we have encountered these species in the wild, it has been an absolute thrill. Of that list, the rarest encounters for me has been the Sea Turtle.

Every time we are down along the coast of southern Texas, I keep one eye on the water in the hopes of spotting a Sea Turtle. Over the course of our stay, we see lots of the more common Texas Turtles like the Texas Tortoise, the Spiny Softshell, Smooth Softshells, Boxes and, of course, the more universal Red-Eared Sliders. The Sea Turtle is a different story – always searched, rarely seen and if lucky enough to spot..never more that for a few seconds as it takes a few breaths and heads back to the depths never to be seen again.

This sighting was a special treat as it gave me a good minute to get some decent shots before the proverbial “See ya later, dude[s]!” and disappearing.

As mentioned, this particular specimen was spotted while on the Port Aransas South Jetty. The Cormorant downing the fish was a sight, but looking down and seeing this Turtle’s head pop out of the water.. not 15 feet from me in the waters just off the rocks was “Gold Jerry, Gold!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHZ_hes6OcM)

My best luck spotting Sea Turtles has been on this very jetty as well as the South Padre Island Jetty. Both of these areas also happen to have an extensive outreach program to help these threatened creatures. The South Padre Island efforts are probably the most widely known from the “cold snaps” that happened down there over the last couple of years. The sudden temp drops stun the Sea Turtles requiring them to be rescued, warmed and then released once the weather has recovered adequately. A particular memorable one involved the SPI Convention Center floor being completely covered with 5,300 rescued Turtles (link here). There also happens to be a Sea Turtle rescue center on the island right next to our often featured birding site, the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. You can read more about the cold-stunned phenomenon on the South Padre Island site (link here) or the Port Aransas Turtle Conservation pages (link here).

You are probably wondering exactly what kind of Sea Turtle this happens to be. Although we have been to the SPI Sea Turtle Rescue facility and the very nice Corpus Christi Texas Aquarium, the honest truth is I still do not know much about these particular Turtles beyond their preference for surfer lingo and a few other tidbits obtained from repeated viewings of Finding Nemo. Some would say animated cartoons are not an authoritative source of knowledge – I counter with those childhood Schoolhouse Rock episodes that were a staple in my early learning years. Tell me anyone old enough that can’t still sing the Conjunction Junction or I’m Just a Bill jingles (note, I am less confident on the latter based on what I’ve seen with some of our elected representatives to Congress).

If I had to make a guess based on the research I have done, this specimen is a Green Turtle. Based on Wildlife Informer (link here), there are four species of Sea Turtle in that region along the Texas Gulf Coast – the Loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley, Hawksbill and said Green. I can easily rule out Kemp’s based on that site’s reference image, although it is a resident of Port A (link here). The nose shape doesn’t really fit the Hawksbill leaving me with the Loggerhead and Green. Wait, wait, another site shows the Kemp’s having similar stained glass look on the sides so maybe I can’t dismiss that one that easily (link here). Still going with a Green, but if there are any Herpetologists or more specifically Chelonologists out there, please help me out in the comments.

Ugh, I need to get back to cleaning up the HQ after the big party. I’d be upset at the staff’s vigor in celebrating if it wasn’t for how hard they work all year to bring you content, especially here on the wild side of Intrigued. Take care everyone and best wishes for a Merry Christmas if I don’t get back to you before then.