JFK's Tweeting Turtles

Wikipedia's public domain photo by Mary Hollinger, NODC biologist, NOAA

Turtle Tidbit #3 is a report on the diamondback terrapins on the runway today at JFK International Airport. Flights were delayed by about 30 minutes while airport officials picked up the turtles and relocated them to a safer nesting area. JFK Airport borders Jamaica Bay where the turtles live. They leave the water every year around this time to lay eggs, and their appearance at JFK is an annual event. Today there seemed to be an unusually large number of them -- the highest count I read was 150.

The press had a field day with this story. Please check all the links below for the variety of pictures they contain as well as the audio from the flight tower.


The headlines ranged from factual ...

• March of Turtles Snags JFK  (Wall Street Journal)
• Turtles on Runway Cause Airport Slowdown  (NBC New York)
• Finally! We’ve got actual pictures of the Turtles on the runway at JFK International Airport earlier today. (NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams)

... to whimsical.

• Delays at JFK?  This time, blame turtles (New York Times City Room Blog)
• JFK turtles bring some NYC air traffic to a crawl Wednesday (Christian Science Monitor)
• Turtles on Runway Shell Out JFK Delays (The Atlantic Wire)

Prize for the most outrageous headline goes to The New York Daily News:

• JFK flights delayed because of sex-starved turtles crossing runway to get to breeding grounds

Unlike previous years, this year's internet savvy turtles wasted no time in getting themselves a Twitter account. News of their tweeting was nearly as big their presence on the runway!

• Turtles Stop Traffic at New York's JFK Airport, and Promptly Get Twitter Account (Time Newsfeed)
• The 'JFK Turtles' Are Back, And This Time They're Tweeting (The Two-Way, NPR's News Blog)

And of course, you will want to visit the JFK Turtles' Twitter site:   JFKTurtles

I surely have had fun following the various news organizations as they posted their articles throughout the day.  Turtles RULED today!!!  Hopefully the local raccoons don't eat ALL the diamondback terrapin eggs.  It would be a shame if all this turtle news didn't yield a good crop of turtles!


Turtle Tidbits is a Truffles, Turtles & Tunes series that calls attention to news about turtles and tortoises.  Since the news items themselves are copyrighted, I will post just the link accompanied by introductory comments and some followup information.  To view all posts in the Turtle Tidbits series, click on its Topic Label in the navigation column on the right side of the screen.



© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
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