On Thursday, November 5, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Quogue Wildlife Refuge is co-hosting a free Zoom lecture with the New York Marine Rescue Center. The subject is a turtle that may be lying on a Long Island beach this month. The Refuge's event listing says cold stunning is the number one cause of sea turtle deaths in New York. It also says that the sooner a turtle is found and reported, the better its chance of survival.

Put those two lines together and you get the reason a nature center in the pine barrens is recruiting beach walkers. The rescue center has the tanks and the biologists. It still depends on someone walking the sand in November to make the first phone call.

A summer visitor that misses its exit

Sea turtles spend the warm months feeding in the waters around Long Island. According to the New York Marine Rescue Center, or NYMRC, cold stunning is a hypothermia-like condition that sets in when the water reaches 55°F or below, which happens in New York between October and January each year. NOAA Fisheries gives a slightly lower general threshold and says cold stunning usually occurs below 50°F. Either way, the turtle becomes weak and listless and drifts wherever the wind and tide take it.

Three species show up in these cases. A study of New York strandings from 1998 through 2019, published in Chelonian Conservation and Biology in 2022, counted 505 distinct cold-stunned turtles:

• 279 Kemp's ridleys
• 176 greens
• 48 loggerheads
• 2 green and loggerhead hybrids

All three species are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, as the Shelter Island Reporter noted in its November 2025 coverage of the patrol program.

The timing is tighter than the October-to-January window suggests. The same study found that 97.6 percent of strandings over those 22 years happened in November and December. So the weeks right after this post comes out are the peak.

Where they land, and why that isn't the end of the story

The geography doesn't favor Quogue, and the evidence is clear on that. The study mapped 510 strandings and found them mostly on north-facing beaches along the eastern end of Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay. The highest numbers were on the North Fork and on the South Fork's north-facing shores.

The same paragraph adds the line that matters for anyone walking Dune Road. Turtles were found on every Long Island coastline, including stranding sites along the southern shore. Strandings here are possible but less common than on the Peconic side. A turtle that washes up where few people expect one still needs the same quick call.

The numbers have also grown. In 2019, NYMRC recovered 85 turtles, which the study called the largest single cold-stun season in New York up to that point. By the 2024 season, NYMRC reported more than 150 cold-stun sea turtle responses. That included a record 18 strandings in one 24-hour period. The center's page credits two causes: sharper swings between summer and winter ocean temperatures, and the difficult geography of Long Island and its forks.

Eighteen turtles in one day is a staffing problem as much as a biology problem. NYMRC runs the only marine mammal and sea turtle rehabilitation center in New York State. On a day like that, the people who spot turtles and stay with them until the rescue team arrives have to be the public.

The cue is wind plus tide

Cold-stunned turtles aren't swimming toward shore. NYMRC executive director Maxine Montello explained the pattern to the Shelter Island Reporter:

"Eventually, they become so listless that they float to the surface and are just floating, waiting for prevailing, strong northwest winds, that will push them to shore."

In the same article, she told the paper that turtles tend to turn up "right after a high tide," and that strong winds combined with a high tide mean "these turtles will most likely be up on the beach."

That gives you a practical rule for a November weekend. After a blustery northwest day, a walk timed just after high tide is when an alert eye is most useful. It is also the walk most people skip because of the cold.

If you find one

NYMRC's instructions are short, and New York's Department of Environmental Conservation adds a few details. In order:

1. Call right away. NYMRC's 24-hour stranding hotline is (631) 369-9829. Listen carefully to the biologists' instructions.
2. Do not put the turtle back in the water. A cold-stunned turtle can't swim its way out of the cold.
3. Do not try to warm it. NYMRC warns this can cause more harm, and DEC's stranding guidance says not to wrap it in blankets or clothing.
4. Keep your hands off. DEC says not to touch, pick up or try to rescue the animal yourself. If you can do it without handling the turtle, it should stay above the high-tide line.
5. Give a precise location. DEC asks for the most specific location you can give, your contact information and photos if it is safe to take them. A beach access name or road end on Dune Road is far more useful than "the ocean side."

Save the hotline number in your phone before your next walk. Looking it up with cold hands on a windy beach takes longer than it should.

From reporter to patroller

The November 5 session is the first of two training levels. Level I is a lecture, often on Zoom. According to the Shelter Island Reporter, it teaches volunteers when to patrol, how to identify each species and how to call for help. Level II adds field training. Montello told the paper this covers taking GPS coordinates and photos, identifying the species, and handling the turtle in the field so the rescue team has more hands. You must finish Level I before signing up for Level II.

If November 5 doesn't work, NYMRC's 2026 sign-up page lists more sessions before the season's peak passes:

Every remaining in-person date is well west of Quogue. That makes the Refuge's November 5 Zoom the easiest way in for anyone on the East End.

The rest of the Refuge's November

The turtle lecture is the one Refuge program this month that points toward the ocean. The rest of the November calendar stays on the Refuge's own trails, and several dates line up well with a post-walk weekend:

• Saturday, Nov 7: Owl Animal Ambassador Storytime. A Quogue Library storyteller leads an outdoor story hour with a simple craft and a visit from one of the Refuge's Eastern Screech Owls. Tickets run free to $5.
• Saturday, Nov 14: The annual bird seed sale, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with drive-through pickup. Proceeds benefit the Refuge and the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society, with support from Talmage Farm Agway.
• Sunday, Nov 22: A three-mile guided hike to the dwarf pines, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., for adults and children over 10. The Refuge describes the dwarf pine ecosystem as found in only three places worldwide.
• Tuesday, Nov 24: A full-moon walk to the Fairy Dell Boardwalk at sunset with a Refuge educator, including the local history behind the Fairy Dell name.

If you're comparing the Refuge with other trails nearby, our walk through Pine Neck Sanctuary in East Quogue sets the two side by side. For more about the village itself, see our Quogue neighborhood guide.

Quogue's beaches empty out after Labor Day, but people still walk them. A few of those walkers know what a cold-stunned Kemp's ridley looks like and have the hotline saved. Kelly DiJorio lives and works along this shoreline and enjoys sharing the details that make a Quogue November worth getting outside for. If you'd like a local's view of the village in any season, Let's Connect.