Northland Nature: Tiny turtle takes trek
May 19—Spring unfolds in many ways in May. Nature watchers never run out of things to observe. Woods walks are such a delight now as we see the various colors of spring wildflowers on the forest floor.
This colorful scene is critically timed to happen before the leaves come out overhead. Among the trees, we see plenty of flowers of their own.
The month that began with snow-covered ground and bare trees will be green by the time we exit. And there is quite a lot of movement. Leafing and blooming trees attract insects and hatching caterpillars that dine on the new plant parts. If left alone, trees could be defoliated, but this is slowed by the arrival of numerous songbirds to eat these arboreal insects.
Among the branches, there is a great deal of movement of migrant birds arriving from southern wintering sites. Returning to where they left last year, they feed and rest before going further north or remaining here to nest. These songbirds are of many kinds, but mostly warblers, vireos, flycatchers, kinglets, orioles and various sparrows.
During my recent walks, I noted this movement along roadsides. Flocks of several kinds of sparrows fed here. Their absence was filled by various warblers. Noting a half-dozen kinds of sparrows one day, became a half-dozen species of warblers a few days later.
But there is more migration at this time. Recent walks have noted: blue-spotted salamander, frogs, toads and garter snakes. All are waking from a dormant winter to go to sites for mating and breeding. But I also noted one that was the result of last year's breeding: a tiny painted turtle.
We have only two kinds of turtles common in the Northland and we are well aware of these reptiles. Snapping turtles are much larger than the colorful painted turtles. Both are water turtles and frequently seen here. Though snapping turtles can leave the water to bask in the sunlight, mostly painted turtles do this on clear days. Water is still chilly in May and I find that on a bright warm day, shoreline logs in lakes and rivers get crowded with painted turtles.
This is also their mating time and during the nights of June, gravid females will climb out of their water world to dig a hole to deposit a clutch of about ten eggs. During early morning walks in June, I have frequently seen this phase of their life. Often, they choose soil near a road to place the eggs.
The eggs in June are warmed by the summer sunlight and hatch in about seventy days; but there is more to their story. Snappers also lay eggs in June, their larger clutches will take about one hundred days to hatch and in September, the young come out and travel to the nearest water.
Things are different with painted turtles. The eggs hatch is late summer, but instead of leaving the nest site to go to water, the tiny babies remain all fall and winter and leave in spring. (This is another example of how an ample snowpack can help winter survival.)
What I observed one day recently was a hatchling painted turtle in a migration of its own, going to nearby water. Painted turtles are called this due to the bright-orangish pattern on the underside (plastron). The top shell (carapace) is dark and smooth. The one that I noted was colored like a miniature adult.
This was another great sight in May and I wish it a lot of luck in its surviving the new aquatic home.
