Tiny Turtles

When my husband appears at our kitchen door, it usually means something is 'up'.  Sure enough, last Sunday afternoon, when he came to that door which he seldom uses, he had something in his hand.  This is what he had-- minus the quarter, which I added to the photo for scale!

He and his brother had been digging potatoes and noticed some egg shells.  Then, looking more closely, they noticed tiny turtles!

As you may know, we live across the road from a large beaver swamp.  In May or June, it's pretty common for us to see painted turtles coming out of the water to lay eggs.  (You can read about it in this post).  We have seen turtle hatchlings before, but never this late in the year.  Normally, when we see them on land, we put them in the water in the swamp.  But this late in the season, I wasn't really sure what would be the best thing to do for them.

So, while I researched it a bit, I put them in a small basin, with a little water in one end and a dry area on the other.  They didn't move around too much, but they did seem to like the water side best.

The reason they only moved around a little, probably, was because they were dormant before they got dug up with the potatoes.

Boy, what cuties though!  

So tiny and perfect.  I really wanted to 'mother' them, and take care of them, but...
I decided, after getting some helpful advice, that the best thing for them would be the most natural thing -- to put them back outside.

I didn't want to replant them in the garden, because then; come spring, they would have to cross the road.  Besides the road crossing, it is a long distance to the water from there.

I did get some nice, loose soil from my brother-in-law's garden though.  And I gathered up some other equipment.

I found a good spot for them closer to the swamp.  Before I said 'good-bye', I took some portraits:

You can see a little bit of this one's 'painting' on the plastron in that shot, now here it is up-side-down...

You can see that it still has some of its yolk sak, which will continue to supply nutrients til it's gone.

This one was more 'out-going'...

but still kind of 'sleepy'.  Here is its underside.

Good thing they were not too active, because it's time for them to go back underground.

That's all loose garden soil under them, and then I gently covered them with more.

Over that I placed a cage made out of a piece of wire fencing.  It has openings big enough for them to crawl out of, but hopefully not big enough for a predator to get thru.

With my hammer, I pounded in some old tent stakes to secure it on the ends, and covered it with a few leaves to help make the spot blend in with the surroundings.

Then I said a little blessing over them, asking God to protect them and help them survive the long, cold winter.  Our swamp seems to be a good home for painted turtles (click here to read about the day I counted them), so hopefully these will be able to join the rest.

Let's Count Turtles - And a Reminder

It's that time of year when so many things are happening in the natural world that I'm sure I could write a post a day... except that would take time away from me being outside watching it happen! More birds are arriving back (or at least passing thru) every day, and wildflowers are going crazy now that we've had a little rain and warmth.  But I'm not going to write about either of those things today.

No, today we are going to count turtles!  It's sunny and warm, so let's go down by the swamp and see what we can find!

Right across from our driveway is the best viewing spot, because this log seems to be the favorite turtle hangout.  I counted 14 Painted Turtles here.

 Just in front and to the left of that log is the next best location.

There were eight there, after one climbed out of the water while I watched.  14 + 8 = 22 

Standing in the same spot, I looked around with my binoculars for more.

This loner was right in front of me.  14 + 8 + 1 = 23

Now, we're going to walk down the path along the swamp a little ways.

I momentarily got distracted by this male Yellow Warbler, which was singing away.

Along with him, I could hear a Warbling Vireo and Common Yellowthroat.  Not to mention all the Red-winged Blackbirds!

Back to the turtles...

Three here.  They had their heads up because a Grackle had just landed and run across the log behind them.

There were several more turtles nearby.  Two here...

and now a series of singles:

Whoops, another distraction... a female Hooded Merganser went swimming by. 

And, finally, the last two turtles I could see.

Some of them were pretty far away from me, so sorry for the grainy photos. 

Have you been keeping track?  

14 + 8 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1+1 = 34 !

That's the most turtles I've counted in one day in our swamp.  That makes me very happy, because last year I thought their numbers were down.  Apparently the 17" of ice we had 2 winters ago didn't bother them.   (We didn't measure it this past winter, I'm sure it was that much or more again.)

Something that does bother them... more than bothers; it's a real danger-- is the time coming soon when the females will leave the swamp to lay their eggs.  Our road runs parallel with the swamp.  While this is nice for viewing things, it's not so great for the turtles that try to cross it.  

Every year it makes me very sad to see a few turtles get crushed by cars.  Please slow down and avoid them.  Better yet, if you can safely stop, pick them up and carry them across in the direction they are heading.  I will appreciate it and so will the turtles.  (You can read more about turtle egg-laying time in a post I wrote back in June 2013.  Click here.)

If you slow down while driving by not only can you avoid killing a turtle, you might see something interesting like this:

Yesterday afternoon there were 4 Great-blue Herons in the old nesting tree (you can see 2 of them in this photo).  I don't know what they were up to, but I'm planning to keep an eye on them!

For Love of Turtles

Lots of people love turtles, and I am one of them.  I am happy to report that this past week for me was quite turtle-ly.  My husband and I spent the week in south Texas, thanks to air mile vouchers for our flights.   We timed our trip for what we hoped would be good birding there during spring migration, and we planned to visit some famous birding spots.  We did see lots of birds, but we also saw quite a few turtles.  I'll tell you more about the birds later, but in this post, the turtles get the spotlight.

The first place we went was Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.  There in the cypress bog were lots of Red-eared Sliders of all sizes.  The one above was about 5" long.

This log seemed to be the spot for the smaller ones (with the exception of the larger one in the back, being used as a perch for a little guy).

A nearby log was the hang-out for most of the larger ones.

The next turtles were at Paradise Pond in Port Aransas.  I didn't notice them right away, they were so well camouflaged with duckweed.

When we were at Padre Island, we saw this sign.  It was the time of year for Green Sea Turtles to come onto the beach to lay their eggs.  We did walk the beach awhile, but we didn't see any turtles. 

But, it just happened we were there for a turtle release!  The local  rehab center was going to release healed Green Sea Turtles back into the ocean.  When we checked into our motel, the friendly clerk told me about it. What luck that we were there at the right time!

We got a good spot along the taped off section of beach to watch.  First, they brought all the turtles out in plastic containers.

The turtle they set down right in front of us was named Lester.
I guess it can be hard to tell sea turtles apart, because they all had their names on post-it notes!

A huge crowd had gathered to see the turtles released, so even though several of the ladies who volunteer at the Texas Sealife Center talked to us about the turtles, I couldn't hear all of what was said.  I believe there were 17 turtles.  

They had all been living at the center until they were well enough to live back in the ocean.  Some of them had tumors removed, like this guy.

You can see on his foreleg where he has a scar from the surgery.

The next turtle lost one front leg in an accident, but had healed and will be able to survive nicely without it, according to the lady who carried it back to the sea.

Many of the turtles looked perfect... and they may have been ones that were rescued by boat when the water in the area got below 40 degrees.  At that temperature, they basically can't function well and float along on top of the water.  They might wash up on shore where they would be vulnerable to predators or simply die in the cold water.

As they were being shown to the crowd, most of the turtles were flapping their flippers excitedly... they could smell the ocean and they were ready to go!

The volunteers from the Sealife Center carried them, one by one, into the water.

Off they went...

... until there was only one left!  The biggest one of all.

It took two guys to lift it out of the back of the truck.

It was flapping, ready to swim!

What a joyful moment to see each turtle returned to where it belonged. 

The next turtles of my week are from back home today in PA!  They are Painted Turtles, sunning themselves on a log in our beaver swamp.  (You can read more about our turtles in this post called "Why did the turtle cross the road?") 

I like to do a 'turtle count' on sunny days like today, and I was happy to see 10 on one log.

There were two more on another log.

I was glad to see they made it through the extremely cold winter we had.  An added bonus while I was counting turtles was seeing a pair of Hooded Mergansers.  You can easily see the male just behind the turtles in the above photo.  The female is not so easy to see.  She is to the left of him on the other side of the reeds.  

I'm not sure why so many people love turtles, but if you weren't one of them before, I hope you are now!