Archive for April, 2014

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Great Blue Heron Nest Building at SouthCoast Rookery

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

 Great Blue Heron Male Bringing Material to Nest

As the weather cleared on April 7th, the Turtle Journal team observed great blue heron pairs in the SouthCoast rookery repairing and reinforcing their nests for the coming season.  These large birds sail through the air as if in slow motion as they gently alight on the tree’s highest and most fragile branches.

Male Great Blue Heron Returns to Nest

The male heron gathers twigs and small branches from surrounding trees and passes these to the female for placement in the nest.

Great Blue Herons Reinforcing Nest

In full mating plumage, these exquisite animals embody grace and beauty as they prepare the nest for eggs and chicks to come.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Pair

The great blue herons tiptoe through ritual on each return, as though reinforcing their bond as well as strengthening the nest itself.

Male Great Blue Heron Leaves for More Twigs

With the transfer complete, the male spreads his wings and seems to float from the nest as he glides to another nearby tree to gather more material to reinforce the nest for the ordeal ahead.

Posted in Birds, Habitat | Comments Closed

Spotted Turtle Mating Aggregation in SouthCoast Grassi Bog

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

 Gorgeous 4-Year-Old Female Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata)

Springtime on the SouthCoast yields discoveries and adventures for the Turtle Journal team.  The weekend treated us with spotted turtles at a number of SouthCoast sites, including this magnificent young female spotted turtle that weighed 2 1/4 ounces and measured less than 3 inches long.

SouthCoast Grassi Bog (Former Cranberry Bog)

On Sunday, April 6th, we ventured to the Grassi Bog on the SouthCoast to search for spotted turtles and a potential mating aggregation.  We observed a few painted and spotted turtles basking on inaccessible grass hummocks in the flooded pond.  We walked around the edge of the bog, searching for spotteds, and we heard the telltale “plop” of a turtle plunging off a basking perch.  We just caught glimpse of a spotted shell submerging into the murky ooze.

Female Spotted Turtle Hiding in Plain Sight

While on land spotted turtles seem bright and gaudy, their color, shape and pattern blend perfectly into the background of a swampy bog.  In other words, they disappear while hiding in plain sight.  The photograph above illustrates the challenge we face in finding spotted turtles as they bask in indirect sunlight six to eight inches below the surface of the pond.  Remember:  You have the advantage of knowing that there is a spotted turtle in this picture.  Researchers are scouring acres and acres of swampy bogs at a fast pace trying to find them.

Sue Wieber Nourse Examines 3 Female Spotted Turtles

Fortunately, Sue Wieber Nourse is an expert turtle researcher, and she discovered three female spotted turtles basking and hiding beneath the surface of the swamp.  Sue perilously plunged into the flooded bog and immediately sank hip deep as she snagged the unsuspecting turtles.  These specimens ranged in age from four to ten years old, in weight from 2 1/4 to 4 ounces and in shell size from 2.8 to 3.6 inches.

~ 4-Year-Old Female Spotted Turtle from Grassi Bog

The little one was adorable.  Her brightly colored neck spotlighted her gender since spotted turtles exhibit sexual dichromatism.  Males have drably colored grayish necks.

Three Female Spotted Turtles from Grassi Bog

All three ladies were processed, marked for future identification and released back into the wild at the same location where Sue had captured them.  When we returned to Grassi Bog on Monday, we found the elder female in roughly the same spot, and captured a 5.5 ounce male nearby.  This area of Grassi Bog seems optimal for a spotted turtle mating aggregation.

Posted in Habitat, Turtles | Comments Closed

Wood Frog Egg Masses in SouthCoast Wetlands

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Turtle Journal Office in the Field

Spring activity demands that the Turtle Journal team be on the road and in the field as amphibians and herps awaken from a long winter slumber.  So, as dawn breaks, we saddle up the Turtle Journal field office and head out into the wild for discoveries and adventures.

Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)

Wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) serve as troubadours of Springtime in the wetlands of the Great White North.  With snow and ice still clinging to SouthCoast swamplands, their distinctive and raucous croaks can be heard as temperatures crack the 40s.  For those unfamiliar with this special call of the wild, click here for one of our YouTube videos from 2012.

Wood Frog Egg Masses in SouthCoast Wetlands

Yes, an early sign of Spring in SouthCoast wetlands are the raucous, guttural calls of amorous wood frogs, soon followed by the appearance of egg masses.  We had been searching for wood frog egg masses for several days, and found them Thursday morning, April 3rd.

Wood Frog Egg Freshly Deposited

On close inspection, the eggs seemed freshly deposited with little development as illustrated in the image above.

Wood Frog Eggs Beginning to Divide and Develop

Yet, by later in the afternoon when we returned to the site, we could detect definitive cellular division and development.  The chorus of wood frogs continues and more egg masses appear each morning.

Posted in Habitat, Wild Animals | Comments Closed

Garter Snake Active in SouthCoast Wetlands

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) in SouthCoast Bog

Turtle Journal explored the SouthCoast wetlands surrounding the abandoned Goldwitz cranberry bog in Marion on Thursday afternoon.  As we crossed a hard-packed, dirt road, we startled a large garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) — the Massachusetts state reptile – basking atop the warm roadway.

Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)

And, yes; the snake startled us, too.  Its color scheme blended perfectly with the compact sand, and as it lay motionless, the snake was nearly impossible to detect … until it began to slither toward the swamp.  We compared its length to our boot size to obtain an eyeball approximation of 2.5 feet.

Rufus the Turtle Dog Tracks Garter Snake

Rufus proved particularly amused by the snake.  Reading her mind, I saw a cartoon bubble exclaiming, “Wow!  A stick that actually throws itself.”  She thought she had found the perfect doggie toy.

Garter Snake Slithers into Abandoned Cranberry Bog

Sliding down the bank, the garter snake slipped into the flooded wetlands.  It swam into the middle of the swamp and found a tangle of reeds and grass stocks on which it could continue basking in the 55 degree sunshine.  With sighting of the garter snake, Turtle Journal has observed most of our Spring signature species and we feel comfortable proclaiming that the Spring season is in full swing … at least until the next nasty snow storm strikes the Great White North.

Posted in Habitat, Wild Animals | Comments Closed

ADORABLE COUPLE — Spotted Turtles

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Female (Left) and Male Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata)

In coastal Massachusetts, spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) are the first turtle species to awake from winter brumation.  Just as ice melts in shallow wetlands, and the March sun rises above the treeline, spotted turtles emerge from their oozy hibernacula and trek to nearby mating aggregations.  Bright yellow spots on a dark carapace give this species its extremely descriptive name.

Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus Examine Spotted Turtles

We saw the first active spotteds in a SouthCoast pond on March 18th.  On Thursday, April 3rd, the Turtle Journal team investigated a mating aggregation near Washburn Park in Marion.  This wetland area had been significantly disrupted by NSTAR within the last year, and we wondered whether spotteds would return this season.  We sneaked up on the site and peered through trees and brambles into the swampy wetlands.  Sue Wieber Nourse observed two turtles under water cavorting in mating show, and Don Lewis  saw another turtle about ten feet further down the trail basking on downed branches.

Female (Left) and Male Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata)

We charged through thick brush and managed to capture two of the three turtles; one gorgeous female and a very handsome male.  Both were first time captures.  The female weighed 125 grams and measured 9.16 centimeters long.  She sported the most lovely galaxy of yellow spots on her carapace.  The male weighed 148 grams and measured 10.02 centimeters long.

Female (Left) and Male Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata)

Spotteds are a small, extremely beautiful wetlands turtle.  Females can be distinguished by brightly colored yellow-orange necks, while males have drab gray or dark colored necks.  To compensate for such drab colors, males have a thick, showy tail.  As illustrated above, males also have an indentation on the plastron across their abdominals; females to the contrary have flat, washboard abs.

Posted in Turtles | Comments Closed

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