First Active SouthCoast Turtle of 2015

 Sue Wieber Nourse Captures Hardy Male Spotted Turtle #109

At noon today, April 1st, the Turtle Journal team ventured to Grassi Bog in Marion, MA to determine whether any spotted turtles might be active.  Don Lewis spied two spotteds basking on a distant island.  

Male Spotted Turtle #109

Sue Wieber Nourse, covering the other side of the bog, netted hardy Male Spotted Turtle #109 basking on a grass clump between snow and ice patches.  Rufus the Turtle Dog, of course, supervised the entire enterprise.

Carapace of Male Spotted Turtle #109 (Note Tail Size)

We first met #109 on 10 April 2014, swimming in the mating aggregation at Grassi Bog with three other males and females.  At the time, he weighed 110 grams and measured 8.75 centimeters straight-line carapace length.  A healthy, young male.

Spotted Male #109 (Note Dark Colored Neck and Thick Tail)

Since last year he has done quite well, gaining size and weight, even over this challenging winter.  #109 now weighs 122 grams and measures 9.26 centimeters carapace length.

So, FINALLY, the game’s afoot for turtle research on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Habitat, Turtles, Wild Animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.