New Arrivals

Painted Turtle at the Wetland Pond, 3/25/21

Today I saw my first turtle of the season at the wetland pond, a painted turtle (Chrysemys picta). I would say that it was sunning itself on the only log in the pond, except that the day was overcast, no sun to be seen. The air and water temperatures were both 56F at the time I was there, so I guess it may have just wanted a change of pace from being wet. There are turtle leeches, though I don't know if they are in this pond, so in addition to sunning themselves for the purpose of regulating their temperature, which would not have been effective today, turtles may also come out of the water for the purpose of inducing the leeches to let go and leave them alone.

Turtles in permanent bodies of water spend their winters burrowed into the mud at the bottom of the pond, lake or stream. Believe it or not, they are able to get what little oxygen they need while their bodies are mostly shut down through their butts (technically their "cloacas" -- see the article linked below for more information). Water is better insulation than air and most turtle species do not survive freezing, unlike the boreal chorus frog and the spring peeper, so spending the winter underwater works for turtles.

Given the fact that there is no water in the wetland pond for at least part of most autumns and that what water there is by winter is not deep enough to not freeze solid, the turtles that inhabit the wetland pond in the warmer months must migrate over from the lake after spending the winter there. This is a distance of about 400' according to the Google Satellite view below.

There must be good reason for turtles to make the trek over from the lake -- something to think about.

This was a good week for new arrivals. In addition to the turtle today and the red-winged blackbirds I saw on Saturday (3/20), I saw the first mosquitoes on Saturday, the first dragonflies on Monday (3/22) and today heard the first calling of a third frog species. I'll be writing about each of these in future blog posts, but wanted to mention them today as new arrivals this week.


The scale is not included in this screenshot but it indicated the distance from Homer Lake to the Wetland Pond is about 400 feet.

For more on the turtle's ability to "butt breathe" see

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-secret-to-turtle-hibernation-butt-breathing


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