Turtles are out

Saw my first turtles of the year yesterday. They weren't muddy so I expect they've been out for a day or two. Typically I see first turtles the first week of April. Last year they came out in February but then had to go back into hibernation.

River temps hitting almost 55 before the end of winter is pretty mild for (southern) Michigan!

LOL, just when I thought the weather was going to get mild, it dropped back to 24f here.

Steve in Idaho said:

LOL, just when I thought the weather was going to get mild, it dropped back to 24f here.

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75 here yesterday, 60 mph gusts overnight, snow today.

The best turtle sighting I ever had was down in the Okefenokee. We came around a bend and there, sunning together on the same log, was a painted turtle and an alligator. It was early spring so I'm sure they were both just soaking up the warmth but it did seem odd to see this pair together. That gator could have reached out and snapped that turtle up if it had truly been interested. Nonetheless, the two of them just laid there like best friends enjoying the day.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

snapper said:

The best turtle sighting I ever had was down in the Okefenokee. We came around a bend and there, sunning together on the same log, was a painted turtle and an alligator. It was early spring so I'm sure they were both just soaking up the warmth but it did seem odd to see this pair together. That gator could have reached out and snapped that turtle up if it had truly been interested. Nonetheless, the two of them just laid there like best friends enjoying the day.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

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I love experiences that make you wonder.

It's not the best pic but you can see a painted turtle sunning within a couple inches of a snapping turtles mouth. That surprised me and I also wondered why they both let a canoe get within about a foot of them. Maybe both were asleep?

Why did the salamander cross the road?

NYSDEC has a program for protecting amphibians during migration season. A migration may only be a trip across a highway. I can remeber some seasons that we called "national frog and toad night" when it seemed that hundreds of the critters were hopping across rurral roadways with the expected results evident by morning. Including volunteer resources and training.


"The Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings (AM&RC) Project enlists volunteers to find locations where migrations cross roads; document weather and traffic conditions; record migrating amphibians; and help them across the road. Since the project started in 2009, more than 1,000 volunteers have counted at least 66,000 amphibians and observed 20 species. They assisted more than 40,000 amphibians across roads during migrations and counted nearly 19,000 migrating amphibians killed by passing vehicles."

I keep hoping for Spring, but still late Winter conditions here in North central Penna. Really need to get on the water again.

My daughter sometimes helps with the salamanders. I haven’t seen turtles yet we still have some ice on the ponds but we have two pairs of Wood Duck that come to our backyard feeder and they arrived yesterday. It is quite a sight to see them come walking out of the woods and the walk back into the woods when the had their fill.
Jim
Found a pic from a couple of years ago.