Turtles at the Pond
Phenology – “a branch of science concerned with the relationship between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as the migration of birds or the flowering and fruiting of plants).
First Turtle
Turtles emerge from their winter lodgings about when the ice disappears from the pond, perhaps after being awakened by the quacking of hundreds of wood frogs that have started their three-day party in the newly open water. Usually the first turtle I see in the spring (known in my journals as the “first turtle”) is sunning on Rock Island when I walk along the edge of the pond in late April to check on the wood frogs and their egg masses. This year, the first turtle was in the pond, and it happened to stick its head up about ten feet from the wood frogs that I had been watching near the reeds at the side of the pond. This was not the first time I had seen such a scene:
April 20, 2004: Now only two or three dozen wood frogs remain in the pond, all within ten feet of the shore and most within ten yards of the egg masses. … An 8” painted turtle was swimming by the eggs and a couple of fish jumped.
[1] Photos and text by Carl D. Martland, founding member of ACT, long-time resident of Sugar Hill, and author of Sugar Hill Days: What’s Happening in the Fields, Wetlands, and Forests of a Small New Hampshire Town on the Western Edge of the White Mountain. Quotations from his book and his journals indicate the dates of and the situations depicted in the photos.
A couple of years ago, the first turtle not only hadn’t reached the pond, it didn’t seem to be fully awake:
April 21, 2019, 11:30am, 66 degrees: A painted turtle sat on a mossy root about five feet from the SW corner of the pond. It was so sluggish that I not only took many pictures, I was able to pick it up and measure it. It’s shell was an inch shorter than my notebook, i.e. 4.5 inches.
In the early spring, I once followed a painted turtle as it began a long and perilous journey from our pond to a small pond located several hundred yards away on the other side of Pearl Lake Road. This trek seems quite a bit less than “long and perilous” to those of us who can walk at great speeds and see far beyond the other side of the road. However, what to us is a mere five-minute stroll will take a turtle a couple of hours:
April 27, 2009. On the 27th, a turtle was crossing the back yard, on its way from the pond to the fields on the other side of Pearl Lake Road. I timed its speed: it went 120 yards in 26 minutes, which is about 5 yards per minute, 300 yards per hour, 1/6th of a mile per hour, or 0.25 feet per second. I followed it for the half hour that it took for it to reach the other side of Pear Lake Road.
April 27, 2009, 1:58. This painted turtle has made it from the pond to the middle of our back yard. It raises its head to get a better view of the way forward.
April 27, 2009, 2:22. The turtle has now crossed the lawn, traveled ten yards along the drainage ditch, and is about to begin the dangerous crossing of the wide and barren desert that we call Pearl Lake Road.
In May, a half dozen or more turtles are commonly seen sunning on Rock Island, on other rocks, or in openings amid the cattails. At first, only the mature turtles are seen, probably because the small turtles need to be more cautious.
May 2, 2018. Five turtles – four large and one medium - on Rock Island. While I was taking their picture, I noticed a wood duck walking toward them on the Point.
May 5, 2019. At 3pm, eight turtles were sunning on Rock Island, which I think is a record. They varied in size from medium to large and one very large.
Soon, smaller turtles will be seen. The smallest are the ones that hatched in the fall, but remained safe in their underground burrow until it warmed up enough in mid-May. They are barely one-inch long when they emerge in May, and many never make it to the pond. Some, like the one in the photo, reach the pond, but soon fall prey to a larger critter. A few do survive, and they will double in size by the end of the summer.
May 10, 2020. Dan has photos of a 1-inch turtle that emerged from the garden area just left of their house
May 17, 2011. A medium-sized and two small turtles sunned on the rock. Dan Kennerson said they’ve just hatched from a hole near their driveway; he and the kids are transporting them to the pond.
June 12-14, 2008. I found a small turtle at our end of the Pond; its shell was about 1 inch in diameter. It was very slow at first, so I could easily pick it up and trace its shell in my notebook. It stuck its head in, but eventually ventured out again and started to walk.
May 28, 2018, 75 degrees, 2pm. A small turtle (2-inch shell) was just below the surface in the detritus at our end of the pond, merely 5 inches from the mud at the shore. Unfortunately, it is an ex-turtle, it is deceased, etc. – it has no eyes or legs.
Painted turtles mate in mid-May, which is probably why that is when we are most likely to see turtles venturing across our lawns and crossing roads, perhaps following instinctual urges to find new partners in a different pond. I don’t know if the ones we see are leaving for good, leaving for a short time, or leaving with the possibility of returning in another year or two.
May 21-24, 1999. I saw a turtle (7-inch shell) coming from the backyard to the left of the dock and flopping into the pond.
Despite being safely ensconced within their shells, they do find a way to mate.
May 21, 2020, 78 degrees, sunny, light breeze, lovely! I took photos of two turtles in mating position at the edge of the cattails at our end of the Pond.
If the mating has been successful, whether the male has wandered off or stayed around, his work is done. The female will soon have to lay her eggs, but for a while, she also has no pressing duties. So what do they do with their time? Apparently, not much! Perhaps they have perfected the art of finding the perfect spot for meditating:
May 24, 2020, 75 degrees, sunny, ~1pm. Walking back to the bench, I managed a photo of a 5-inch turtle sunning a foot from the shore. Actually, “managed” isn’t the correct term, as it stayed there unmoving for ten minutes. And after it dove, it merely swam a few feet further out and poked its head up. I watched it closely for four minutes (12:48 to 12:52) before it made any movement at all, just a twitch, a slight shift of its head, and a flicker of its eyelid (the first I’d noticed) and then it disappeared out of sight.
By early June, the females are ready to lay their eggs. First, they need to find a suitable spot, one that is mostly sand and gravel with some twigs, grass or miscellaneous detritus nearby. A spot by a gravel driveway is perfect, as is spot in a garden. She may dither for an hour or two or even a day or more before selecting the perfect location, and then she spends several hours digging a hole with her rear feet. Once the hole is about six inches deep, she will lay her eggs, fill the hole back in, and cover the area with the aforementioned twigs, grass or miscellaneous detritus. Here are a couple of eyewitness accounts:
May 30, 2018, 4-5pm, now warmed up to 80 degrees, still mostly sunny. A painted turtle crossed the driveway, headed toward the garden by Nancy’s garage, but it didn’t go in. Later, it came back right between the patio and driveway and spent a couple of hours methodically digging a hole at the side of the driveway, laying her eggs, and then expertly covering the opening.
June 6, 2014. About 2:30, I noticed a turtle near the driveway. I managed to measure it using a stick, even though it was “running” to the wall garden. Its shell was nearly seven inches long. I thought it was gone, but a while later, I saw it on other side of the driveway heading back toward the wall garden. It crossed the driveway and explored along the edge of the turnout. Eventually it settled down and began to dig. As the hole deepened, you could see it scoop a gob of clay with its left rear foot, pull it out, drop it and then repeat with the right rear leg. I took pictures at various stages of the three hours that it took her to find the best spot, dig her hole, lay her eggs, close the hole, and rearrange the surface to look like it had never been touched.
June 6, 2014. This turtle began digging before 4pm, and it continued until after 6:30. By 7:30, she was all done, and the hole was perfectly covered up.
The little turtles eventually hatch within their burrow, but they often will not emerge until the following spring. As shown in the following photos, the place where the eggs were laid was perfectly covered up when the female was finished, and the little turtles survived and safely emerged in the following spring.
June 6, 2014. After the female has finished her work, there is no evidence that her eggs are safe below
May 11, 2015. Young turtles have emerged from the burrow where the eggs were laid the previous June.
Another year, I followed a turtle on its way down Post Road looking for a place to lay her eggs. She didn’t start digging until the next day, when I was able to see how she closed up the hole:
June 17-18, 2016. I spotted a turtle entering Post Road from Jeannie’s driveway, which was fortunate for the turtle, as I stopped a car from crushing it and it (the turtle, not the car) went back into the ditch. The next day, the 18th, I saw what was likely the same turtle right by our mail box; it appeared to be closing a hole where presumably it had laid eggs. I took a picture of it smoothing the hole and then, with its back feet, moving a leaf and several twigs over the spot to cover up evidence of the hole. I was able to get some of this wonderful activity documented in a movie!
June 18, 2016, 6:49pm. A painted turtle closes up the hole by Post Road where she had just laid her eggs.
June 18, 2016, 6:53pm. The leaf seen in her rear hind foot in the prior photo is now sitting with some bits of detritus over the center of the filled-in burrow.
Once the mating and the egg-laying are done, the turtles don’t have much to do. The largest are safe from any kind of predations, so they are happy to sit all day in the sun, except for a dip now and then to cool off and snack on whatever is abundant in the pond. The smallest will, for a while, imitate their elders, but not for long. Just like when we go to the beach, the kids playing along the shore are more interesting to watch than the immobile adults:
July 3, 2017, 75 degrees, windy, gorgeous. Two small painted turtles sunned on Rock Island, heads stretched out toward the sun just like mom and dad.
July 4, 2013. A small turtle was sitting on the moss at the shoreline on the point with its head in water, reminding me of how I must look when I’m standing in shallow water, trying to get up the nerve to jump in. When I touched its shell, it finally launched, paddling madly with its rear feet, yet managing only to swim slowly. It reminded me of an extremely obese man trying to run, but succeeding only in waddling rapidly. It came up for air, then swam to the reeds, surfaced and rested its head on a reed.
July 27, 2020. 93 degrees, mostly cloudy, miserably hot & humid, about 5pm. When I approached the Point, a little (1.5” to 2”) turtle sunning on Rock Island was so flustered by my approach that, in its haste to get to the Pond, it took the most direct route – tumbling over and over two or three times, like a child rolling down a bank waiting for the Sugar Hill fireworks!
For the rest of the summer, turtles of all sizes congregate on Rock Island and other rocks in or at the edge of the pond. Once in a while, one of the smallest will end up side-by-side with one of the largest, both with their legs extended and the heads arched up as high as possible:
August 22-23, 2019, 3pm. The very large painted turtle was with a tiny turtle on the reed island just past the drain.
As the painted turtles continue sunning through the end of the summer, they seem to become accustomed to my presence. Even the little ones no longer scramble for safety as soon as they see me, which one fine Labor Day weekend afforded a chance for a suitable conclusion to this essay:
September 7, 2017, rain finally stopped, and by 1pm it was partly cloudy and 65 degrees. I noticed a small turtle sitting below the pond weed, perhaps four feet offshore on the underwater portion of Rock Island. It seemed to be looking at me, trying to decide whether it was safe to come up for a breath of air. I waited. He waited. I waited. And then he came slowly up the rock, close to shore, waited some more, poked up and took a breath – long enough for me to take two quick pictures – and then quickly went back down. It’s only at this time of day when the sun shines at such an angle that you can see right down four or five feet to the bottom of the pond, which is how I happened to notice this 2.5-inch painted turtle.
September 7, 2017. A small turtle stares at me after getting sufficient courage to come up for a breath of air just off Rock Island.
