Trying to make lemonade

This week was mostly spent outside. My hand tan is unfortunately already in full effect . Most of the week was turtling. Things didn't go quite as I had hoped. The first two days were spent in allergy hell. I guess it was the location and having to kick up a lot of pollen by bushwacking the skunk cabbage. I was exhausted and had a non-stop sinus headache while outside. Thankfully I had a reprieve by the Wednesday, but I paid for it by falling on a rocky slope. I got a bruised ego and skinned knee out of it. Who knew that binoculars bounce? Apparently they do. Did I mention that I seem to be tick magnet this season? Yup that's still going. I just love pulling them out of my hair after I brushed and checked my head.

Even though the quest for the super rare turtle has been a tough go, I was able to find a less rare larger turtle. Of course, they are huge and pretty easy to spot. I'm just glad I didn't totally skunked (finding no turtles) as we say in the biz.

Just another weekend

Super rare turtle quest continues. Things have been slow considering the wacky weather we've had this spring. This weekend was gorgeous and I tried to take full advantage. I headed to the swamp to check on the spotted and painted turtles. The few turtles I did see were chowing down on the veg. No a single turtle was out basking. I saw this water snake who took extreme measures to find a spot to bask. It's hard to tell from this angle, but this guy was basking on top of a shrub with like a foot drop to the water. Don't move otherwise you'll fall in! Following the swamp visit, I tried to check out a new turtle site. Unfortunately it was along a brook that was completely flooded out from the extreme rain. So mission was aborted.

Then today I headed out to three sites that don't have many rare turtles, if any at all. I wasn't 100 percent sure I wanted to make the effort today, but then I got word that a co-worker found a super rare turtle there yesterday. So I immediately bolted out the door and scrambled there. I saw another co-worker had beaten me to the punch, but he didn't find any. He reluctantly left and thought I would find the turtle as soon as he left. I ended up spending a long time, but I came up empty handed. I headed to another site that I love, but it only has one lonely snapping turtle, which is the not the object of my search. I greeted snappy and went about my thing. Again, I came up empty handed. The third site I had never been to. I thought I had found the best place to park and walk in. I battled my in and went about my search. Nothing! On the drive out, I decided to do an immediate drive by and of course there was a fantastic place to park right next to it. Rats! Well there will be a next time.

A Tale from turtling

I've been out turtling as much as I can...weather permitting of course. The weather this spring has been whacky to say the least. We've had possibly record breaking heat followed by near freezing temperatures. It's now raining and cold and more of the same is predicted for most of the week. Not good turtling weather.

But given the hectic work schedule, I've had to make lemons out of lemonade. That's why we had to go out turtling at a very large site on the insanely hot day. We started out early to avoid the heat, but that didn't matter considering we had to spend about 3.5 hours out there. The vegetation was very dense shrubs peppered with swamp rose. I forgot my garden clippers so getting through was even more difficult. To add to the mess, every once in awhile you would stumble upon a bottomless open pit, which had to be carefully navigated. Boredom and exhaustion came early. No turtles were spotted. I did spot a couple water snakes and a newt....that was my excitement. To add insult to injury, dozens of ticks were continuously invading me. Each time I crashed through and even brushed up against a shrub, at least 5 ticks would hitch a ride on me. Of course, I was the only one in the group that had this problem. I did spray myself with bug spray, but since I didn't wear hip waders (opted for the lighter and cooler rubber knee boots...if you can call them that), I was the object of their affection. A few hours in I hear a co-worker yell to another "mumble mumble bear heading mumble mumble." I immediately jump out of my heat/boredom coma and come rushing towards the action. From what I learned is that all the skunk cabbage had been eaten in one area. I know exactly what that means....beartown. My co-worker then spotted a boulder and thought it was a good spot to rest on. Turns out the bear was resting on the other side! My co-worker did a silent and quick retreat and another co-worker unknowingly came upon the scene. Other co-worker made some noises and whistles and the bear took off.

So I am borrowing my hedge clippers from the family for the next visit....if that happens. If it does happen, you can all guess where I will be heading towards first. Don't worry, I won't be bringing it any snacks. I just want a peek....after all 3.5 hours is a long time for turtling.

Introducing Almond and Macademia

Well, I'm a foster turtle mommy again. My co-worker found some painted turtles hatchlings coming out of nests in the ground. He harvested the 11 hatchlings and had been taking care of all of them on his own. His backyard pond has been drained so it isn't good habitat for the hatchlings. So here I go again! I certainly enjoy watching them and bonding with them, but I hate all the cleanup that goes along with it. It's no fun lugging all the water, tank, and all the fixins up and down to the basement and the every other week tank cleaning. So I'm downsizing their home in order to reduce the cleaning burden. Their new home is a medium sized tupperware with some pebbles for basking spots. I plan on buying a larger tupperware in order to accomodate their light. I figure they won't need a heat lamp. It certainly is warm enough and even warmer in the house, rather than the basement. Almond aka Al and Macademia aka Mac are relaxing on the deck right now soaking in the unseasonable warmth and hopefully some natural sun. I plan on releasing them in early fall back to nature.

Here's Mac in a quiet moment. Mac has a dot on its belly and is slightly bigger than Al.

Al was even more uncooperative during the photo shoot. Al has a nice orange belly thanks to the dried krill food.

Death cometh

This week marked the beginning of the super rare turtle quest for the year. The weather was awesome on friday and saturday. On saturday, I hit the local area which was also known for a lot of spotted turtles, which are super cute. The wetland is remote and I have a cross a river, which makes it even more challenging. Plus, the wetland is most likely bottomless. So you are basically walking upon a network of plant and tree roots with no solid ground for quite a distance. I hit the area quite late on saturday. It was hot and the sun was starting to set. All was pretty quiet and then I spotted a large dead snapping turtle. It was sad to see, but I didn't think much of it. I was slowly making my way around the perimeter and I see what I think is a glistening blackened leaf. Then I realize it's a turtle belly. I see another proper side up turtle near it. I'm thinking woohoo although why is the turtle upside down! I slowly amble my way over since walking is difficult and I try to correct the belly up turtle. It doesn't move. It's stone dead. Then I poke the other turtle. It's dead too! Both are marked spotted turtles. I really don't understand. I then sadly continue on and see another medium sized dead snapping turtle. So it was a pretty sad journey and it seems like they deaths were pretty recent since they didn't smell or almost looked like they could be alive. I did see a live painted turtle on the river,

On my way out, I saw this carpet of wild leeks. I've never seen so many leeks in one spot.

New residents

During the last big wind and rain storm awhile back, I noticed some new residents. They were a pair of American crows. At first, I wasn't sure if they weren't just two crows up to crow tricks, which includes pillaging nests. Nope. It turns out it's their own stick nest. Most of the time you wouldn't notice them. But then it comes time for their incessant cawing on nearby limbs to keep away any other crows. But of course, other crows are curious and always looking for a fight. So smackdown ensues. Hopefully their nest will be sucessful. I haven't seen any crow-lets before.

A good start to spring

Update: My coworker went out to the site with the "root cellars" (actually old wells) and that bitten up tree. He ran into two bears, which quickly ran off when they spotted him.


This past week I got to spend two beautiful days alone out in the field. The beauty of being alone is that you can go at your own speed and enjoy nature as you go. Tuesday was the best day of the bunch. Unfortunately it was one of those days were photo opportunaties didn't quite work out. I spent the morning searching for salamanders, turtles, and other herps. Things were going relatively normal until I decided to walk back to the car along the edge of the pond. It had recently rained and I was surprised to have not seen any spotted salamander eggs, especially since my co-worker had found an adult on the shore the past week. Then bam, I spotted an egg mass and then another and another (see horrible pic above...all those clumps are egg masses). Then I spotted a pile of egg masses. They looked freshly laid since they hadn't had a chance to absorb water and grow so big. The pile of egg masses looked like coral. Then I shifted my focus under the water and I saw at least three big adult salamanders running/swimming like hell away from the pile. I grabbed one and it was the skirmiest, biggest, and slipperiest salamander I ever held. My snake stick was in the other hand so I had to handle it with only one hand. I battled my way back to shore, but I eventually lost the battle and the salamander dropped out of my hand and into the water. Mind you when I had first spotted the first egg mass I was at capacity with the boots. I had about an inch from the water line to the top of my boots. Well that all went to hell and one foot got quite wet and my arm sleeve was drenched once the commotion started. I tried to go back and get another salamander but the water had become so clouded and the salamanders were wise to the invasive giant.


Other morning highlights was seeing a spotted turtle, a painted turtle, and hearing a pickerel frog call. The the lowlight of this site was getting a deer tick biting into my belly. That would be two deer ticks bites this year and from this same site! Thankfully I seem to be ok.




The afternoon I headed to another site, which was part of a state park. It had beautiful woods and a nice stream. Also there were two old structures along the stream, which I imagine were used to keep food cold....or something like that. I also found an old homestead and piles of junk. All of this was again time suckers.

When I had first stepped foot on the site, I noticed what appeared to be porcupine poop. I also noticed this action on a tree, which was right next to some old bear poop. So I was on medium alert for some bear action. I'm pretty sure this is gnawing from either squirrels or porcupine. I guess they like birch beer as well.