Author: Wendy St. John

July 2nd

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Last day at the field site. To be honest, I’m looking forward to going home. Last night was a bit disappointing. We had four or five turtles out of the water, but no nests. Turtle 240, the double-clutch female, did attempt to nest, but she hit a rock. There was another aborted attempt right near the water, as well. Hopefully, tonight will be better. There are several females with telemetry out, so hopefully we’ll get a couple of nests. Ah well, it’s fun, anyway.

 

Oh, and I felt a small earthquake two nights ago, centered around 4 miles from here. I felt an earthquake up here last year, as well. I wonder if that means they have them more frequently here than back at home? In any case, it was pretty cool.

 

Now, sitting in the rec room, trying to stay cool. Still three hours before we go to the field site. Maybe I’ll try to take a nap. Or read another story. I’ve done a good job journaling up here. Let’s see how well I am able to keep it up once I get home tomorrow.

My Field Season Has Begun

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Female western pond turtles (Emys marmorata): their nesting season has begun at my field site in Lake County, Calfornia. The turtle in the first photo (#222, a recapture we first encountered in 2010) nested on June 6th – and yes, that photo was taken while she was in the process of laying her eggs. And the gorgeous girl in the other photos (#225, also first captured in 2010) nested on June 7th. The turtles seem to be coming out in greater numbers about a week earlier than they did last year.

The lab at my university has been studying this population of turtles for five years now (this is my third year on the project). We’re looking at nesting behavior, including the ways in which they use the habitat – distance from tree line, or distance from the pond, and whether or not the females return to the same spot year after year to nest. We’re also looking at temperature profiles inside of the nests, because these turtles have Temperature-dependent Sex Determination (TSD), which means that sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs incubate, rather than genetically. (Higher temperatures produce females; lower temperatures produce males, in this particular species).

June 8

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment

Back from my first trip up to the field site this season – we’ve had five turtles out of the water – four of them have nested successfully, and we’ve put a telemetry unit on the fifth, so hopefully we’ll find out out of the water again in a couple of days. We’re off to a really good start – we only had one nest this time last year. WHOO HOO TURTLES!

CNPS Field Trip

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Went on a field trip today with the local native grasslands society (California Native Plant Society), although the site we visited was already very familiar to me – it’s our Western Pond Turtle field site in Lake County, California. It was different being up there and *not* looking for turtles. I learned some things about plants (which is good; I’m ridiculously ignorant about plants), saw and heard a bunch of great birds (including pileated woodpeckers and MOUNTAIN QUAIL! Only the second time in my whole life I’ve ever seen mountain quail).

The star of the day, however, was this little ring-necked snake. Such beautiful colors. Now I’m really looking forward to the start of my field season less than a month from now.

Lupine

 

Emerging Baby Turtles!

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment

Last week, my lab partner and I went out to our field site to see if last year’s hatchlings had emerged yet from their nests. The female pond turtles lay their eggs in the early summer (June is the most active month at our site), and the eggs hatch approximately three months later. There is evidence that young don’t leave the nest, though, until after the winter, something we were able to confirm on our excursion today!

We were fortunate in being at the site at exactly the right time this year. We visited a few of the nests we’d located last summer, and found babies emerging from some of them. The sort of blurry photo shows the hole they had dug for themselves to emerge – I know it’s a crappy photo, but that really is a baby turtle inside. We also found a couple that were just in the process of coming out of the ground. It was a pretty amazing thing to witness.

Fairfield Osborn Preserve

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This week, I took my students on a field trip to one of my university’s nature preserves. Our primary goal was to survey some trees for Sudden Oak Death, but I never go to the preserve without the supplemental goal of making wildlife observations, especially since there are always at least a few students who tell me that this trip is the first time they’ve ever gone hiking in some sort of “natural” or wilderness area. I’ll combine photos from both days (I have multiple classes, so came out on two days).

The star of the show was this Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa), which I was able to locate on both day. I also loved this Southern Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata), Giant Wakerobin (Trillium chloropetalum), Pacific Chorus Frog (Pseudacris regilla), and Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis). I also found some gorgeously-colored Golden Ear (Naematelia aurantia) that appeared to be growing on False Turkey-tail (Stereum hirsutum).

Red-legged Frog Survey

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I did something really cool this evening: went out and surveyed for red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii), which are an endangered species in California. We found four frogs, and they are SUPER ADORABLE! Also, I look like a total dork in waders, but it was a really good evening. 🙂

Note – in the photo with the three frogs, the two on the ends are red-legged, and the one in the middle is a bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), a species that is an exotic invasive in our area.

The Wildlife Society Western Section

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Me and my poster

A small group of students from my research lab made the short trek to Sacramento to attend the annual meeting of The Western Section of The Wildlife Society, in Sacramento, California, February 1 – 3, 2012. This was my first conference after beginning the master’s program, and I worked with an undergraduate to create this poster, which we presented during the poster session:

2012TWSposter.jpg

We also had a pretty good time at the conference, and visiting a few of the sites in the old downtown area of Sacramento. Oh yeah!