Tag: turtles

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.

The Wildlife Society Western Section

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
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:

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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!

End of Field Season

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Writing this from Kevin’s house; we came straight here from Cobb, after breaking down our camp this morning. Yes, the 2011 field season has officially ended. We had a good night last night. Our first turtle of the year returned last night and laid a second nest – the first time we’ve witness a double-clutch.

We had another turtle out of the water, but by the time 240 had finished, the other one still hadn’t started nesting. She was WAY the hell out in the far meadow, almost to Sandy’s house, and Nick decided that we wouldn’t worry about trying to find her nest. Instead, we went out at 7 this morning, and were able to find her, but not the nest (not a lot of effort was put into it, but it’s not like we actually needed more eggs this year). So, we processed the nest from last night, had breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, and then went back to Jellystone to break camp. We were out of there before 10, and made good time to San Ramon, arriving just after noon. Oh, there was one bit of excitement this morning. One of the workers at Jellystone asked if any of us knew about birds, so of course I said yes. Turns out they had an injured bird, and weren’t sure what to do. I told him to bring it over. I was a pileated woodpecker, maybe with a broken neck, but it was definitely still alive and kicking. So, arranged for Katie to take it to the Songbird Hospital; I hope he will survive! That would be a happy story.

I also have some homework for Jellystone. They asked us to put together some information on the plants and wildlife around the campgrounds, and I agreed to work on that. I’m sure I can get someone else to help, maybe Nicole. Although what we really need is a botanist. I can do birds and animals, but I don’t know much at all about the plants. In any case, It will be fun, I hope, and will make the staff at the park happy. They we’re good to us this season, so I don’t mind doing them this little favor. Plus Nick will appreciate the effort, too.

Mostly, I had a great time up there. Didn’t really feel sad to go this time, though. Not like when we left last week. Probably because we’d been up there a whole week this time, and also the turtle activity had slowed way down. It just wasn’t as exciting as it was last week. It was a fantastic field season, though. According to Nick, the best one ever. We certainly got loads and loads of great data.

Turtle Release

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Released the turtles from the San Francisco Zoo today, and it was a lot of fun. I kind of love wading out into the middle of the lake. Not sure why it doesn’t scare me like a regular lake would, maybe because it’s not open water. Today we got a later start than last week, and also had to get final weights and measurements on the babies, plus renotching a few of them, so we didn’t get to the site until about 1:30. Still was fun, though. Hoping that tonight will be an active night out at the lake, and we get some new nests. It’s been a bit boring with how slow it got up here because of the rain. Although last night we did make one super cool discovery. Our first turtle this year, #240, was recaptured yesterday, gravid. This is the first time we’ve seen proof of a double clutch in one season, which I thought was pretty neat.

(Continued from earlier). Another cool event at tonight’s shift. We got a nest from turtle #70, whom I believe was the very first turtle captured and notched by SSU up at this site. She’s still alive and kicking! Literally! She kicked me several times, the little grump. Okay, so I can hardly blame her. We grabbed her and prodded her a lot, and opened up her nest. Hopefully no harm was done, though. She was adorable. I took a photo with her because I thought it was super cool to have found her again.

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Feeling a bit conflicted about the end of the field season. I’ll be glad to be home, sleeping in my own bed, having some time to sit around the house and do nothing. But I am going to miss this place, and my little turtle-ee-os. I will be back again this summer, when I come up to help Nicole collect the eggs that will be hatched in our lab and head-started. But still. I kinda love turtle season. Then again, probably a good thing to leave before I get really tired of it. This way I’ll be looking forward to next year.

I think I’m going to head to bed now. It’s not that late yet, but I haven’t been sleeping through the nights. Last night, I got woken up at 4:30 by a skunk going through the trash bag next to my tent. It was actually pretty cute. I knew it was a skunk because I could see the silhouette of its tail through the side of my tent. Like a puffy feather. I eventually had to put in earplugs to get back to sleep,

Okay. Nighty night! More turtling tomorrow.

June 29th

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Another cold day up on Cobb Mountain. Only rained a little bit last night, and we were cozy and warm and dry in our tent. Today, it’s too cold to really do much field work, so I’ve spent most of the day in the Rec room, reading fanfic and doodling around on my iPad. We will go out for a four o’clock walkthrough, and maybe a couple of later ones as well, but I doubt there will be much turtle activity. So, another sort of long and boring day. I guess this is the dark side of field work, mwahahahahahaa! This might be the way the season ends – with a whimper, rather than a bang. Then again, if it warms up in the next day or two, we might get one more wave of turtles before we pack up our field camp on July 3rd. So, we’ll see. It’s been a successful season already, one way or another.

More tomorrow, unless I’m too busy and forget. We’re releasing more baby turtles tomorrow, which should be awesome, assuming the weather warms up a bit.

June 28th

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Rainy day at the field site. Boring and cold. Had a good conversation with Nicole, but the day was kinda long without spending a chunk of it chasing turtles. We did go out for an afternoon walkthrough, though, and found a couple of awesome king snakes (see below). Hopefully it will clear up – and warm up – by tomorrow. I’m cold, and I don’t really like it. Might even sleep here in the rec room tonight, since it will be warmer. Not sure how comfy it would be on the floor, though, even with my thermarest.

Yesterday was a good day at the field site. Five turtles out of the water, and I think people were having a good time. Had a bit of a hassle with a telemetry turtle who couldn’t be located after nesting, even though we searched for an hour in the dark. Amazingly, we found her late this morning, though. We’ve already had a good season, so if it slows down now because of the rain, that’s okay. I would just like for the weather to get a bit warmer than it is now. It is weird to be getting rain at this time of the year. Then again, weather everywhere is screwy. And people still doubt that climate change is real?

Right now, I’m exhausted and really just biding my time until I can go to bed. Which might actually happen in about half an hour.

June 23

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Yesterday was a good day at the field site. I conquered my fear of the tree blind – I sat in it for about an hour and a half, watching turtles. I can now get in and out without any hesitation, and being up in the tree doesn’t make me feel sick to my stomach. I actually really like it now. Working on my fear of heights, one tree at a time. 😀
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