The arrow points to a painted turtle nest near the Red Wolf Exhibit.

Three such nests were observed this past spring by either myself or Ranger Kristin. Two were Yellow-bellied Sliders and one, an Eastern Painted Turtle. One turtle was actually observed in the act of laying her eggs.

The egg-laying turtle, observed by Kristin, is well known to many of us at the Museum, a large chunk of her carapace is damaged making for easy identification wherever she wanders. She was observed dropping her eggs as Kristin sat nearby watching her. Her preference was a mulched area between two pine trees next to the Meadow in Catch the Wind. She deposited her eggs on June 7, a few weeks after the others.

This is Chip as she basks in the sun on March 16 of this year.

The two nests that I observed were in the process of being covered up by the turtles as I came upon them. The painted turtle was first spotted by Animal Keeper Mikey as he made his rounds on the morning of May 20 near the Red Wolf Exhibit. The yellow-bellied was in Catch the Wind next to the Sailboat Pond.

The painted turtle next to the Red Wolf Exhibit covers up her nest. When she completed her cover-up, the ground was indistinguishable from the surrounding area, as if she had never been there.

Most references state that its about a 72 day, or 2.5 month, incubation period for eggs of both species, 80 days on the outside. It’s also reported that the young may overwinter in the nest. I’ve seen many examples of that here at the Museum. A young yellow-bellied or painted turtle making its way to the Wetlands in March or April is surely a turtle that overwintered in the nest, whether as an egg or hatchling (a question for another time). The ones that I find in spring still have an “egg tooth” which suggests that they had recently hatched.

It’s now September and I’m wondering what happened to the eggs in the nests. It’s well over the 72 days, 2.5 months, or even the outside number of 80 days for the eggs to hatch. So on September 3, we decide to dig up the nests and see what lies within.

Will we find shriveled-up dessicated eggs, empty nests (the turtles hatched but left no obserevable indication on the surface of their departure), perfectly intact eggs, or eggs and hatchlings that have been ravaged by ants? There’s no other way to find out but to dig!

Ranger Kristin carefully digs through the hard clay to find the hollow chamber that is the nest.

When the adult turtles locate a suitable site to dig their nest they urinate to soften the dirt for easier digging. In our area that dirt is hard, clay-based soil. Anyone in this area who has set fence posts can attest to the soil’s unyeilding nature. This fact also makes for a very firm, almost inpenetrable, covering for the nest when it dries.

Once through the hard outer covering of the nest it's slow going as the chamber is unearthed, you don't want to damage anything (turtles or eggs) that may be inside.

There's a turtle!

And more of them!

A small handful of yellow-bellieds.

Although there were five healthy young turtles in the nest there were also a couple that had started to hatch and for some reason didn’t survive (perhaps ants), one egg was not viable, and one was partially hatched.

Although partially hatched at the time that it was uncovered this turtle did not survive.

One of two turtles that had apparently succumbed to ants.

Even though some of the turtles didn’t survive, it was turning out to be a very rewarding day.

Could there be more turtles here?

It was now off to the painted turtle nest in Explore the Wild. Could there be more turtles in that nest? Feeling good about finding turtles in the yellow-bellied’s nest we dove in with optimism.

Once again, careful digging so as not to harm any potential inhabitants.

There were no obvious clues as to where the actual nest was, remember, the yellow-bellied nest was equidistant between two trees, fairly easy to find. With this nest we were going from memory of three months time.

Finally…

Three tiny painted turtle nestlings.

The painted turtles were smaller than even the yellow-bellied turtles.

Note the ruler on the trowel.

We only found three young painted turtles with no evidence that there had been any others in the nest. Apparently the adult had only deposited three eggs in this nest.

Why had it taken so long for these turtles to hatch? Why hadn’t they dug themselves out of the nest when they did hatch? Some of the nestlings, at least in the yellow-bellied nest, had hatched several days prior to being dug up, perhaps much earlier. It seems that the answer to those two questions may have to do with the hard clay that makes up our soil here in the Triassic Basin in which we live, and with the lack of rain this summer.

As already mentioned, when turtles dig out their nests in spring they urinate on the site to soften the dirt for digging (turtles must have very large bladders, each nest that I’ve come across has been saturated with liquid). When the clay dries after egg laying is complete it forms a hard shell around the eggs. This “hard shell” was very evident when digging up the nests above.

Turtle eggs need warmth and moisture to properly incubate. There was plenty of warmth during summer, but a definite lack of moisture. At least one of the eggs simply didn’t incubate properly or was not fertile, while the young that did hatch couldn’t dig through the hardened clay. Remember, dry clay equals hard clay. As it happened, it rained heavily a few weeks after we dug up the nests, although that may have been too late for our little turtles.

The third nest, the one next to the Sailboat Pond, sits undisturbed. I’m going to keep an eye on that nest to see if there are young that emerge from the site next spring. By the way, the Sailboat Pond nest was excavated by a yellow-bellied on May 16, several days to a week earlier than the others.

Thanks to Animal Keepers Kent and Mikey for their encouragement, patience, and knowledge, both were very helpful in answering many questions. A special thanks to Mikey for coming out to the nest site in Catch the Wind when called upon at the last minute to answer even more questions and provide assistance when we actually found turtles alive in “Chip’s” nest.

One of six species of warbler seen, a Prairie Warblers gleans from a willow in the Wetlands.

For the birder, I saw 6 species of warbler this morning including Common Yellowthroat, Prairie Warbler, Black & White Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, American Redstart, and topped it off with White-eyed Vireo (not a warbler).

There were several individuals from each species and they were all very hungry, barely paying attention to me just below them in the trees.

And for the herper, or herpetologist…

What's that on the path ahead?

Apparently the thirty degree difference in temps from yesterday has prompted this Northern Water Snake to hit the pavement and head for high ground. I have a feeling that it’ll be back in a few days when it warms up again.

Making haste for the warmth of the rocks just a dozen or so yards away (9/16/11).

What more could one ask for, a cool day with no chance for a sun burn, a small group of warblers moving through, and a big fat water snake crossing the path in front of you.

A Solitary Sandpiper feeds just off the boardwalk in Explore the Wild.

Solitary Sandpipers are one of three “most likely to be seen” shorebirds on the list of species here at the Museum, along with Spotted Sandpiper and Killdeer. Our Wetlands is simply not conducive to shorebird feeding, not enough open mudflats. Even in dry years like this one there’s no guarantee that one of the trio mentioned above will show up in our rather small habitat.

Needless to say, I was excited to see our little friend. After watching the sandpiper for several minutes I noticed that other eyes were studying the bird as well.

It was a Bullfrog and it was stalking the sandpiper.

The frog in this photo is clearly stalking the bird. It was crawling commando style towards the shorebird.

A little too close, if you ask me.

Several times the frog got quite close to the bird. But each time the bird would simply walk away in the opposite direction, creating what it considered a safe distance between itself and the frog.

The stalk-and-walk continued for perhaps ten minutes while I shot photo after photo waiting for the inevitable leap at the bird.

The bird seemed to take it all in stride, but I was getting anxious. Leap, frog! Leap!

Finally…

The frog crawled close to the bird one last time and...

SPLASH!

The frog missed. You can see the bird’s reflection and shadow in the upper right corner of the photo above.

The bird momentarily hovered above the frog, all the while protesting loudly at its inconvenience. The indignant frog hopped off to deeper water to lick its wounds.

The bird watches as the frog (far right) tries to forget.

The frog originated its stalk near the grass at bottom left. You can clearly see its tracks in the mud as it slowly crawled along.

The frog had stalked, crawled on its belly, a dozen or more feet only to fail. The frog must have been in a desperate state to try such a maneuver.  From where I stood, it was certainly interesting to watch. Although I’ve heard stories and seen depictions of bullfrogs capturing birds, mostly warblers, I’ve never witnessed it myself.

Bullfrogs are stimulated by the movement of potential prey. It’s the movement that draws their attention and triggers the lunge at the prey. If the prey doesn’t move the frog will most likely ignore, or may not even see, the prey.

Potential prey is anything that is of reasonable size, the same size or smaller than the frog itself. I’m told, however, by Ranger Kristin, that a relative of her’s once witnessed a bullfrog take a stab at a pigeon that was drinking by the edge of a small pond.

I would think a pigeon too large to swallow. But from what I’ve seen bullfrogs eat here in our Wetlands, everything from insects, to other frogs, to the whopping crayfish we have here, I don’t doubt that a large bullfrog would consider a pigeon fair game. Besides, who would make up such a story!

The gruesome part of the story is that the frog was only able to secure the head of the pigeon. How it did that I don’t know since frogs don’t chew or tear food. They grab, swallow, and digest. But, and this is an important but, they don’t easily let go of something that they latch onto. The pigeon must have struggled tremendously. It’s a good thing that frogs don’t grow as large as, say, a Labrador Retriever.

And voila, another Solitary Sandpiper showed up!

A pair of Solitary Sandpipers feeding together.

The two sandpipers fed peacefully alongside on another for several minutes.

Wait a minute, who are you?

And then, as if suddenly realizing that they were both “Solitary” Sandpipers, they began chasing one another, drawing lines in the sand, or rather, mud. One bird seemed to be the chasor and the other the chasee. Curiously, the chasee would fly out over the water after being charged at by the chasor, and would land back where it had started only to be chased off again. This behavior went on for about fives minutes until one of them flew off to land on a boulder on the other side of the Wetlands.

Towards the end of the day they were both seen happily, or at least passively, feeding together.

The two shorebirds cautiously watch as a turtle swims by (right). Probably a good idea considering the earlier encounter with the frog.

I’m not sure which of the two birds had the run in with the frog, but I’ll bet it’s the one with the outstretched neck (above).

What fun, to watch these two birds! The following day, both were gone.

Not a banner year for Flowering Dogwood, there is nevertheless fruit on at least some of the trees. We also lost one tree to Hurricane Irene's high winds.

Hearts a Bursting, or Strawberry Bush is beginning to display the reason for its names. This plant is on the Dinosaur Trail just past the Albertosaurus.

Persimmons are beginning to ripen on the trees.

Some of the persimmon fruit has already fallen to the ground, good news for the raccoons, fox, and groundhogs.

Although raccoons, fox, and groundhogs can climb trees, squirrels are expert at the sport and don't wait for the fruit to hit the ground.

The tiny, waxy fruit of the Wax Myrtle is ripening, but not quite there yet. It should be ready for the arrival of the Myrtle Warblers next month.

The Fall Webworms within the silken web are still quite small, they're just getting started (9/9/11).

And, not necessarily a sign of fall but perhaps a sign of exhaustion towards the summer season…

Two shots of the same large snapping turtle in a shady area of the Wetlands. First spotted at about 10:30 AM (left) the turtle was still there at 4:00 PM. There were many questions by passersby as to whether the turtle was alive. Notice that the right front foot is extended and the head slightly to the right on the right photo. The color difference is due to lighting conditions at the time of the photo. (both photos 9/13/11)

Have we seen this snapper behavior before?

That’s all for now.

Where am I?

If you don’t see the Gray Fox in the photo, don’t worry, I’ll show you where it is in a few minutes.

I catch glimpses of our resident Gray Fox about every other week. Sometimes it’s a quick look as one of them rushes across the path, sometimes I see a fox stopped on the path eating fallen fruit (mulberries in spring, persimmons in fall, etc.) and sometimes it’s just a yelp or bark coming from the woods.

Ranger Kristin spotted the fox in these photos as it was munching on some unseen object in the dried swamp (the swamp has now filled with water after TD Lee passed through) just below the secondary Wetlands Overlook. By the way, there is a persimmon tree just about where the fox was first seen.

The fox pauses to look at us, looking at it, as the wily critter continued on its way through the underbrush after finishing its meal.

Were you able to find the fox in the top photo? If not, scroll down and have look.

Here I am!

Keep your eyes peeled!

=======CORRECTION  BELOW (9/19/11)=======

It’s been pointed out to me by Wendy Aldwyn, Art Director here at the Museum, that I have the head facing the wrong way in my outline of the fox. The correct outline is below.

The correct attitude of the fox as outlined by Wendy.

Enlargement of head area.

When first looking at the photo, I saw that the ears on the fox were facing to the left and assumed that the fox had its head turned back over its shoulder. You can clearly see the gray fur of its body next to the tree (above). Apparently it had turned it ears backward, listening to some noise behind it, not its entire head.

Another clue as to which way the head is turned is the reddish fur on the side of the neck. The reddish fur is more to the rear of the ears on a gray fox, not in front of the ears.

Wendy’s outline also gives the fox another front leg, some toes, and more detail in the face (she is, after all, the Art Director).

Thanks Wendy.

Rachael watches as the snake goes about its business.

Leave it alone and it will leave you alone.

The snake is about to "disappear " into the leaf litter.

Unfortunately the snake crawled under a rock in an area frequented by people and had to be relocated. In doing so it was placed in a five gallon bucket for transport which, while in the bucket, afforded excellent looks at the pattern on its back.

If you look at the photo below you will see that the pattern breaks up about midway down the snake’s back. That broken pattern is a characteristic of Southern Cooperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix).

The top left arrows point to the dark hourglass shapes that align. The bottom right arrows indicate where the pattern breaks up (the dark shapes do not align at middorsum).

The snake seen earlier, the smaller Copperhead in Explore the Wild, had a complete uninterrupted pattern. Does that mean that it was not a Southern Copperhead? Northern Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen) do occur in our area, according to Conant/Collins, “Reptiles and Amphibians: Eastern/Central North America,” and do not exhibit the misaligned hourglass pattern. Reading further, the book states that the broken pattern occurs “very often” in Southern Copperheads, not necessarily in every snake encountered. So, I’m not sure of the younger snake’s parentage. But, Northerns tend to be darker than Southerns, so I’m going with Southern.

Why all this discussion about Copperheads? Well, about two or more weeks back the seasons took a turn towards fall. From here on we’ll be seeing creatures preparing for what’s to come. For snakes, that’s moving around actively seeking food, and then heading off to find a nice safe place to spend the winter whether that’s an individual burrow or a communal den. So, they’ll be moving around a lot more than they would during summer.

The Durham area, even residential Durham, is populated with snakes, including Copperheads. You may run into one of these snakes while hiking your favorite trail in Duke Forest, the Eno River, or even here at the Museum. Just let the snake be and it will let you be.

It’s sometimes difficult to see Copperheads, to differentiate them from the ground, on the trails at Duke Forest or the Eno, but it’d be hard to miss one on the pavement here at the Museum. You’re not likely to accidentally step on one here, which is how most folks are bitten. See it, walk around it, or just stand well away from it, and it will crawl off into the woods, I promise.

Enjoy the snakes for what they are, a well established, interesting, and important part of the world we live in.

Happy Trails!

A young Copperhead striking a pose in Explore the Wild. Notice how it has coiled and flattened its body.

Prompted by a call over the radio about a Copperhead on the path on the far side of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop, and after some deliberation as to whether or not I wanted to go all the way out to the site chasing something that could be long gone by the time I arrived, I hitched a ride with Facilities Tech Dale who happened to be headed that way.

I was in my office trying to get a post out on this blog when I heard the call. It was a rather warm morning so I didn’t want to waste time on what could be a hopeless quest to get a photo of the snake and needlessly get all sweaty in the process. But judging by the back and forth over the radio it seemed like the snake was staying put. When Copperheads “stay put” in the middle of a walkway they are typically relocated to another area of the Museum property out of harm’s way. Animal Keepers Mikey and Katy were on hand to take care of that.

Animal Keeper Mikey ready to safely move the snake to an out-of-the-way location

Ranger Kristin had first seen the snake as she headed out to Explore the Wild. It was a young snake and apparently hadn’t dealt with humans before, it didn’t realize that if it had kept moving along on its way we humans would have simply let it keep right on going without much interference. There would have been some gawking, maybe a few photos, but that’s it, leave it be. The snake, however, struck a pose and stood its ground upon seeing Kristin round the bend with the golf cart she was driving at the time, and it wouldn’t budge.

The tip of the tail of a young Copperhead is bright yellow-green. The brightly colored tail can be used to attract prey such as frogs, lizards, and other small food items. The snake wiggles the tail mimicking a worm or caterpillar. At least one reference states that the yellow fades by age three or four.

The tail still shows a yellowish tint on this youngster.

No doubt a young snake it was quite beautiful in its coloration and pattern.

The pattern on this snake makes it easy to see on the pavement but difficult to distinguish from the leaf litter of the forest.

Young and beautiful, this snake is still nothing to take ligthtly.

Poised an ready.

To be continued…

Photographer Bill Majoros captured the photo (linked to above) at Duke Gardens here in Durham, NC. The duck is a young male Wood Duck and the turtle looks to be a Red Ear Slider although I’m not positive about the turtle’s ID.

According to Bill, he observed this “…wood duck giving this nice little turtle a “free ride” across the duck pond at Duke Gardens.”

After asking Biil what happened to the turtle, he replied, “he [the duck] just dropped it in shallow water, then picked it up again, then dropped it, and then swam away.”

Besides being a fantastic photo, as are all of Bill’s photos, it’s a fascinating look into the behavior of young ducks. What was this duck doing? Wood Ducks are primarily vegetarians with 90% of their diet being plants, fruit, and nuts with the remainder consisting of aquatic insects and other invertebrates. But this from the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center suggests that the Wood Duck in the photo may have at least considered eating the little turtle: “The early diet of ducklings consists largely of insects, aquatic invertebrates, small fish, and other high-protein animal material.”

Of course, the bird may have been doing what all youngsters do, putting whatever they can grab into their mouths – experimenting. Once in its mouth, the bird probably figured that this turtle, as small as it might be, was still too much to handle (good thing for the turtle, and probably good for the duck too, the turtle may have lodged in its throat!).

I encourage you to explore Bill’s web site for other fascinating photos, it’s full of great photography of birds (and chocolate Labs), music, and, well, have a look for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Oh yeah, if you’re interested in nature photography, pay special attention to this section of Bill’s web site:

http://www.digitalbirdphotography.com/cover.html

Bill had some of his fine photography on display at Grayson’s Cafe here at the Museum some time ago and still has some photos in the Tree Top Gift Shop in the Butterfly House.

Thanks Bill!

Who am I?

Clues to use:

I am a bird of the marsh.

I, my brethren and cousins, form huge flocks in winter.

I am the name and mascot of a minor league baseball team whose major league team has for its name and mascot another, more colorful, bird in the same family that I belong to.

I was photographed at the bird feeders in Catch the Wind (not much help there).

That’ll do it.

A fabulous prize awaits the first person who answers correctly*.

==================

* Prize must be picked up in person.

—-ANSWER TO QUIZ BELOW—-

It is indeed a Red-winged Blackbird.

Wilma, the Baltimore Orioles have a Minor League team called the Rochester (NY) Red Wings, so you are at least partially correct.

To all readers:

If the species ID is all that you’re interested in you can stop reading here. If you want to hear more about “male or female” and how they may possibly be confused with one another when at the age of the bird in the photo, then read on…

Initially, I looked at this bird and thought, juvenile male Red-winged Blackbird. I thought about that for a while longer and had second thoughts. So, in order to not make a fool of myself by proclaiming it what I thought it was when it was actually something else, I did some research by checking my copy of “Identification Guide to North American Passerines” which used be one of my most trusted companions on bird banding outings, when I did such things.

Under the heading of HY/SY (hatching year/second year) female on page 230 of that book it states that “the lesser coverts (where the orange is on the bird in the photo) blackish, sometimes with some buffy-orange or orangish….”

If that weren’t enough, check these three web sites which offer further confusion and photographs on the subject:

http://winterwoman.net/2008/07/15/another-fine-day-at-bird-banding/

and

http://www.migrationresearch.org/mbo/id/rwbl.html

and also

https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/22726/V080N5_236.pdf

Of course, if I could hold the bird in my hand I could measure its wings, the male’s wings are longer than the females. I don’t have the bird in hand, nor did I at the time, so that’s out of the question.

After a lot of the tooling around in the books and web sites though, I still think that the bird is a male. Here’s why. There is one large incoming blackish feather on the wing of the bird in the photo above. It looks like a secondary feather (a flight feather on the “upper arm” of the bird). If this bird were a female I think that perhaps that new feather would be browner than it appears in the photo.

However, unless we capture the bird we may never know for sure whether it is a male or a female bird. We CAN be sure, though, that it is a Red-winged Blackbird.

Congratulations to all of you! You all deserve a prize. In fact, you all WILL get one if you desire. Next time that you’re in Explore the Wild hunt me down and I’ll hand over your gift. Wilma, I know that you’re not local, so next time you’re in Durham, NC stop by the Museum.