{"id":1042,"date":"2008-10-20T22:49:56","date_gmt":"2008-10-21T02:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2008-10-27T10:18:06","modified_gmt":"2008-10-27T14:18:06","slug":"very-late-spotted-turtle-in-brainard-marsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1042","title":{"rendered":"Very Late Spotted Turtle in Brainard Marsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mature Female Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every day brings a fresh surprise to Turtle Journal.\u00c2\u00a0 As we write this post tonight the thermometer has plunged to one degree above freezing.\u00c2\u00a0 This morning pegged a little higher at 41 and nudged ever so slightly upward during the day under\u00c2\u00a0clear skies\u00c2\u00a0and hefty northerly winds.\u00c2\u00a0 Since we figured critters would be scarce, we shot some distant photos of Bird Island this afternoon in preparation for a future kayak trip when winds subside.<\/p>\n

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Brainard Marsh, Sippican Lands Trust<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the way back to the office, we stopped at Brainard Marsh,\u00c2\u00a0a 6.1-acre conservation area under Sippican Lands Trust<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve been monitoring the spotted turtles in a small pond in the middle of the property for the last few years.\u00c2\u00a0 With cold winds and chilly temperatures, we didn’t expect to find anything, but the area is quietly beautiful on an autumn afternoon.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle; Notice the Anomalous Bump<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Crunching\u00c2\u00a0over fallen oak leaves and wind-snapped twigs, we\u00c2\u00a0approached the pond\u00c2\u00a0as stealthy as the Keystone Kops.\u00c2\u00a0 At the edge of a moss covered bank, we spied a small, seemingly immobile\u00c2\u00a0rock with yellow dots about 25 feet ahead through thick bramble.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though we toe-danced forward, our\u00c2\u00a0crackles\u00c2\u00a0should have aroused a brumating turtle.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet we reached the still immobile “rock”\u00c2\u00a0that was cold to the touch and discovered a mature female spotted turtle, fully tucked in and apparently sound asleep.\u00c2\u00a0 She must have crawled up the bank to bask in the noon day sun, only to fall into chilly shadow by mid-afternoon.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle on the Move<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In bright sunshine she warmed up and stretched her legs.\u00c2\u00a0 This turtle sports quite a bump on her carapace (top shell), left of the 4th right costal.\u00c2\u00a0 You may notice that she also has a number of shell abrasions and an unusual number of vertebral scutes (8)\u00c2\u00a0running down the center of her carapace.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle; Note Colorful Neck, Flat Plastron, Thin Tail<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She could easily be identified as female based on gender dichromatism in this species.\u00c2\u00a0 Females have bright colored necks (orange or yellow), while males are darkly colored (brown).\u00c2\u00a0 Females also have a flat plastron (bottom shell), while males have an abdominal cavity in the center of the plastron.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, females have a slender tail, while males have thick tail.<\/p>\n

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Male Spotted Turtle; Note Dark Neck, Plastron Concavity, Thick Tail<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The image above is a typical male spotted turtle for comparison with dark colored neck, plastron concavity and thick tail.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle Carapace (Top Shell)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A close-up of her carapace (top shell) shows the eight vertebral scutes down the center, as well as her yellow spots.\u00c2\u00a0 While they may seem ornate out of context, when she is within her element, the randomly spaced dots blend perfectly with background pond flotsam floating across the surface of the water.\u00c2\u00a0 For those who feel particularly sharp-eyed and skilled at turtling, you may enjoy the test below.\u00c2\u00a0 Find Waldo; that is, locate the spotted turtle in the photograph.<\/p>\n

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Where’s Waldo?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia, there is a spotted turtle in the picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mature Female Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata) Every day brings a fresh surprise to Turtle Journal.\u00c2\u00a0 As we write this post tonight the thermometer has plunged to one degree above freezing.\u00c2\u00a0 This morning pegged a little higher at 41 and nudged ever so slightly upward during the day under\u00c2\u00a0clear skies\u00c2\u00a0and hefty northerly winds.\u00c2\u00a0 Since we figured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[761,759,764,119,760,757,766,763,765,762,166,722,110,767],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}