{"id":14541,"date":"2014-04-21T20:12:40","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T01:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14541"},"modified":"2014-04-21T20:12:40","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T01:12:40","slug":"spotted-easter-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14541","title":{"rendered":"Spotted Easter 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sue Wieber Nourse Examines Four Spotted Turtles on Easter<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Temperatures dipped below freezing on Easter morning on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts. \u00c2\u00a0Cold brought quiet to spring activity in local wetlands with a single, lazing garter snake and a pair of spotted turtles our only observations in protected Goldwitz Bog.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Garter Snake at SouthCoast Bog<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The young garter snake had sprawled out on the sunny pathway at the abandoned Goldwitz bog and seemed unamused when Turtle Journal’s Don Lewis pulled out his smart phone to snap a few closeups.<\/p>\n

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Female (Left) and Male (Right) Spotted Turtles<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse found female Spotted Turtle #53 (on the left) relaxing with male Spotted Turtle #118 (on the right). \u00c2\u00a0Pictured above, they represent perfect gender types: \u00c2\u00a0she with her colorful neck and thin tail; he with his drab neck and thick tail. \u00c2\u00a0Male #118 also exhibits concavity across his plastron’s abdominal scutes, while Female #53 shows off her flat, washboard abs. \u00c2\u00a0They, too, were found in a degraded mating aggregation at Goldwitz bog.<\/p>\n

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Male Spotted Turtle #120<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

About a mile away the Turtle Journal team explored the Grassi Bog around noon on Easter as temperatures climbed into the mid-50s. \u00c2\u00a0At this wetlands we discovered spotted turtles in full mating glory. \u00c2\u00a0Seen above is male Spotted Turtle #120. \u00c2\u00a0He hit the scales at 188 grams (6.6 ounces) and his carapace (top shell) measured 11.43 centimeters (4.5 inches). \u00c2\u00a0For our spotted turtles, he’s a very big boy!<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle #121<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We also netted female Spotted Turtle #121, an 11-year-old that weighed 185 grams (6.5 ounces). \u00c2\u00a0Her shell length measured 10.56 centimeters (4.2 inches).<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle #122<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Female Spotted Turtle #122 is only nine years old. \u00c2\u00a0She weighed 115 grams (4.1 ounces) and measured 9.61 centimeters (3.8 inches).<\/p>\n

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Young Five-Year-Old Female Spotted Turtle #123<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The real sweetheart of the bunch is young Spotted Turtle #123, a five year old female. \u00c2\u00a0She only registered 64 grams (2.3 ounces). \u00c2\u00a0Her carapace (top shell) measured a mere 7.18 centimeters (2.8 inches).<\/p>\n

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Sue Wieber Nourse Release Spotted Turtles<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After we examined the turtles and took scientific measurements, Sue Wieber Nourse released the spotted turtles back into Grassi Bog.<\/p>\n

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Two-Year-Old Painted Turtle<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Turtle Journal team also found a juvenile (2-year-old) painted turtle basking in some brambles at Grassi Bog. \u00c2\u00a0No Easter bouquet could be complete without a baby painted turtle to add a dash of color to the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sue Wieber Nourse Examines Four Spotted Turtles on Easter Temperatures dipped below freezing on Easter morning on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts. \u00c2\u00a0Cold brought quiet to spring activity in local wetlands with a single, lazing garter snake and a pair of spotted turtles our only observations in protected Goldwitz Bog. Garter Snake at SouthCoast Bog The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14541"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14541"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14585,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14541\/revisions\/14585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}