NEWS TRIBUNE (Duluth, Minnesota) 10 December 09 Turtles seen under ice a finale to a great year - With a cooling October, it looked like to I had seen the last of the turtles for the year. But recently I was treated to quite a finale. (Larry Weber)
As we move through the month of December, we note days of early sunsets and ever-later sunrises. With the winter solstice soon upon us, we experience the cold and snow attributed to this season as well. December is also the last calendar month of the year, so we often take time to look back over the year.
This year has been full of natural happenings — as they all are — and I have had many interesting and varied sights and sounds of nature that I remember. Reflecting on 2009, I enjoyed many encounters with Northland wildlife, but maybe it was the turtles that gave some of the best for the year.
Since they winter on the bottom of a nearby lake, I did not even see any of these shelled reptiles until shortly after ice-out. It was a mild day in late April when I saw a couple of painted turtles swimming to the surface for a breath of fresh air — after going a winter without it. Soon our weather warmed and May gave us pleasant days, some even hot (the highest temperature recorded in the region for all of 2009 happened in May).
Swimming in the chilly waters of spring, turtles are quick to climb up on logs to bask. On these spring days, I watched a log get crowded with these sun worshipers. In tight constriction, this log, 40 feet long, squeezed in 80 painted turtles at one time on a warm May day.
In June, egg laying became priority No. 1 for these turtles. One morning in the middle of the month, I came upon a large snapping turtle as she was depositing her clutch of about 30 eggs along a roadside. She had climbed up from a swamp to place the eggs there.
It looked like a poor choice to me, but the road shoulder was easy to dig in.
As summer unfolded, I saw turtles less frequently, usually only as they swam in the lake. During this time, the buried turtle eggs absorb the warmth of the sunlight in the adjacent soil and they grow. It takes about three months for the embryo to develop and the baby turtles to hatch.
Though I did not witness the hatching of the snapping turtles that I observed being laid as eggs along my road, I did see an outstanding emergence elsewhere: I was present in late September when a group of us observed many tiny snapping turtles as they crawled from another subterranean home.
We watched in amazement as about 70 young ones worked their way out of a nest and scampered to a nearby lake. These eggs were also deposited in mid-June, 100 days before.
Through autumn, I saw only a scattering of turtles. With a cooling October, it looked like to I had seen the last of them for the year. But recently I was treated to quite a finale.
In late November, I visited a lake to check the ice conditions. Sub-freezing temperatures had given us a covering, though it was still unsafe for traffic. As I peered through this clear cold coating, I saw movement. Here was a painted turtle swimming in the chilly water below. The critter moved about in the shallows before going deeper. The next day, Dec. 1, I saw another in such activity. Apparently the turtles had not yet settled into a site for the long winter, or maybe they were looking for a meal before slowing down. But, to me, they gave a marvelous finale to this year of great turtle sights.
Turtles seen under ice

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