Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Went for a hike yesterday here in southern jersey. Temps were suppose to hit 60 but they never got into the 50's were I was. I was pretty suprised to see painted and spotted turtles swimming around in a small overflow pond adjacent to a good size creek. I actually saw more spotted and paints in this pond then I would on a day in june or july. The most unusual thing to me though was finding a male boxie out. He was in an area adjacent to a stick pile were he hibernates, or at least hangs out alot at. Here is a pic of him from the summer, I didn't want to handle him at all because of the drastic temperature change between the air and my hands, and all I had on me was a telephoto lense for hawks and eagles. I'm beginning to change my idea of how turtles hibernate more and more as this winter goes along, especially painted turtles. These guys are so incredibly hardy since the temp of the water was at the most 45-48 degrees. The thing that amazed me the most was they were extremely active chasing eachother, coming up for air, etc. I've seen turtles on very cold days just sitting at the bottom but the activity of these guys was impressive. Here is the box.

>>Went for a hike yesterday here in southern jersey. Temps were suppose to hit 60 but they never got into the 50's were I was. I was pretty suprised to see painted and spotted turtles swimming around in a small overflow pond adjacent to a good size creek. I actually saw more spotted and paints in this pond then I would on a day in june or july. The most unusual thing to me though was finding a male boxie out. He was in an area adjacent to a stick pile were he hibernates, or at least hangs out alot at. Here is a pic of him from the summer, I didn't want to handle him at all because of the drastic temperature change between the air and my hands, and all I had on me was a telephoto lense for hawks and eagles. I'm beginning to change my idea of how turtles hibernate more and more as this winter goes along, especially painted turtles. These guys are so incredibly hardy since the temp of the water was at the most 45-48 degrees. The thing that amazed me the most was they were extremely active chasing eachother, coming up for air, etc. I've seen turtles on very cold days just sitting at the bottom but the activity of these guys was impressive. Here is the box.
>>

Painted turtles and snapping turtles are probably the few turtles that really don't go into full brumation mode. They are much more cold tolerant and will sometimes continue to forage in the water and what not for most of the winter. Even when ponds are frozen on top, you can sometimes see snappers still moving around under the water.

Also not unusual for the odd box turtle to wake up from their nap on a warm day in the winter months. When I was rehabbing injured box turtles, I had turtles that during the winter would come out occasionally from under the dirt and hay to climb on top of the snow covered hay pile and bask during day. It would irk me a lot as I would have to remember to go out in the evening to double check to make sure any turtles that were out went back under cover. Seems more like a male box turtle thing. I've never had females come out until the temps were in the 60s for a steady time.

Garter snakes are another winter tolerant reptile. Not unusual for me to find one or two out basking in Jan/Feb on the odd warm day.
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PHWyvern

i saw a good amount of painted turtles and spotted .. it was hard to know if it was a spotted b/c i heard nj water is high in iron or something that messes with there shell coloration as they hibernate .. dont know for sure but thats what i heard ... so far no boxies keep you posted

Looks like he wants to be the first in line for the ladies! We had very mild weather in the Midwest that last few weeks and thought it's not common, we do see box turtles out after a warm spell in Nov or Dec. I don't think I've see any out in Jan or Feb. Those are really cold months around here!
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Tess
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