Turtle Time

Several years ago a floral turtle sculpture was installed close to where we live. It is really lovely and the design on the 'shell' changes each spring. About the time that this turtle is being refreshed with new spring colours and textures, the turtles in the area wake up from their winter slumbers in local rivers and ponds. 

Once they are awake, duty calls and they are on the move from May until October. This is a dangerous time because they emerge from their watery homes in search of nesting spots and this often takes them to sandy edges of roads and perhaps across busy traffic. 

I decided to walk a section of the Gordon Glaves Memorial Pathway this morning and see if there were any busy turtle mothers about. There is a parking lot behind the Glenhyrst Art Gallery, that is down a hill and beside the back garden area. As I drove to park, this is who I saw.

She was clearly on a mission and I did not want to disturb her, but I did suggest that she might not have her directions quite right. I left her to her business and walked up to the path.

The black dot on the photo shows about where the turtle was. The size of my car gives a little perspective on the distance she had traveled, but doesn't show that where I am standing on the path, is about three storeys up an eroded bank from the Grand itself! Pretty astonishing determination, or maybe it is the ancestral path from the river that turtles have been making for many years. 

The fragrance was glorious with honeysuckle and Russian Olive in bloom. The river was calm and the path quiet. Perfection. 

A solitary Blue Columbine had a solitary bloom.

Thimbleweed is beginning to bloom.

Beardstongue is in bloom on the rare prairie hillside habitat above the path. Up close it shows a soft lavender, but on the hillside it has kind of a ghostly, ethereal look.

Star-flowered Solomon's Seal is being replaced by False Solomon's Seal, which looks very much the same except on a larger scale, and with a much larger flower cluster.

Slightly further along the path I began to see evidence of turtle nesting.

It is hard to understand the scale here, but this is probably a two yard section of disturbed sand with a hole about 10 inches across.

Turtle shells are obvious along the side of the path. The female turtle chooses a site that is easy to dig, slightly damp so that the eggs do not dry out, and sunny so that the heat will incubate the eggs. Sometimes the eggs become tasty snacks for skunks or raccoons who live nearby. 

Sometimes you can see where a female has crossed the path leaving nail scratches and bracket marks.

Painted turtles are designated of 'Special Concern' federally, but not yet listed in Ontario.

If you come across a snapping turtle mother, it is best to give her a wide berth. They look like like a giant prehistoric beast, and are strong and cranky.

Snapping turtles are designated of 'Special Concern' federally as well as provincially in Ontario. If this turtle has come out of the wetland to cross the road, then it is probably a female, and she will be full of eggs to lay. If a turtle is hit on the road, it is not just one turtle being wiped out.

I came across this little fellow on the path last summer. The dime shows how tiny it is. Given the high mortality of turtle hatchlings, it is pretty impressive that it made it this far, but it still has to navigate the steep banks of the river to find some measure of safety. 

Before I returned to my car, I went to check on the 'little engine that could', across the parking lot.

She obviously liked this sandy spot next to the stump, and was busy digging a hole there. It seemed like such a harsh instinct that would bring her this far to nest and seemed to up the already impossible odds that any babies would survive to make it back to their natural habitat. 

It might seem like the existence of a tiny turtle is insignificant in comparison to other issues, but I think that each creature, bloom and species, is important and has a place. Each one plays a part in the function and health of our planet, and there is peril in not protecting their survival as it will affect our own.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” 
― John Muir