A little late with this post, but thought I better get it up as soon as I could. Happy Turtle day!

Welcome to World Turtle Day! To celebrate the Turtle Patrol has created a new Facebook page called Turtle Patrol Nova Scotia. The Turtle Patrol's goal is to help our native turtles survive in the wild, to share turtle news and to talk turtles with like minded individuals. If interested you can join us by clicking on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1467598523346553/

We look forward to conversing with you!
Yours in turtling,
Turbo

First big Turtle release (20180511) Working with Hope For Wildlife

Well the big day has finally arrived May 11, 2018 our first turtle release in conjunction Hope For Wildlife. We had a total off 11 turtles to return to nature after some rehabilitation. Ever seen a truck full of Snappers?

We owe a big Thank You to Hope for Wildlife, they arranged not only for public media to be present but also their own film crew that does the Hope for Wildlife Television show. I am told it might be up to 2 years before the show actually airs as they have a lot of great material already filmed!
Clarence and I have some theories that we are trying to confirm so we are starting to shoot images of the underbelly of any turtles that we can. Just look at the expression this little guys face! This is one of 7 that we released outside of Windsor, Nova Scotia.

H7- Hope for Wildlife release #7 turtle was a real rebel he didn't want to head to the water initially.

With a second attempt H7 headed in the right direction and we just had to keep an eye on him for a bit to ensure he made it into the water.

It was amazing to watch these little bulldozers get through the heavy grasses at waters edge. They just stick their nose in a little hole, drop their front feet and push/drive forward with the hind legs!

After about 20 minutes of H7 getting in the water we spotted him making his way to the large pond that Clarence had selected for these seven snappers to call home.

It was nice that we had so many turtles to release at this one site. It provided us with time to observe early released turtles to occasionally check in and see if we were gone yet.

It is so rewarding to see them feeling at home in their new environment. I am not certain that this little fella didn't want to audition to be a permanent member of the cast.

We finished up our day with Al, he found a beautiful spot to release this last snapper in the Gays Lake watershed. A special thanks to Dan the landowner for allowing us to put this young lady into a piece of snapper heaven.

It is hard to express at just how happy we are with all the results of the day and the feelings of jubilation experienced by the members of Turtle Patrol.

Yours in turtling
Turbo

Thanks to Nova Scotia Power (20180501) Our first site enhancement project.

We were notified that Nova Scotia Power had dropped off two yards of gravel at one of our nesting sites that happen to be on their property. So Bernie, Clarence, myself, and Bizzy went in and did some shoveling and raking to enhance two areas for turtles to nest.

It was a nice cool morning, and getting it done at this time of year we avoid the bugs.

It only took us about an hour of effort to finish up. Clarence heard a couple of drumming grouse as he walked in.
I want to once again thank Stephanie and Jeremy from Nova Scotia Power for the generous support for our Nova Scotia "grizzlies"!

Yours in Turtling!

Hope for Wildlife (20180419) The Turtle Patrol's first visit

Thanks to Clarence's many years of contact with Hope, he was able to get us a visit and personal tour of their turtle facilities. I wish to note here that we were treated very well and even took part in their daily scrum, that deals with issues and emergencies.

Here is a look at a couple of the wonderful tubs that they have for the larger turtles.

They have wonderful care and attention daily, with lots to eat. Can you find Waldo in here?

These shots are actually were actually taken on the 23rd as I had returned to get some swabs of the turtles, reasons for that will be explained in a future post.
So now I have to introduce you all the volunteers that contributed to the cause. We (Jenna, Nicole and I) started with the smallest of Snappers that was readily available.

What a ferocious sweetie. This little guy is only about 8 months old and growing like a bad weed. This is all due to a "head start" program. That is where they keep them awake and fed through the winter so they have a great start to the spring. Here is turtle number two.

Next up were a couple of young snappers that had been turned in to Hope as they were being kept by a private individual as pets. This one had a stubby little tail as a result of being kept with other larger snappers.

Aren't these little "grizzlies" neat?  Let me tell you that they are lightening fast even at this age and Jenna had to be careful when holding them.

Here is the largest of the turtles that we swabbed  on this day. Another wonderful speedy striking killer, that is just trying to earn a living. 

This won't be the last time you get to see these beauties. The Turtle Patrol will be there with Hope and the crew when these guys are released into the wild, and I am expecting to be taking photos.
I want to thank Michelle and Susan as well as Jenna and Nicole for all their help today!
Yours in Turtling,
Turbo

2017 Summary of activity for The Turtle Patrol

Clarence has been hard at work summarizing our 2017 efforts. One Stat we haven't captured yet is total hours of effort, we will need to do a better job of recording that for 2018

Hello fellow Turtle Patrollers, our combined efforts thus far have produced the following results: :)

We have gathered data on 274 locations.
We have discovered 42 breeding areas.
We have documented 113 nests. 
We have recorded the predation of 70 nests.
We have located 40 successful nests.
We have noted 1 failed nest not associated with predation.
We have assigned unknown status to 2 nests.
And most importantly we have saved almost 200 turtles! (191 to be exact).

Thank You all for a job well done and I look forward to getting out looking for turtles with each of you in 2018. We have a lot of exciting things planned for this year. The map below represents the counties where we have carried out surveys thus far. More news and plans for Spring Surveys to pop up soon. 

As you can see, we also did patrols in 10 of the counties here. We covered a lot of ground, and I am certain will cover even more in the upcoming year. 

I have dubbed 2018-- The year of growth!

Happy turtling!

:)

A surprising loss of a mature Leatherback.

Please have a read of this rare situation here:

CBC Story

A Note from Clarence about some good news out at Springfield Lake (20180218)

Springfield Lake Update -- Potentially Good News for Snappers.

This lake is almost completely surrounded by homes and shorelines urbanized and altered in ways that are not very suitable for nesting Snapping Turtles.

In the fall Paul and I checked out all public access areas including a small public beach but found no turtle signs. 

Early this year after talking to local residents I was told that for years many locals have seen a slow moving big Snapping Turtle that enters Springfield Lake in the spring and leaves again in the fall. It's entrance and exit point is the small beach we had checked out.

A few weeks later I learned that no baby snappers have been reported in the lake for a number of years, but recently what was estimated to be a 5 year old Snapper was observed.

Today I talked to a home owner who's property boarders the lake and they have agree to put in some turtle nesting habitat along their shoreline. :)

A trip to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (20171116) What a great place.

On our recent trip to Toronto the bride allowed to make a short side-trip to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre. What a terrific spot to visit and get to see some turtles. I was able to meet Donnell, one of the many folks that work there. They were getting ready for an afternoon event so I didn't want to stay very long. I did get to meet several of their more permanent guests like this little Painted turtle. It has quite a bit of damage on its shell.

The Painted shared a large tank with this beautiful Blanding Turtle that only has one eye. This is my first ever sighting of a Blanding Turtle!

In a separate tank right next door is a turtle we don't get to see in Nova Scotia, is a Map turtle. Named as the stripes on their legs, shell, head, and neck look like contour lines on a map. This was another first for me to see.

They also have a 35 year old male Snapping turtle. It was kept as a pet for almost 30 years, and has been at the centre for 5 more. While it is healthy and robust, all those years in captivity have taken the "turtle" out of this Snapper. He doesn't know how to hunt or defend himself so he cannot be released to the wild. He is a beautiful large specimen.

Next up is yet a third new turtle to me, and another we don't get here in Nova Scotia.

These little guys are only about 10 centimeters long, so even fully grown they are quite small.

So take few minutes and visit their web site: OTCC
They are doing a great job and have helped almost 900 turtles in 2017. They do damage repair, incubation of eggs, and a lot of education!  What a terrific crew.
I also got to see my first Wood turtle, but it was in pretty rough shape.
Take some time today, and put a little wild in your life!
Turbo

What did we learn in 2016? A brief summary of our Turtle Patrol season.

We thought it would be appropriate to record what we found from a statistical aspect from this year's patrols. Clarence as the scientist has all of the details of what happened on most of our days. So here is the summary.



Snapping turtles
4 nests, 7 dead babies,  8 baby Snappers saved!
We also found many predated nests.  We had 9 in my area and in the third major spot that we attended on November 9, had 35. We need to do something to minimize the destruction of nests next year.

We are definitely looking forward to 2017 and hoping to find more baby snappers and more nests. We are planning to construct some nest "protectors" but our issue is that our areas are very public with a lot of both foot and ATV traffic. We are hoping next year perhaps we can connect with some private land owners and get the protector to them to aid in the successful hatching of our Snapping Turtles.

Take some time and put a little wild in your life, it will do you good!

Until next year,

Clarence and Turbo

Well yet another stroll in a new Area (20161109) Can we have even more success?

With yesterday's wonderful encounter Clarence and I headed to the area with the most numerous nests that we have found this summer. Hopes were high that we would find a number of nests and perhaps even more youngsters to save. It was another beautiful fall day with temperature in the 12C area, and the sun shining brightly.
We found two successful nests, but all we found were empty shells. The first we believe was a painted turtle nest as it only had 2 or 3 empty shells. The second nest was definitely a Snapper nest with a lot of empty shells.
We also had the pleasure of encountering this beautiful Red-bellied snake-- which was a first ever for me.

Here is a second image of this wonderful little beauty.

We had a wonderful couple of hours. All told we found 35 predated nests on this walk so this is an area where there could be some great work that could be done to improve Snapper nesting success.
Put a little wild in your life today!
Turbo

Save 7 (20161007) We would have definitely lost this guy.

The seventh of October brought what I though would be my last patrol of the year (2016). We had a great day and a big storm was scheduled for tomorrow, so Bizzy and I headed out hoping for one or two more turtle sightings for the season. On our way "out" we spotted this beautiful young White-throated Sparrow.

On our return, as it seems is when we spot these little guys, this guy looked like he was done.

If you notice his yolk sack is totally absorbed, so he has been out of the nest for a bit.
I picked him up and started warming him up, then got him a little water. After about 40 minutes he was moving like a champion. So I released him at one of our spots, and he was off to the races. 

 What I did note about this unit in particular was his curly tail. Every other baby I have seen had a very straight tail. Here is another shot of him heading to the pond.

Just before ending the patrol We grabbed a few images of this good looking Maritime Garter.

That makes 7 for the year and I was feeling really good about deciding to head out for a patrol.
Take an hour out of your time today, and put a little wild in your life!
Turbo

Baby number 6 (20160929) a few other critters from the environment.

With a couple of days in between, it was time for another patrol along the rails. While the turtles were tough to find, Clarence and I did spot this beautiful Maritime Garter snake.

Another nice find this afternoon was this Pickerel frog.

Our next discovery was at the second hot-spot area and it was this rather large nest opening that we assumed was a predated (opened by predators) nest. We only assumed this because of the size of the opening. 

Once again on our return trip we spotted a baby turtle, right in Clarence's path. I have been told that there are two colour phases in Snappers; dark and cinnamon, This looks like a cinnamon unit.

Here is the little guy on his release log, all ready to start his new life in the safety of a pond. 

We finished out walk in this area with this very beautiful Maritime Garter. Our third snake of the day and a very light colouration specimen. I also found the patterning on this snake to be very unique!

Another very successful patrol and our saves now add up to 6 so far for the year!

Take some time today and put a little wild in your life!

Turbo

Clarence's first baby Snapper of the year (20160924) a Katydid included.

Well Clarence was finally able to make it out for a patrol along the rails. We had yet another beautiful day and it was a successful stroll. Although we didn't see anything on the walk out the end of the trail, we did capture an image of this Katydid.

On our return Clarence spotted this little fella working his way along between the rails.

This is a male, as you can see from the length of the tail. The females tail is quite a bit shorter, but all the babies we have found to date have been males. The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperature in the nest. If it is cool or hot in the nest then females will be born, if the nest temperature (at the critical time) is just warm then males will be the result.

This image shows no yoke sac on the belly of this specimen indicating he has been out of the nest for a bit, trying to find a water hole. Here he is on a "release log", a spot very close to the water so with minimal effort he can gain the safety and security of his home for the next couple of years.

Baby number 5 has been saved. This is really feeling good.
Take some time and put some wild in your life!
Turbo