Tag: research

July 2nd

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment
Last day at the field site. To be honest, I’m looking forward to going home. Last night was a bit disappointing. We had four or five turtles out of the water, but no nests. Turtle 240, the double-clutch female, did attempt to nest, but she hit a rock. There was another aborted attempt right near the water, as well. Hopefully, tonight will be better. There are several females with telemetry out, so hopefully we’ll get a couple of nests. Ah well, it’s fun, anyway.

 

Oh, and I felt a small earthquake two nights ago, centered around 4 miles from here. I felt an earthquake up here last year, as well. I wonder if that means they have them more frequently here than back at home? In any case, it was pretty cool.

 

Now, sitting in the rec room, trying to stay cool. Still three hours before we go to the field site. Maybe I’ll try to take a nap. Or read another story. I’ve done a good job journaling up here. Let’s see how well I am able to keep it up once I get home tomorrow.

My Field Season Has Begun

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

Female western pond turtles (Emys marmorata): their nesting season has begun at my field site in Lake County, Calfornia. The turtle in the first photo (#222, a recapture we first encountered in 2010) nested on June 6th – and yes, that photo was taken while she was in the process of laying her eggs. And the gorgeous girl in the other photos (#225, also first captured in 2010) nested on June 7th. The turtles seem to be coming out in greater numbers about a week earlier than they did last year.

The lab at my university has been studying this population of turtles for five years now (this is my third year on the project). We’re looking at nesting behavior, including the ways in which they use the habitat – distance from tree line, or distance from the pond, and whether or not the females return to the same spot year after year to nest. We’re also looking at temperature profiles inside of the nests, because these turtles have Temperature-dependent Sex Determination (TSD), which means that sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs incubate, rather than genetically. (Higher temperatures produce females; lower temperatures produce males, in this particular species).

June 8

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment

Back from my first trip up to the field site this season – we’ve had five turtles out of the water – four of them have nested successfully, and we’ve put a telemetry unit on the fifth, so hopefully we’ll find out out of the water again in a couple of days. We’re off to a really good start – we only had one nest this time last year. WHOO HOO TURTLES!

Emerging Baby Turtles!

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment

Last week, my lab partner and I went out to our field site to see if last year’s hatchlings had emerged yet from their nests. The female pond turtles lay their eggs in the early summer (June is the most active month at our site), and the eggs hatch approximately three months later. There is evidence that young don’t leave the nest, though, until after the winter, something we were able to confirm on our excursion today!

We were fortunate in being at the site at exactly the right time this year. We visited a few of the nests we’d located last summer, and found babies emerging from some of them. The sort of blurry photo shows the hole they had dug for themselves to emerge – I know it’s a crappy photo, but that really is a baby turtle inside. We also found a couple that were just in the process of coming out of the ground. It was a pretty amazing thing to witness.

Red-legged Frog Survey

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

I did something really cool this evening: went out and surveyed for red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii), which are an endangered species in California. We found four frogs, and they are SUPER ADORABLE! Also, I look like a total dork in waders, but it was a really good evening. 🙂

Note – in the photo with the three frogs, the two on the ends are red-legged, and the one in the middle is a bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), a species that is an exotic invasive in our area.

The Wildlife Society Western Section

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Me and my poster

A small group of students from my research lab made the short trek to Sacramento to attend the annual meeting of The Western Section of The Wildlife Society, in Sacramento, California, February 1 – 3, 2012. This was my first conference after beginning the master’s program, and I worked with an undergraduate to create this poster, which we presented during the poster session:

2012TWSposter.jpg

We also had a pretty good time at the conference, and visiting a few of the sites in the old downtown area of Sacramento. Oh yeah!

End of Field Season

- Wendy St. John 1 Comment
Writing this from Kevin’s house; we came straight here from Cobb, after breaking down our camp this morning. Yes, the 2011 field season has officially ended. We had a good night last night. Our first turtle of the year returned last night and laid a second nest – the first time we’ve witness a double-clutch.

We had another turtle out of the water, but by the time 240 had finished, the other one still hadn’t started nesting. She was WAY the hell out in the far meadow, almost to Sandy’s house, and Nick decided that we wouldn’t worry about trying to find her nest. Instead, we went out at 7 this morning, and were able to find her, but not the nest (not a lot of effort was put into it, but it’s not like we actually needed more eggs this year). So, we processed the nest from last night, had breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, and then went back to Jellystone to break camp. We were out of there before 10, and made good time to San Ramon, arriving just after noon. Oh, there was one bit of excitement this morning. One of the workers at Jellystone asked if any of us knew about birds, so of course I said yes. Turns out they had an injured bird, and weren’t sure what to do. I told him to bring it over. I was a pileated woodpecker, maybe with a broken neck, but it was definitely still alive and kicking. So, arranged for Katie to take it to the Songbird Hospital; I hope he will survive! That would be a happy story.

I also have some homework for Jellystone. They asked us to put together some information on the plants and wildlife around the campgrounds, and I agreed to work on that. I’m sure I can get someone else to help, maybe Nicole. Although what we really need is a botanist. I can do birds and animals, but I don’t know much at all about the plants. In any case, It will be fun, I hope, and will make the staff at the park happy. They we’re good to us this season, so I don’t mind doing them this little favor. Plus Nick will appreciate the effort, too.

Mostly, I had a great time up there. Didn’t really feel sad to go this time, though. Not like when we left last week. Probably because we’d been up there a whole week this time, and also the turtle activity had slowed way down. It just wasn’t as exciting as it was last week. It was a fantastic field season, though. According to Nick, the best one ever. We certainly got loads and loads of great data.