Alternate Nest

Following mating female turtles of most Wisconsin species excavate a depression in softer or sandy soils for laying their eggs.  We must have some appropriate soil types around the house inasmuch as encountering hatchling turtles is not uncommon several times throughout the year.  

Anyway, after depositing her eggs mother turtle covers the clutch with dirt, leaf litter and debris - and she departs.  She does not stay to protect the nest site, nor return to nurture or raise the newly-hatched turtles. The leathery, ping pong ball-sized eggs harden over time and with no small amount of luck will survive until hatching and beyond.   The eggs of ground-nesting birds are predated by mammals such as raccoon, skunk, fox and coyote.  Turtle eggs often fall victim to the same predators with the baby turtles further predated by gulls, cranes and herons.   Only a small percentage of hatchlings survive and grow to adulthood and reproductive age.    

As a rule of thumb if the eggs incubate in ground temperatures of 84 to 86 degrees they generally result in females, cooler nests of 76 to 77 degrees will yield males with a mixed brood incubated at 82 to 84 degrees.   

The offspring of some species will remain hidden underground until spring warms the earth.   Unlike hibernating toads and frogs that freeze during winter the bodies of turtles do not. A turtle's metabolism runs at very low pace and they remain alert to changes in light and temperature that signal the arrival of spring.

 

Turtles like this one dig their way out from their nest with the arrival of spring, reveal themselves and set out in search of water.    

The red markings suggest that these are Painted turtles – Chrysemys picta.  They’re a common turtle around here along with the snapping turtles that inhabit the ponds, creek and wetlands on the property.  On rare occasion we've spotted a Blanding's turtle.

 

Last week this mama Painted turtle was making a beeline for the flower bed - likely seeking a good location for a nest. 

If you see an adult turtle on the road in the summer it will likely be a female seeking a nesting site.  Turtles on the road in the fall are of both sexes looking for a location to overwinter.  If you see a turtle on the road please give it a brake.  If it’s not a snapper give it a lift to the safe side of the road they’re heading for.

 

Nesting season isn't just for the birds...

New York Minute

A day in the Big Apple reduced to 55 seconds.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Apple.

 

 

Scruffy Deer

 

Odocileus virginianus - the North American whitetail deer - is a remarkably adaptable creature.  A true survivor.  In pre-settlement times the deer population of Wisconsin was much smaller than it is today.  And it was about to get smaller.   The fur trade and later subsistence hunting and market hunting reduced deer populations to their lowest levels in modern history. Then a curious thing happened. Following the great cut-over of Wisconsin's old growth forest and the later collapse of farming in many northern Wisconsin counties a younger forest emerged.  And with it the population of deer rebounded. Thanks to a combination of forest succession, the species' polygamous breeding habits and scientific game management it is estimated that the Wisconsin deer herd today is four times that of the early 1960s.

You might be asking yourself why the deer in the video looks so scruffy and mangy. The animal does not have a skin disease.

Hormonal changes bring about a molting process twice a year and deer alternately grow a faded gray coat consisting of longer guard hairs to prepare for winter and replace it with the rusty roan-colored coat of summer. The summer coat will only last about three months before the critter begins to regrow the extra layer of longer, stiffer, hollow hair over the softer hair closer to the skin. 

Until the transition is complete the local whitetails are going to continue looking a bit scruffy.

June Night Sky

Tonight and tomorrow the June moon will appear full.  

The June moon - typically the last full moon of spring or the first of summer - is traditionally called the Strawberry Moon.  With origins traced to the Algonquin people this was a sign to commence gathering wild strawberries.   

Following European settlement alternate names included the Meade moon and the Honey moon were introduced.  

Because the Roman goddess of marriage is Juno – namesake of this frequent month of marriages - we have the honeymoon.

From June 5, 2020 at 11:30 PM there was this full Strawberry Moon.....

 

Scorched Earth Policy

Three weeks post-burn and things are greening-up rather nicely...

 

Friday Music

This group was formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1962.  They were the first pop group from the country to achieve major charting and sales success in the UK and US.  They were particularly popular in the 1960s in their best-known configuration of Judith Dunham on vocals, piano and tambourine, Athol Guy on double bass and vocals, Keith Potger vocals, 12-string guitar and banjo, and Bruce Woodley, guitar, mandolin, banjo and vocals.

The group had multiple Top 10 hits during this time including:  A World of Our Own, Morningtown Ride, Someday One Day, Georgy Girl, The Carnival is Over and this song.

Their style was popularly described as too pop to be folk and too folk to be rock.

Abbey Road Studios 1964 and the 2013 Australian Farewell Tour.  I'll never Find Another You by The Seekers..... 

 

 

Success

Ninety-nine pages of legislation brokered by House speaker Keven McCarthy and President Joe Biden cleared the house yesterday.

Tonight the Senate passes the debt ceiling bill sending it to the President to sign into law.

Looks like Peter Zeihan and I caught a couple of lucky predictions.

Would be fascinating if both parties could fashion from this exercise a productive discussion about reforming the embedded funding shortfalls for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid....