Experience with Blandings turtles.
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This is my first post. Since we all share a common interest in diamondbacks and most likely turtles in general, I thought as a group you may appreciate the experience myself and my family had today. We travelled to an area 2hrs southeast of Mlps along the Mississippi river called Weaver Dunes, an area know to have a stable population of rare Blandings turtles. The dunes of course offer nesting these turtles. Most of this area has been bought by The Nature Conservancy and leased to Mn DNR and put back to natural prairie. We hiked the dunes this afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of this rare turtle, after finding tracks in the sand, a couple of last years nests and a couple casualties from last years nesting season. All in all a cool experience to see nature at work and what turtles have to go through to make sure the species survives. After leaving the dunes we drove along a road in which the turtles have to cross, that is between the breeding area and the nesting area. Even though this road is clearly posted with rare turtle crossing signs and what would seem like low traffic flow we still saw 2 turtles that had been hit by cars. While I was a bit at a loss how they could still be hit, my 10 year old was actually in tears and angry why people cannot be more aware. After stopping to glass a swampy area for turtles we turned around and headed back towards the dunes. As we rounded one of the first corners there was a welcome sight, a blandings was crossing the in front of us, we stopped to escort mom across the road (she had been previously tagged 3 times). After my son took his photos we moved her away from the roadway, only to notice another (no tags) next to the ditch depositing her eggs. Apparently she did not want to make the 1.5 mile trip to the dunes. I was glad to experience that with my son today as he got see first hand how difficult survival can be not for just blandings turtle but for all species. Take care all, speedimager
How wonderful to get to see the Blandings nesting! I envy you. I am always amazed when I see any of them laying eggs. We’ve got half a dozen gravid box turtles right now, and one of our R.p.manni is pacing. We’re in the process of moving and I hope to have all of our new habitats completed by the end of the week. 🙂 I’ll be starting my search for the dbt tank soon. Yippee! Our vet breeds them and has told me that he’ll come help me get my setup right. 🙂 Tony ===== Tony and Judy Simmons The Turtle Ranch Making the world a better place for turtles and people. tottleproject@…
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