Back to School: A Turtle’s Head Start

It’s that time of year once again! As summer adventures come to a close, students begin shifting gears and buckling down for the year of learning ahead. For students in 22 lucky schools throughout Massachusetts, they’ll be sharing their classrooms with some tiny turtles who are looking to get a little head-start on their year too.

For Blanding’s turtles in Massachusetts, a head-start in schools can have a huge impact on their future. Biologists from the Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex and their partners across the state have discovered that allowing the hatchling turtles to grow a bit bigger and stronger in captivity for their first nine months of life can greatly improve their chances of survival in the wild.

The Blanding’s turtle is a semi-aquatic freshwater turtle that typically uses vernal pools, marshes, and slow-flowing wetlands for breeding and feeding. They can be identified by their highly-domed top shell, or carapace, and their unique bright yellow chin and throat that creates a turtley cheerful grin. Unlike some other freshwater turtle species, Blanding’s turtles cover a lot of ground, up to a mile, while searching for wetlands and suitable nesting habitat.

A Blanding’s turtle crossing a road. Photo by Courtney Celley/USFWS.

A smiling head-start turtle that was released at Assabet NWR in 2011. Photo by Keith Shannon/USFWS

When Blanding’s turtle hatchlings emerge from their nests, only around 1 in 5 of the quarter-sized, defenseless (their shells are actually soft after hatching) turtles avoid becoming a snack-sized bite for lurking predators in their first year. While low survival of hatchlings is common in many turtle species, Blanding’s turtle populations are in particularly serious decline due to a number of factors. This decline is partly because the long-lived turtle doesn’t reach sexual maturity until 15-20 years of age, making it very important for turtles to reach adulthood and reproduce. This can be especially challenging for adult Blanding’s turtles who frequently cross roads and other hazardous landscapes. Currently, the species is under review to determine if federal protection under the Endangered Species Act is warranted.

A Blanding’s turtle hatchling Photo by Rob Bowers/ USFWS

A portion of the hatchlings from each nest are randomly chosen for the head-start program and the remaining turtles enter their habitat as they naturally would. Raising the turtles in captivity during their first year before releasing them into the wild helps them grow to a larger size more quickly, decreasing their chances of being predated. During head-starting, the newly-hatched turtles are fed daily and kept in warm water, allowing them to grow three to four times faster than they would in the wild. Once they’ve grown for nine months, the turtles are released back into the wild. With this extra growing time, their first-year survival rate jumps to close to 80%, with an even higher chance of survival in subsequent years as they get even larger.

Blanding’s turtles aren’t the only ones benefiting! Students play a huge role in the growth and development of the turtles, while also gaining hands-on experience with scientific techniques and wildlife management. Students also learn about the challenges facing the turtles and their own environmental impacts.

Biologists measure the length of the hatchling’s carapace. Photo by Rob Bowers/ USFWS

Brian Bastarache, Natural Resources Program Coordinator at Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton, MA, has been one of the leading advocates for the use of head-starting to combat declining turtle populations. Brian and his students have been raising the majority of the program’s Blanding’s turtle head-starts every year since 2009 as well as working to head-start the federally endangered northern red-bellied cooters. He thinks the experience students gain from working with the turtles is more beneficial than any worksheet.

“Real-world work is real. Classroom lessons are simply trivia without an understanding of its application, and turtles happen to be well suited for this lesson. Students also foster a positive appreciation for their own capacity to engage in their work and contribute to a larger conservation effort.”

For Bristol County Agricultural High School Alumnus Kourtnie Bouley, the message of wildlife conservation inspired her to pursue a two-year internship with the Service, where she helped protect the nests, gather the hatchlings from the field, and process the turtle hatchlings at the refuge after helping to raise them as a student.

“Helping to head-start the turtles really helped connect what we were learning in the classroom to a real life conservation strategies. The overall satisfaction of being able to make a difference in the long term survival of this species was very rewarding. My experience with the Blanding’s turtles came full circle once working with the Service.”

Bristol Aggie hatchling dropoff

Kournie during her intership.

Currently, the largest population of Blanding’s turtles in the Northeast resides within  Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The population is so healthy and stable that it allows a portion of the head-started turtles to be introduced into new areas within their historic range. With numerous wetlands and upland nesting habitat, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts (also within the Eastern Massachusetts NWR Complex) provides an ideal location for reintroduction. Since the program began in 2006, over 900 Blanding’s turtle head-starts have been released to the refuge. With another good season of hatching success this summer, the one-thousandth Blanding’s turtle head-start could be released next spring.

The long-term success of this program will not be known for several years, but if successful, it could result in the third or fourth largest population of Blanding’s turtles in the northeastern United States. And to the dedicated biologists, partners, teachers, and students involved with the head-starting project, it has already provided unforgettable experiences and long-lasting memories.

A Budding Botanist’s Quest for Rare Wildflowers

Six pairs of eyes meticulously comb through the open understory of the hardwood forest. Small green plants blanket the forest floor, having just broken through a thick layer of dead leaves. This forest ecosystem, mixed with just a touch of sunlight, creates the perfect habitat conditions for the rarest orchid east of the Mississippi River, the small whorled pogonia.

“The threatened small whorled pogonia hasn’t been documented here since 2012,”  Johnny Townsend, the state botanist, tells me “Although plants that are commonly associated with the pogonia are found all throughout this area, which is a hopeful sign.”

The small whorled pogonia is found in 18 eastern states and Ontario, Canada, but it still considered rare because their isolated populations usually consist of less than 20 plants. The plant is named for it’s whorled arrangement of five to six leaves just beneath the flower, which stands between 10-14 inches tall. The pononia can be found in older hardwood stands of beech, birch, maple, oak, and hickory trees with an open understory and a thick layer of dead leaves. What makes documenting the pogonia particularly difficult is that it can remain dormant for many years without emerging from the leaves.

While I’m no botanist, discovering new plants and ecosystems turned out to be quite the adventure. On our two separate quests for wildflowers, we discovered other rare and beautiful species, including the smooth coneflower, or Echinacea laevigata, and clematis. We also discovered that small-whorled pogonia has an almost identical lookalike, called Indian cucumber root. You can tell the difference between the two species by looking closely at their stems.

Cucumber root looks a lot like small whorled pogonia, but you can tell the difference by the “hairy” stems that this cucumber root plant has.

Smooth coneflower

Clematis

Some other fun finds along the way included a box turtle, some gorgeous fungi, and more wildflowers! The diverse array of species is a great indicator of a healthy habitat.

False fox glove

Scarlet waxy cup

Ghost plant

Whorled milkweed

Butterflyweed

As we continued our search into the forest, we stumbled onto what we came here for. To our surprise, the small whorled pogonia was preparing to flower, another rare sight! The small whorled pogonia doesn’t flower every year, but when they do, flowers only last a few days.

After documenting the habitat’s slope, sunlight, and proximity to water and the forest’s edge, we continued looking and discovered three more plants nearby. Finding only four small individual pogonia plants may not seem like much, but this small population is a huge step in learning how to protect the species.

Small whorled pogonia

Small whorled pogonia with double flowers.

Not only was finding this federally threatened orchid rewarding , it gives Service biologists at the Virginia Field Office an idea of how well the plant is surviving when faced with possible threats to their habitat. Projects like roadway repairs, building construction, and forest clearing can all impact this delicate ecosystem’s balance. Finding this population after recent construction in the area is a hopeful sign they will continue to thrive.

Knowing more about these ecosystems also helps biologist make informed management decisions and protect our endangered and threatened species. Click here to learn more about small whorled pogonia and other threatened and endangered species work happening in Virginia!

 

Using Sight for Song: A Deaf Birder’s Life Hack

If you’re an avid birdwatcher, nature lover, or even just enjoy going for a stroll near your home, you’d probably be thrilled to see a yellow warbler whizz by or hear its cheerful “sweet- sweet- sugary- sweet” song ring through the trees.

Yellow warbler, photo by Tom Teztner

While many of us enjoy wildlife encounters like these, the experience isn’t the same for everyone.

Generally, avid birders and ornithologists rely on calls and songs to identify nearby birds just as much as they use their sight. But for birders who are deaf or hard of hearing, birding by sound can prove a difficult, or even impossible, task. In an effort to overcome this challenge, Ron Popowski – who is deaf – and former U.S. Forest Service colleague in northern Arizona, Hans – who is hearing- have developed a helpful life hack to help deaf birders better locate birds for identification.

With a series of hand signals and motions, Hans tips Ron off to a bird when it vocalizes. With his knowledge of ecosystems and bird behavior, Ron is able to deduce the general habitat and locate a bird for a species-specific identification. This way, Ron can still enjoy the same challenge that comes with identifying birds without simply being told what it is.

For example, Hans may hear a “tap tap tap tap” in the woods and therefore signal “woodpecker” for Ron. Ron can then determine the general habitat, height, and possible direction to visually locate the woodpecker. From there, he can determine it is a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

The spelling and ASL sign for ‘woodpecker’ video by ASL Stem Forum

This silent code proved beneficial for data collection when Ron and Hans created it in the 1990s. The pair were working on several analysis areas in Coconino National Forest to collect baseline data, and their code allowed Ron to expand his data collection to record bird species. They worked in diverse habitats, including treeline and tundra, ponderosa pine and spruce-fir forests, pinyon-juniper, chaparral, grasslands, desert scrub, riparian, and marsh and open water.  Some of the species included Clark’s nutcracker, doves, poorwill, warblers, wrens, sandhill crane, Northern goshawk, and Mexican spotted owl.

A Mexican spotted owl, photo by Gregory Smith/ Creative Commons

Northern goshawk, photo by Matthew MacGillivray/ Creative Commons

It’s helpful to remember that everyone’s needs are different. Some alternatives to Ron’s Manual may be more beneficial for birders with limited hearing. For example, bird songs are often given phonetic spellings or mnemonics, to assist hearing or hard of hearing birders alike to remember and identify songbirds. To some the red-eyed vireo may sound like it’s saying “look up, over here, see me, up here.” Giving words to notes could help some to better distinguish sounds.

Additional tools are available for those with high-register hearing loss, or presbycusis. While costly, devices like SongFinder are available to lower the pitch of bird calls without slowing them down, allowing a birder to detect its pattern and rhythm in a lower, audible register.

Song finder device, photo provided by hearbirdsagain.com

Mnemonics of common birds, screen capture provided by fernbank.edu

We are always looking for more tips and tricks that can be useful for recreationists to enjoy the outdoors. If you have helpful tools or strategies that improve your experiences in nature, we’d love to learn from you. Please comment and share!

Ron Popowski is Endangered Species and Conservation Planning Assistance Supervisor at the New Jersey Field Office.