There's Magic in those Shells

On the first weekend of June this year, the weather was overcast and windy, making paddling a bad choice, so my partner and I decided to walk at the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre since it was turtle nesting season.  Once there, we were told that there had been a sighting of newly hatched snapping turtles emerging from their nest.  The eggs may have been laid unusually late in the fall and overwintered underground. 

Female snapping turtle

So off we headed over the new boardwalks that span the marsh and onto the earth berms that were created decades ago when the marsh was dredged to provide an open water habitat for fish, turtles, muskrats, otters, geese, ospreys, swans and other marsh life.  

Along the way we encountered a number of large female snapping turtles on the berm, digging holes with their back feet, to lay their precious eggs. Some were two feet long with long scaly tails that looked prehistoric.  They looked at us with their striped reptilian eyes and most of them ignored us but one decided to crawl back into the water until we were gone.  

Snapping turtles dig their nests in gravel and loose soil

Finally we arrived at the place where the hatchlings had been sighted.  We stooped over and walked carefully as we scanned the ground for the babies. 

Suddenly my partner spotted one impossibly small turtle, the size of a loonie, covered in the mud, now dried brown, that it had crawled through to emerge from its nest.  It looked dead, but on closer inspection, we realized that it was just resting.  Then we saw another and another, all heading in the same direction along the path.  They struggled to clamber over blades of grass seeking the water. We took pictures of each one and counted nine. 

Most of the turtle nests get predated by racoons and other animals so the miracle of their surviving long enough to hatch, was amazing.  Their continued survival looked unlikely from their size but we know that some of them will make it age 35 when they too can start procreating for decades in this protected area.

Eventually we decided to walk a different way on the return berm and a hundred feet or so from the others, we found one bold little turtle making its way on its own in the opposite direction – the outlier turtle.  We took its picture as well.

On the way back we came across one more, large snapping turtle digging a hole.  We had met no other people the whole time due to the poor weather but across the water on the boardwalk we noticed a woman, a man and three girls aged between eight and ten.  My partner and I are volunteers at the Wye Marsh and we take people on canoe and hiking tours, so we offered to show the family the newly hatched turtles.  The girls were dip netting and didn’t want to stop but the mother convinced them that this was a rare occurrence.  They went running on ahead and my partner kept up with them to make sure they didn’t step on any of the nearly invisible youngsters.

I walked more sedately behind with the parents.  The mother confided that she had had a lot of difficulty getting the girls away from their electronic devices to go out for a walk and she had been hoping that something would happen during their visit to the marsh to justify this in the eyes of the girls.  One of the girls was a neighbour and she loved nature but the other two girls were not so keen. 

As we walked, I showed her the holes turtles had dug, predated nests and broken egg shells and where the turtles came up onto the berm.  The previously sighted mother turtles were all gone by now.  As we came up to where the girls had discovered the baby snappers, we could hear the excitement in their voices.  When they saw their parents, they called out, “Come and see them!”  My partner kept a close eye out as he protected the tiny ones from the children’s excited feet.  The kids took pictures of the turtles -- yes, every one of them, and marveled at their cuteness and tiny features.  They searched the area as if they were looking for Easter eggs and called out each new discovery.

Just as the excitement was starting to wane, a Canada Goose family climbed onto the berm from the marsh – a mother, father and goslings following behind.  They walked away from us and the kids followed them as if pulled by a magnet.  More pictures were taken and the tallest girl gave them all names starting with the letter G.  This time I kept up with them to make sure they didn’t get too close to the protective parents who might “goose” them.  My partner stayed behind with the parents who had joined in the excitement as if they were children once again.

Eventually the geese made their way through the shoreline bushes and went back into the water near a bridge.  The girls ran onto the bridge and we all strained to see them and then watch them make their way out of sight.

Tiger Swallowtail butterflies

Returning to the berm, we spotted a beautiful yellow Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.  It fluttered around our heads and then was joined by another one and then another and another.  I watched the butterflies dancing around the girls as the girls began to dance in delight, twisting and turning to see these lovely creatures floating in the air.  And then just as quickly as they came, they were gone.

Osprey on nesting platform

Looking over the marsh, we saw the mother osprey standing on her nesting platform over the marsh.  The young may have hatched already but we couldn’t see them yet.  I told the girls how ospreys plummet down into the water from a great height to catch fish with their talons.

We continued along the berm a few feet and a green frog hopped across the path and landed at my feet.  “Cue the frog,” I said as if we were in some kind of choreographed nature movie.  I put my feet together to prevent it from hopping away while the girls took pictures.  And then I stepped back and it hopped out of sight.

A few minutes later, my partner who had caught up with us spotted a painted turtle on the path ahead.  Much smaller than the snapping turtle, it has delicate red markings around the edge of its dark green shell. Once again, I briefly obstructed its passage so the girls could take pictures.  A bluet damselfly landed on the mother's arm.  More pictures.  I told the mom how I go home after one of these walks and google some of the things I've seen to learn more about them.  She liked that idea and the girls talked about emailing their pictures to friends.

The girls skipped along the path.  I told them how amazing it was that they had seen so many animals.  It was like they were attracting them somehow.  I have taken other people on hikes where no wildlife is seen at all.  The mother told me how much she loved this kind of thing when she was a kid and she wanted her children to love it too.  I had deep respect for her intention that got the kids outside and then being happy to have two “strangers” share a magical experience.  I don’t think she will have so much difficulty getting them there again.  The dad who initially looked like he had been a not so willing part of this “forced family fun”, broke into a big smile when we finally said goodbye.

I fully expected David Suzuki to appear out of the cattails telling us why it is so important for kids and adults to spend time in nature.  The David Suzuki Foundation has among many projects, two initiatives to get people out into nature.  One is to get parents to pledge to help their kids spend the same amount of time outside as they spend on screens.  This helps their kids to be healthier, happier, more creative and more likely to value the planet and be willing to take care of it. 

When I was raising my kids, they always wanted to be outside and I had to make the choice to be out there as well supervising when we lived in a big city.  This meant that floors didn’t get washed and the house was not so neat, although it was full of found “treasures” such as rocks, feathers and sticks.  I eventually moved to the country where the kids were allowed to roam the farm freely exploring and learning from nature.  The house was no neater but it was full of life.

Snapping turtle 3 hours after hatching

Now that my partner and I are grandparents, we make sure we offer our grandchildren outside experiences in boats, canoes and in the woods.  But they all live at a distance from us and so we have decided to be “grandparents at large” sharing out enthusiasm for nature and whatever knowledge we think children might take in.  As we share what we find magical, kids tap into their innate sense of magic, adults become children again and nature provides the rest.  The connections become stronger and we are all the healthier for it.