A number of spotted turtles in the same place at the same
time is more likely to be seen during their spring migrations
from overwintering niches and in their breeding pools (often
these are vernal pools) than in autumn. But as the red maples
in swamps begin to turn to their brilliant autumn colors
and fall into streams and wetlands through which these turtles
make migrations back to where they will spend the winter
they may encounter one another again, as they often hibernate
communally. There may even be some autumn courtship and mating.
On occasion I have seen them together even in October.
Spotted Turtle Nesting in Moonlight
Watercolor for YEAR
OF THE TURTLE
I have found that
in the more northern parts of their range female spotted
turtles often begin their nest searches in the late afternoon
into evening, eventually deciding on a site in which to
dig their nest chambers and deposit their eggs during the
night. The final phases of filling-in and covering their
nests, typically with artful weavings of grass and leaves
and such to serve as camouflage, may take until after sunrise
and sometimes as late as nine or ten in the morning. I
write about this elaborate annual process in YEAR
OF THE TURTLE and in the final chapter, "Ariadne Nesting",
of SELF-PORTRAIT
WITH TURTLES.
Young
Painted Turtle Basking on a Lily Pad
Watercolor for YEAR
OF THE TURTLE
This
watercolor depicts one of my favorite - and frequent -
turtle sightings:
juvenile painted turtles, light enough that two may bask
on the
same lily pad, taking the full summer sun, surrounded
by white water lilies. They commonly turn the bottoms of
their
feet to the sun, a habit which could perhaps be taken
for a form of sun worship but is an aspect of an important
physiological process, likely all the more necessary
for
growing turtles.
Young Eastern Painted Turtle
This painting, done in pencil and watercolor,
is taken from a page in my Swamp Sketchbook. I did many
pencil and
a number of watercolor studies from life in this sketchbook,
most of them done between 1987 and 1990 as I worked on
YEAR
OF THE TURTLE. These pages feature studies
ranging from drawings of feet or turtle shell details
to fully represented animals, which served as reference
for
illustrations produced for my published work. This full-color
rendition, for example, served as a model for my painting
of the young painted turtle sunning himself on a lily pad.
Hatchling Spotted Turtle
Digging Out of Nest
Another
of the original watercolors that I painted
for my first book, THE
YEAR OF THE TURTLE. Of all of
the observations of turtles that I have had since that
literally
life-changing moment, my finding of the first turtle
when I was eight years old (a spotted turtle; I write
about
that pivotal experience in "TURTLE" and in my
SELF-PORTRAIT
WITH TURTLES), some of the most compelling,
and certainly most fortunate, have been seeing the first
hatchling emerge from his nest.. This can occur from mid
August through early October, depending on the species
and the nature of the season over the long incubation period
(roughly 70 - 120 days). In the case of hatchling painted
turtles, nest emergence most often does not occur until
the following spring. In my talks on turtle ecology, when
I show a slide of a hatchling wood turtle just stepping
from the exit hole of his nest, one foot reaching forward,
I quote favorite Chinese proverb: "A great journey
begins with a single step". This journey could be
but for a few feet and a matter of minutes, with the tiny
(little over an inch shell-length) turtle being taken by
a predator, or could continue for well over half a century
- up to 110 years in the case of a female spotted turtle.
Wood
Turtle Among Sunken Branches
Watercolor
for YEAR
OF THE TURTLE. In high summer, during July and
August,
when the seasonal wetlands of the spotted turtles are
too shallow, or devoid of standing water, and the turtles
are
hidden away, I spend most of my time in wood turtle habitats.
Although they are predominantly terrestrial during this
phase of their annual activity cycles, they do return
to streams and rivers from time to time. They have a
tendency
to sequester themselves in sunken branch tangles, almost
always well-camouflaged. Walking along brooks and streams,
or wading low-water rivers, I look for them in such aquatic
niches.
Paul's Wallet
I
did this almost trompe l'oeill watercolor for TROUT
REFLECTIONS.
After completing "...TURTLE" I
was strongly inclined to set aside my proposal for a book
featuring the native brook trout and go on to the book
that eventually became SWAMPWALKER'S
JOURNAL. My good friend
Paul Bofinger, and avid fisherman much-beloved of the native
trout, kept telling me, "You've got to do the trout
book!" His support was unflagging as I took that project
on. He brought me a beautifully marked native brook trout
in a cooled, aerated aquarium so that I could have a live
model to work from (quite a different matter from bringing
home a turtle for a session of drawing and watercolor).
And he loaned me one of his classic tied-fly wallets to
serve as a model for this painting.
Courtship
Spotted Turtles
This
painting for YEAR
OF THE TURTLE is based on numerous
close-at-hand
observations
of the extremely active and rather elaborate courtship
chase of the spotted turtle. The males relentlessly pursue
the females, sometimes two or more males after a single
female, following every twist and turn of her flight,
even up into shrubs emerging from their pools. I describe
this
pursuit and ceremonial flight in "...TURTLE".
Spotted
Turtle on Gold Ground
At
times in my turtle art I turn from the naturalistic to
the more stylized,
or imagined. These works often show my affinity with
Oriental painting, especially Japanese screen paintings,
which have
influenced many facets of my work over the years. This
pencil-and-watercolor piece is done on a paper that
I have stamped with gold block print ink, using rectangles
I have
cut from a medium used in stamp art to produce a ground,
or something of an imprimatura.
Leaping Brook Trout
This watercolor is derived from a pen and
ink drawing I did for TROUT
REFLECTIONS. Here I have introduced
via watercolor the jewel-like markings of the native brook
trout, all the more vibrant, resplendent even, on the males
in their breeding coloration in late October and November.
From
the Woman's Space Series
Butterfly's Shadow
From
the Regarding Women Series
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