SMSC Diary (Week 12): Wood Turtle Team Takes Kayaking!

Following weeks of wading up shallow streams (like a gaggle of geese) in search of wood turtles in their winter hibernaculums, the turtle team shifted gears. Instead of our normal survey site, we moved further west to a wider and deeper stream. And it was awesome!

So, how was this survey different?

First, we searched for turtles in a much deeper stream (nearly 8 feet in some areas), which meant we got to add kayaks to our protocol.

In addition to the kayaks, we still had one observer on each side of the stream bank in waders checking in leaf patches and root crevices.

Alternatively, at this location we moved downstream, as opposed to up. This was primarily a result of the incorporation of two observers in kayaks surveying the middle of the stream, following behind the observers surveying along the edges - certain areas of the stream pass through rapids and drop-offs that would be nearly impossible to conquer migrating upstream in a kayak.

Normally, moving upstream is ideal as it prevents the lead observers from clouding the upcoming sections of the stream to be searched. Luckily, this site minimized clouding by alternating between very fast moving riffles that cleared any clouded water quickly and very slow moving pools that kept any disturbed sediment contained to the areas directly impacted by disturbance.

One difference I observed at this location was the abundance of leeches on the turtles we found, big (slightly larger than a quarter) and small (smaller than a grain of rice). I had never noticed leeches on the turtles we found at our previous survey location. The quarter-sized leeches can be seen in the photo to the right.

I enjoyed using the kayaks for the surveys, but I found it slightly more difficult searching for turtles in the deeper water. It isn’t as easy to poke at a turtle-looking rock to confirm its identity when you are floating 6 feet above it, as opposed to walking in 6 inches of water beside it. Not to mention, anytime the wind blew my visual on the stream bottom drastically deteriorated, as I do not own a pair of polarized sunglasses to compensate for the reflection of light on each ripple of the water’s surface. This experience solidified my decision to ask Santa for polarized sunglasses this year.