…redwing blackbirds calling in a snow-rain. I was thinking that the
life and weather patterns of this spring begin to present an automatic
Chinese poem, just in the listing. This uncharacteristic (which I
guess is characteristic) April has offered a roller coaster ride of
indoor and outdoor possibilities, favorable for a blend of
swampwalking, some Gartenarbeit; and drawing, writing, foreign
language pursuits. On the 21st of April I waded again my “following
the water” route; or half of it, thinking I might yet encounter
spotted turtles on their migration to the Swale. I had done shorter
tours previously, came to realize that migration – like the wood frog
breeding – had come and gone in quick bursts during very warm to hot
days between drops back to chill conditions. In fact, as I moved back
into the Swale on the 24th, I saw that courtship and mating was the
seasonal order for the spotted turtles. I can still manage to be
surprised by things that ought not to surprise me. I had taken one
last wade down Spring Brook to the Tussock Pool (as shown on map in
FOLLOWING THE WATER), looking for a last upstream-migrating spotted
turtle. None sighted. A short distance down this little seasonal
traveling-stream, as I kept my eyes to scanning the water, a woodcock
burst up from all but beneath my left foot. I held still, not taking a
step for fear of putting my foot down on a nest with eggs or young.
When one of these supremely camouflaged birds waits until such an
absolute last instant to take flight, it is likely one who has been on
a nest.
i could make out no nest; but after a few moments made out two tiny
chicks a half-stride from where I stood. They were perhaps a foot and
a half from each other; one settle on the dried-leaf flooring of the
alder carr, the other against the leaf and twig strewn base of a
brookside red maple. Stunning crypsis, equal to, and very similar to
that of the most perfectly habitat-blended wood turtle. And, with that
same wood turtle instinct, they froze in place; I did not notice a
tiny jet black eye to blink, even as I leaned very close to take
photos. Their little woodcock bills were amazing to see…but yes,
perfect little woodcocks in all features, much-reduced, and with the
pattern of newly hatched chicks: tawny rippled streaks through a
ground of dark umber. A different pattern and to some extent color
scheme from that of wood turtles, but perfectly designed to match the
same background. Hopefully I can post photos at some point. This
experience/sighting would be a wonderful addition to my extended
“Following the Water” chapter in the book of the same name. I think of
extending that some day, my “long day’s wade into evening” as I call
it, to include such things seen along the way, an amalgam, or catalog
of sorts, of material from over the years.

I have not been to the wood turtle areas much at all yet; hope to
devote some days there soon. On a fairly brief excursion along the
west stream on the 21st of April I did find two individuals; both
subadults and both familiar turtles. One was a seven-year-old,
recorded originally as a one or two year old. As such a juvenile
turtle this one escaped detection during the winter of great otter
predation, and remains a perfect specimen, complete to tail-tip. The
second turtle was a 14 year old female(also known/recorded since very
young). She lost her right front leg – only a very small stub is left
– to that otter episode. She is doing very well, in excellent
condition, and without further incident will be a nesting member of
this colony within 4 or 5 years.

I have encountered a number of long-familiar spotted turtles in the
Swale, males marked #5 and #9 among them; these are turtles that were
first noched, as adults, in 1993, and doubtless appear in earlier, pre-
notching notebooks, and are conservatively 40 years old -and upward. I
had a welcome find in capturing a particularly spectacularly marked
female that I first caught as a 5 year old in the Swale, at least 20
years ago. She was precocious in the sense of her size, large for such
a young individual, and for migrating into the Swale at such a young
age; most I have found there over the years have been at least 10
years old when first recorded. I had not seen her for 3 or 4 years.
And I have never found her anywhere but in the Swale, the vernal pool
habitat that is such a spotted turtle center during its season (I once
documented 16 of them in a single day); this is true of many of the
turtles I find here, and I have thought of how many places they must
shift about in, and settle into for the winter…where they nest, etc.
For all the places, patterns’ and individuals I have discovered during
my more than 30 years’ wandering here, there is much that remains
unknown to me, and likely would not be revealed other than by a
radiotelemetry study.

I have continued with the audio-book version of FOLLOWING…, with a
studio and swamp session a week ago with Jessica Lockhart. We will
take this up again tomorrow, hopefully with more natural background
sounds than the wind in the pines. Birds are returning – I heard song
and swamp sparrows during the abovementioned tours in the field
(should have heard them earlier, it seems); the redwing blackbirds are
more vociferous of late; and there are occasional outbursts from green
frogs. I have committed to a mid-May completion of this project; that
seems feasible.

In the forthcoming unseasonably warm (even into the low 80’s) days –
after walking with Laurette here in snow yesterday morning to view the
wild plum, weeping cherry, magnolias, pear and majestic Manchurian
apricots in bloom – I hope to focus on wood turtle searches. And of
course it is high spotted turtle season in the Swale.