She laid during "La Patum"

It had to be that day. I wanted to go on Sunday night with some friends to "La Patum de Berga", the village festival,  and the terrapin started digging the hole at 19:00.

The day before, on Saturday, more or less at the same time, she tried to make a nest. I saw her digging, hidden among the vegetation. In a couple of hours she stopped. Where she was trying to dig a hole there was a stone and the earth in the area was very hard. 

Trying to dig a hole

She was just starting, I didn't try to make more pictures

She left it like that 

As I was saying, she tried again on Sunday. Like she did on Saturday, she chose to do it under the grass.

I saw she was digging for the regular movements of the grass

At 21:00  I realized she would be there for a long time, so, I went to the festival.  To the " Patum de Berga", proclaimed "Masterpiece of Oral and Immaterial Patrimony of Humanity" by the UNESCO in 2005. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCPHOT41Boc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8Rc5ruGmg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaOnPQ5HEPM

http://www.jordicohen.com/category/patum/

When I came back home, around 3 o'clock in the morning, the terrapin was still in the same place, working in the nest. I went to sleep. Next morning, at 9:00, I saw her underwater and, in the place she had been most of the night, to my surprise, the eggs uncovered.

The upper one has part of the shell collapsed

She laid four eggs. The hole was not very deep, I think this is why the last one collapsed. The earth was very hard and it looks as she had problems to dig the hole. Some species sometimes lay the eggs in places with vegetal debris and do not bury them. I don't know if Clemmys sometimes does it. But last year she made a proper hole and covered the eggs, in a place with sand mixed with the earth.
I talked about it with a friend with a lot of experience breeding turtles. What he does is dig the earth and water it some days before the females starts trying to nest. That way it is easier for them. If she wants to make a second clutch, I will do it. Also next winter, I will soften that earth with some sand and garden earth.

Regarding the incubation I wanted to try  Lucky Reptile incubators. Some time before I programmed one at 25ºC and another one at  30ºC. I already realized that there was more than 2ºC of difference between the real temperature and the one you read. But the worst is that they failed when I needed them. When the terrapin started digging I connected the incubators, but the temperature didn't pass the 25ºC. At the 12 hours anything had changed. I tried to put them both at 34ºC and the temperature didn't rise up. One of them was new.

I put two eggs in my old Jaeger. I checked the temperature with signatrol data loggers. I programmed it at 29,5ºC.  The humidity higher than last year.

I put the other two eggs, even the collapsed one (which I don't think that survives) as described in some prehistoric books. A bowl with water heated by a aquarium heater. All closed with some inclination to avoid condensation water drops falling on the eggs. The eggs in vermiculite, in an open box. The temperature about 26ºC.

There is a signatrol data logger in both incubators, measuring the temperature and the humidity every hour. Now I have to wait.

Ready to lay eggs

This spring is being hot, with thunderstorms in the afternoons. This rain stimulates the Clemmys.  They use to move to shallower areas and even the shore. This also happens when I water the pond. During last thunderstorm, I noticed something. One terrapin was walking underwater, near the shore,  with the top of the carapace almost touching the water surface, with the neck outstretched and the nose on the substrate. Moving slowly as if seeking something. At one point it even removed the sand of the bottom with the leg, pulling the dirt on its carapace. It really looked as though it was looking for food.
I remembered that once before, also after a rain, they were doing something similar and one of them swam quickly  away with an earthworm. I thought she had been lucky to find an earthworm, but I now wonder if the thunderstorms might have some relation with food availability.

The pond has completely changed in appearance

April

June

June

I often pass a net to clean the water of fallen leaves or to control filamentous algae. In these cleanups I have found several invertebrates: ditiscus sp, water striders and recently, dragonfly larvae.

In fact, I have assumed they are dragonfly larvae because of their face, quite similar to the mother's. She visited the pond in autumn 2011. She touched the wood with the abdomen in different places for several minutes. I thought she was laying eggs.

Both Clemmys spend most of their lives in the water.  Only the male in spring has some terrestrial activity for a brief period, when it walks up and down the land area, specially in the early morning. This year he has done it in late March. I wonder if this corresponds to those migrations described in some articles. They also occupy different type of ponds in different seasons.  I have only seen the female going to land to nest. And this is what she is doing now. Last mating I saw was in April. Now she is carrying eggs. About 15 days ago I felt something on palpation but I wasn't sure. One week ago I palpated the eggs very easily. The female has also changed the behavior. She has stopped eating (even earthworms!). And she goes to the land area, specially in the early morning (and maybe during the night, I am not there to check). Every day since last week I have a look at the land area when a come from work in the evening, around 21:00 and again before going to bed, between 23:00-24:00.  Today it has been a very hot day. If there in not an afternoon thunderstorm, I suspect that she will lay tonight. This is also what I  thought yesterday. And two days ago.

Spring

March has been a very warm month and April has been cool and rainy. Since March, mating has decreased. I don't think it is due to the lower temperatures, since the animals are very active. They feed normally, they sunbathe often... The male still looks for the female when she comes near, and from time to time they mate, but nowhere near as often as in March.

Last week I palpated the female inguinal, no eggs yet.

I have added a piece of  cork that I found in Alt Empordà. The bark from the cork oak trees is used for different purposes and taken out of the tree periodically. This piece was left on the floor, it was probably not good enough.

I have checked the water quality. I use aquarium tests and I look at the pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. The values were correct. Maybe the pH is the one that differs more from the one that I  would expect for the type of ponds that the species lives in (I would expect it to be acidic, I will try to look for this information).I have a pH of 8. Perhaps the sand that I use as a substrate makes the water alkaline. 

Wall lizards

The spring is here. Most of the plants are sprouting. I have found some dragonfly larvae an some water beetles, still small sized. Water fleas are moving around, forming swarms in the water. On the surface, the water striders skate, fast and not easy to catch with the camera.

Aquarius najas (=Gerris najas)

The terrapins, after a week of intense sexual activity, have taken a break.  I haven't seen them mating for the last couple of days. In fact today the male has been all the morning out of the water, hidden among the vegetation, while the female was swimming around.

When I noticed that in the last 4 hours he had not moved, I took him. I wanted to check he was not ill. He looked well. I put him in the water and he swam normally. I offered him food and he took it. All seems to go well.

Regarding the female, she has eaten quite a lot. I have offered her the food in the form of pudding. Another day I will talk about it, but I use it because it doesn't leave debris around and it is easy to pick up what they do not eat. It helps to keep the water in good conditions.

Eating the pudding

The female at some distance

Wall lizards are the other reptile inhabitants of the pond. Maybe because they take me to childhood, I specially appreciate them. Lean and agile, they are naturally confident and they feel a great curiosity about what happens around them. When you approach them they turn they head to better assess the situation. If you come too near, they fly away, but if you stand still, they reappear. They are wild animals and they are there for their own decision, this adds charm to the situation. I think the pond offers them a good habitat. There is water (I have seen them drinking from the pond) and there are plenty of small insects and arachnids which they eat. The pond is south facing, so there is plenty of sun, which they enjoy.

The coloration and proportions suggest it is a female.

The aspect suggests it is a male. 

In this case the tail is regenerating. Wall lizards tail off very easily. When this happens the detached segment performs abrupt movements and contortions that mislead the predator while the lizard escapes. In this case it worked. Although they regenerate the tail, is has a different color and the scales look different. It was probably done by a cat or a bird. Cats, on which I personally believe that should not be let out of the houses, are especially problematic for wall lizards. A fence prevents the access of cats to the pond area. I think this has benefited the lizards.

The picture captured the moment when the male prolapsed the hemipenis. I don't know why he did it.

First mating of the season

Yesterday morning, about half past nine, I saw the terrapins mating for the first time so far this year.

In midday, with spring temperatures (more than 23ºC in the shadow) they were both sunbathing, in different places. 

Next week rain is expected, but I do not dare to say that they will stop mating in spite of lower temperatures. 

This morning they started again.

Feeding and...

In Ernst&Lovich book and in articles I have talked about before, there is some data about this species behavior when the hibernation finishes. In Pennsylvania, they become active at a water temperature of   3ºC (other species don't do it until the water reaches  8-10ºC),  they can courtship at temperatures of 8,5ºC and they start feeding when the water temperature is about 14-15ºC.

In the northern areas of their range, the lowest air temperature at which they have started activity and courtship is 2ºC (it doesn't mention the water temperature)

Yesterday I saw the two terrapins. I don't see them often, the night temperatures are still cold. Anyway, yesterday, both, the male and the female, ate an earthworm. By the end of the month I will know the water and air temperature at this moment, but I don't think it is too different from the one that I measured when the male ate for the first time on February the 26th. (12,61ºC and 8,61ºC at 10 and 50 cm depth).

As it happened in February, the male approached the female but any chasing started. She ignored him. The pictures are somewhat blurry because the animals where in the deepest part of the pond. I don't think the temperature was lower than 8,5ºC, so, some chasing will start soon hopefully.

At 50 cm depth, the female in front

From winter to spring in 15 days

The first half of February has been the coldest of the winter, while the second half is being almost spring.

Air temperatures in the shadow, 5 cm above the ground. The coldest day was on February the 12th at 7:00 am, with a temperature of  -7,54ºC. At 10 cm depth the water was at  1,08ºC , at 50 cm 4,09ºC.

Water temperature at 10 cm depth



Water temperature at 50 cm depth. In the coldest days, in the bottom of the pond the temperatures were lower than 4ºC, they reached 3.59ºC.  It wouldn't have happened if the pond was deeper.

Last day I posted pictures of the turtles swimming under the ice in the morning. The data logger temperatures were:

February the 8th  9:00 (half an hour before I saw them)
Air -4,6ºC
Water at 10 cm depth 1,08ºC
Water at  50 cm depth 4,09ºC

February the 10th 9:00
Air -3,07ºC
Water at 10 cm depth 1,08ºC
Water at 50 cm depth 3,59ºC

They were swimming superficially, at less than 10cm depth.

Since the 15th the temperatures have been increasing gradually. This last week there has been a marked temperature contrast between the  day and night, with spring temperatures in the midday.  Now I often see the turtles, sunbathing with half closed eyes, very confident. On Sunday the 26th, around 4:00pm, I saw the male nibbling at the filamentous algae that grow in the pond. I threw an earthworm near him and he ate it. The air temperature was 23,83ºC, water at 10 cm 12,61ºC , water at 50 cm  8,61ºC. 

That day I added water to the pond with the hose. I saw a wall lizard (Podarcis hispanica) approaching by the wall I had sprinkled. It looked as though she felt attraction towards the water. I sprinkled the wall again and she started licking the wet stones. She did it for a long time, maybe it was the first time she drank since hibernation (this has been a very dry winter). The heat, the wall lizards, the turtles moving, the almond tree flowering, the birds singing... I also felt the spring coming.