Heralds of Spring

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TURTLE DANCE

On early spring days, painted turtles newly emerged from hibernation rest on pond-side rocks or logs, basking in the season’s renewing sun. At dusk, if you’re lucky and keep your presence hidden, you may witness their curious and graceful courtship ballet.

Swimming smoothly in open water just below the surface, their red-orange bordered shells shining, a male and female glide toward one another. Meeting, with their heads barely above water, they arc their long yellow-streaked necks and touch, nose tip to nose tip. Holding the position, with legs motionless, they slowly sink together, almost to the bottom. There they separate, the larger female backing off for a distance, seemingly swimming away, then circling back to the male. As she nears him, they rise again to the surface, stretch their necks, and again touch nose to nose. Then they descend … and the dance repeats, over and over, a measured rhythm of rising and falling, breaking apart and circling together, until, on some unseen cue, one of their descents takes them all the way to the bottom, where they mate.

Three weeks to a month later the female will scoop out a depression in nearby soil, lay as many as two dozen eggs, and bury them 1 to 3 inches deep. Fledgling painted turtles about the size of your thumbnail will nibble through their eggshells two and a half to three and a half months later. In warmer regions, the little turtles may emerge from the nest in early fall to seek out their own muddy pond-bottom shelters for the winter. But in cold areas, the nestlings will stay right where they are. They’ll spend their first winter hibernating in their natal chamber, thinly protected by frozen ground from marauding skunks and raccoons, until the following spring, another turn of an ancient cycle.

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