What an Hour in The Pines

[RednekF350]

Yesterday I took my nightly walk in Wharton, a chunk of which is located across the street from my house.
I live near a series of abandoned bogs.
My wife and I see deer and an occassional fox fairly regularly when we walk.
Last night it was just me and my dog and I decided to walk one of the lesser travelled dikes out to the main channel.
We were pushing deer into the bogs as we went and we could hear them crashing through a patch of cedar that extends into the bogs.
When we got as far as we could get I noticed a red bellied turtle lying dead and upside down about 20' off of the dike.
I could not get to it because of the muck but I want to go back tomorrow in boots to do a little forensics.
I have never seen a turtle die of natural causes upside down.
I am posting a photo of it. I realize that this a carcass but it is a natural circumstance that I happened upon.
When we left about and started down the main bog road home, I saw a nice red fox jump into the road about 80 yds. ahead of us. He eyed us up for a minute and then trotted own the road.
As we approaced the main sluice I saw a bald eagle circling and cruising low to the water.
This is the second time I have seen a bald eagle in this area but I have never found a nest.
I took a few pictures as he was circling but they were bad because I was moving as I was snapping.
He perched for about 20 seconds about 100 yds. ahead of me and I got one crappy photo of that which I am posting.
It looks like a typical Big Foot sighting photo but if you look into the cedar in the center of the photo abot 3/4 of the way up, you will see a white spot.
That was his head.
He left the perch when we got too close an cruised on into the sunset.
To finish off the walk we listened to tundra swans chortling as we walked the rest of the way out. They take up temporary residence each year for a month or so.
All this in just under an hour.
If anyone knows what would attack a red belly and not attempt to eat him please chime in.
I am attaching a few photos from last night.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=8
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=38
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=9

 

[BEHR655]

Truely a magical hour.

Steve

 

[woodjin]

Very cool.

I would expect any carnivor, a fox, raccoon, coyote, might attempt to consume a turtle. the shell might have been more trouble than it was worth. A coyote could have probably broken the shell but maybe not a raccoon. It wouldn't surprise me if the head and extremities were devoured.

NIce report!

Jeff

 

[dragoncjo]

From my experience raccoons normally flip turtles over like that. Once flipped they attack the limbs, I'm sure when you go back the limbs will be nibbled on. Also this turtle could have been sunning yesterday and was sluggish still making it real vulnerable to an attack.

 

[LARGO]

Don't know much from turtles but it sounds like you had a nice walkabout.
I favor the evenings myself. Nice report.

 

[Teegate]

I would tend to agree with dragoncjo that it was most likely sluggish and was vulnerable. We shall see after the autopsy

Thanks for posting!

Guy

 

[uuglypher]

When we got as far as we could get I noticed a red bellied turtle lying dead and upside down about 20' off of the dike.
I could not get to it because of the muck but I want to go back tomorrow in boots to do a little forensics.
I have never seen a turtle die of natural causes upside down.
I am posting a photo of it. I realize that this a carcass but it is a natural circumstance that I happened upon...

If anyone knows what would attack a red belly and not attempt to eat him please chime in. ...

Don't discount the possibility that it may have been a bald eagle or an osprey. Both have been "reportedly observed" (but not by me) taking turtles from the water and devouring those parts unprotected by the carapace and plastron.

I have personally seen a juvenile (2nd or third year) bald eagle feeding on the carcass of a road-kill snapping turtle (far too large for the eagle to have caught...) here in South Dakota.

Dave

 

[woodjin]

Wow, I hadn't thought of that. Interesting.

 

[RednekF350]

I am going back there late this afternoon with the boots and I will report back on the turtle.
I would love to get another look at the eagle.
The tundra swans have been there all this week and they are a nice addition too.
Scott

 

[RednekF350]

I checked out Mr. Turtle today an he was missing 1 1/2 feet and a head.
He has been an ex-turtle for a while apparently, as his shell was pretty light and hollow.
My wife and I and the dog walked the dike all the way out and found old remains of two very small deer up on the dike in two separate locations.
I am thinking coyote as the cause of the deer's demise and maybe fox or raccoon for the turtle.
It is surprising that other animals will choose a turtle as a meal.
I am sure it is an opportunistic meal and not something handed down through learned behavior.
It's a shame for the turtle and I am sure it was a disappointing snack for the killer.
Scott

 

[Teegate]

It is always sad to see a turtle die for nothing, or close to nothing.

Guy

 

[dragoncjo]

Mr. Turtle probably got attacked as a result of becoming exposed during hibernation would be my guess. Red bellies don't venture on land all that much, normally just to lay eggs. Obviously it wasn't laying eggs, and since they rarely sleep on land, my guess is it was buried in muck that became exposed. It would be tough for a raccoon/yote/fox to get a red belly of that size, the only way would be if it were sleeping in very shallow water, which I doubt, they like deeper areas as a rule. I don't think turtles are a very tasty meal, but obvioulsy someone wasn't going to turn down a possible meal.

 

[woodjin]

It is always sad to see a turtle die for nothing, or close to nothing.

Guy

I know what you mean but at least it's death wasn't as much of a waste as say an automobile, at least there was some contribution to the food chain. Of course, with my luck, I will probably be eaten by bear this weekend for having said that.

Jeff

 

[uuglypher]

It is always sad to see a turtle die for nothing, or close to nothing.

Guy

I totally agree. Can't count the number of times I or my wife have been honked at or driven close-to while moving a turtle from the road. In East Texas there is a particularly barbaric act (practiced by folks from the slimy shallow end of a drying gene pool and who epitomize retro-evolution) called "settin' up a post turtle". They put a turtle on the level top of a fence post in the sun and apparently watch with delight while it paddles its feet ineffectually in the air. The poor stranded beasts are left there in the sun to die.

I stopped once to rescue a big red-eared slider that had been put on a post by a carload of a-holes who were just driving off. The bastards actually turned around and came back to chew me out - seems they had a bet as to how long the turtle would stay on the post after it died. They were a definitely angry bunch. I tossed the turtle into the adjacent slough out of their reach and then they began to appreciate the difference between being angry and being in an abso-goddamned-lutely rightious rage. It was, in retrospect, a stupid loss of control on my part (5 of them, one of me, and on a sparsely traveled old township road well away from anywhere in the Brazos bottoms) but it was, in the end, effective. One of 'em actually muttered "sorry" and looked shamefaced as they got back in their car.
I reported the incident and the license number to the State Parks & Wldf , but never got a call back or follow-up.

I ran into entirely too many of that sort during the 11 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days that I lived in Texas. In all that time I only found three post turtles still alive. Lost count of the dead ones.

Crap. Now my damned blood pressure's up enough to feel it! Was going to go to bed, but I guess I'll read for a while.

Dave

 

[Bobbleton]

i would have done the same thing. i find it very likely that i'll be beaten up by douchey rednecks at some point because of a turtle or snake . . .

 

[dragoncjo]

You have to be a least half retarded to get a laugh out of putting a turtle on a fence post and watching the sun bake it. But then again we were talking about texas so...

 

[woodjin]

Wow, good for you Dave for doing the right thing in the face of opposition. It amazes me how cruel people can be. Doesn't surprise me anymore though. It is one thing for nature to be cruel, but people...it just becomes evil. I remember going down to the pond as a young teenager and finding two of my "friends" had caught a cat fish and had cut it's eye balls out and were watching it swim in circles. I remember freaking out on them, I think I ended up putting the fish out of it's misery, but I know I never spoke to those two again. They are probably serial killers now.

Jeff

 

[dragoncjo]

Yeah when young kids kill animals like that it is kind of a sign of much more serious problems.

 

[swwit]

You have to be a least half retarded to get a laugh out of putting a turtle on a fence post and watching the sun bake it. But then again we were talking about texas so...

I very well agree with the wrong doings being done. But to say that texans are any different in their atrocities than people from other states is wrong. I've spent much time in texas and can tell you with the exception of the inner cities it's a different world. The people in west texas for example are some of the nicest and polite people around. The whole turtle thing is horrible but I've seen many jersey scum swerve to hit animals on the road, put firecrackers in frogs and toads mouth's ect.. The whole point is it's not something isolated to a certain state or locality. The redneck remarks some people make are rediculous too.

 

[tom m]

Eagles In The Pines

Hey redneck, i've seen quite a number of eagles in the pines in the past few years ,not alot but enough to think that they may be nesting ,i know they are in bellplain ,have been for quite awhile ,but if the nest are known by the state, or the feds, chances are you'll never find out where it is .We found out about the pair in bellplain only because we were friends with the ranger that was there at the time. they are also along the delaware near eagles point somewhere.