Painteds on Ice

March was still a few days distant, but there was already a sizable hole in the ice on the sunniest side of the pond.

This was unusual February weather for the Connecticut Valley. The late January thaw, complete with days of heavy rain, had done a pretty good job of reducing and weakening the ice cover. Following the thaw the weather had been milder than usual -- not warm, mind you, but sunny and mild enough to allow the sun to etch out a tiny hole that iced over every night and then got just a bit bigger every sunny day.

Although it would probably refreeze solidly before the actual spring meltoff, for the time being it had developed an opening 2 or 3 feet in diameter. The surrounding ice had a heavy scattering of last season’s oak and maple leaves. Dark in color, they helped accumulate the little heat given out by the February sun. I was not the only one who had noticed the breach.

One day, while birding, I happened to walk closer to the pond than normal and noticed a movement on the leaves near the opening. I stopped, stared, and was surprised to see an Eastern Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta picta, just as it dropped through the hole into the icy water.

I wasn't too surprised that the turtle was awake and alert, for I had seen the species swimming beneath the ice on other frigid ponds. But this was the first (and only!) time I had seen one making an effort to bask on a February day.

More photos under the jump...

The Eastern painted is one of the most beautiful and common of the world's basking turtles: Painted turtles shed and replace their protective carapacial plates periodically as they grow:

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.