Highlights

is to protect, restore, and enhance the biological diversity and ecological integrity of a large-scale ecosystem with diverse natural communities representative of the region; to promote sustainable natural resource management; to permanently protect public water supplies and cultural resources; to offer interpretive and educational programs communicating the value and significance of the Bioreserve; and to provide opportunities for appropriate recreational use and enjoyment of the natural environment.

....And, here's some incredibly ugly and more coming in future "Alerts".

 

Motorized vandals illegally cut trees and shrubs from an existing illegal trail to climb to the top of a granite knob. As you can see from the photo the granite rock, at the top of the illegal trail, is now devoid of the reindeer moss and other mosses, rock tripe and other lichens, polypody and wild columbine that once grew there. These small rocky outcrops are tiny ecosystems and few in number in this relatively flat coastal forest. It is a shame to lose them and diminishes the biodiversity DCR is supposed to be encouraging and protecting.

Motorized vandals from an existing illegal trail decided to make their own new illegal trail by removing a section of historic old stonewall to continue their illegal trail on the other side. 

Another illegal trail in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. Not all, but too many individuals decide to cut their own trails and DCR does little to stop it. 

*Next "Alert" will have more photos of Bioreserve disrespect and who to call when you see folks damaging the Bioreserve. Watch for it

-----------------------------------------

INFO ALERT - Kudos to MassWildlife and all the volunteers that turned out to pick up trash that thoughtless, disgusting people dumped in the Bioreserve.

Some of the trash removed by MassWildlife and their volunteers
-------------------------------------

 

------------------------------------------

ACTIVITY ALERT - Past Saturday's May Walk and upcoming Turtle Walk 

A beautiful May morning, sunny and warm, for a walk along a section of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve's 20 Mile Loop Trail. At our starting point spring warblers were warbling in the newly green forest. Brand new downy-yellow goslings were following their very serious parents as they foraged for breakfast and signs of spring getting ready to slowly slip into summer couldn't be missed. June's Turtle Walk will be June 10.

Allegheny Mound Ant-

We began this month's walk from the Allegheny Mound Ant Village near the Copicut Reservoir. Mound ants are social critters and have communities and alter their environment to accommodate their needs as we do.

When  you were a little kid and closer to the ground did you ever watch a battle between red ants and black ants? When outdoors playing did you ever inadvertently stand or sit next to a red ant mound? …OUCH!

From Nova Scotia to Georgia and from Michigan and the Upper Midwest south to Kentucky the Allegheny mound ant is the “red” mound building species you likely encountered.

Although commonly called “red” ants, Allegheny mound ants are actually reddish-orange on the head and thorax and black on the abdomen. Worker ants are about a quarter-inch long, queens a half-inch in length.

These ants build large mounds in which to live and raise their young. These mounds serve as solar collectors providing warmth necessary for egg incubation. Worker ants kill nearby trees and shrubs with injections of formic acid to prevent any shading of their mound.

Mounds are usually located in areas of dry, sandy, nutrient poor soil. As the ants construct their tunnels and chambers they bring up particles of sand and gravel piling them up higher and higher. A thriving Allegheny mound ant colony may have a mound four feet high and four feet underground.

Allegheny mound ants are alert and they post sentries to sound the alarm if their mound is threatened. A large mound contains thousands of aggressive workers ready to lay down their lives in defense of their mound. They are quick to bite and their mandibles will lock on even if their head is separated from their body. The stinging sensation one feels from the bite is due to the formic acid injected at the bite site.

Unlike most ants, Allegheny mound ants can have more than one queen. Young mated queens may stay in their home mound or they may leave to start their own colony. New mounds often have tunnels connecting them to the original mound.

Allegheny mound ants eat small arthropods and insects, including other ants. They also protect and tend aphids and eat the sweet secretions the aphids produce.

A number of spider species and large predatory insects will catch an Allegheny mound ant away from its mound and devour it. Some insect eating birds, especially flickers, enjoy an ant meal. In the SMB striped skunks are known to raid a mound for the eggs and ant larvae until the biting stings of the angry worker ants drive them away.

If out hiking within the range of the Allegheny mound ant watch for their large, obvious mounds. They are a marvel of insect engineering.

Eastern Box Turtle -

At about a third of the way through May's walk the walkers encountered another walker. Liz took a photo of this young and handsome male, eastern box turtle out looking for some female companionship. June is when most local turtles lay their eggs,

The eastern box turtle is New England’s only terrestrial turtle. It is a charming creature found from southern Maine west to Michigan, south to Florida and west to eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. 

As in many other box turtle states, in Massachusetts the box turtle is listed as a “Species of Special Concern.” Box turtles are so charming that many people cannot resist picking them up and taking them home. A turtle-napped box turtle usually ends up dead and even if it should survive as someone’s “pet” it still ends up effectively “dead” … removed from furthering the perpetuation of its species in the wild.

Except when hibernating box turtles are always on the move, often crossing the roads they encounter within their home territory. This sooner or later usually results in a crushed turtle. Add slow to mature to these woes, and laying only five to six eggs each year, and it is easy to see why box turtles have been in a slow, gradual decline for the past fifty years over almost their entire range.

In the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB) we have a box turtle population following the national trend. Dozens of roads and trails fragment their habitat. Legal motor vehicle use in the SMB and illegal all-terrain and off-road vehicle activity make it impossible for a box turtle to survive from hatchling to adult without being run over or picked up and taken home. 

Additionally, in the suburban developments adjacent to the SMB, human commensals …dogs and cats …think nothing of swallowing quarter-size box turtle hatchlings. 

Eastern box turtles have a high, dome-like carapace (top shell) and a two-part plastron (bottom shell) connected by a flexible hinge that allows total shell closure. When in danger, the turtle is able to close the plastron by pulling the hinged sections up against the carapace. This shell closing feature protects the box turtle from most forest predators, but offers no protection from our heavy motor vehicles. Aquatic turtle species seek safety in water, so didn’t evolve the box turtle’s neat shell closing feature.

The base carapace color is usually brown or black although some may be yellow. Each carapace segment (scute) has a radiating pattern of yellow or orange lines and blotches. Each individual has a slightly different color pattern. Skin coloration is similar to that of the carapace.  

Males are usually more brightly colored than females. Males also have larger heads and longer toenails and tails than females. Box turtle males normally have red eyes. Females usually have brown eyes.

Box turtle males have a concave depression on their plastron that allows them to maintain their position atop the female’s carapace when mating. Female plastrons are flat to slightly convex.

Eastern box turtles are six to eight inches long and have five toes on each front foot and four toes on each hind foot. 

Unlike our aquatic turtle species that rarely live longer than a half century, box turtles are very long-lived. They have been known to live well over 100 years.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal about a Middleborough box turtle that he heard about while visiting at Assawompset Pond in 1854. Average age of maturity for a box turtle is twelve years, so the turtle mentioned by Thoreau was probably at least twelve years old when first discovered, but could have been much older. Here’s what Thoreau wrote:

In the year 1763, Mr. Shubael Thompson found a land turtle in the northeast part of Middleborough, which by some misfortune had lost one of its feet, and found marks on its shell, viz. I. W. 1747.

He marked it S. T. 1763 and let it go,

It was found again in the year 1773, by Elijah Clap who marked it E. C. 1773, and let it go.

It was found again in the year 1775 by Captain William Shaw, in the month of May, who marked it W. S. 1775. It was found again by said Shaw the same year, in September, about one hundred rods distance from the place where he let it go.

It was found again in the year 1784, By Jonathan Soule, who marked it J. S. 1784, and let it go. 

It was found again in the year 1791, by Zenas Smith, who marked it Z. S. 1791 and let it go, it being the last time it was found; 44 years from the time the first marks were put on.

Eastern box turtles prefer mixed forest regions interspersed with grassy meadows, old pastures, springs, brooks, and vernal pools where they like to loaf in the mud on hot, humid summer days.

The scutes, boney plates that make up the box turtle’s carapace, continue to grow throughout the turtle's life and develop annual growth ridges, similar to tree growth rings. If not overly worn, these ridges can be counted to determine the turtles age. Most of our aquatic turtles shed their scutes as they grow so this method of determining a turtle’s age does not on work on all turtle species.

Box turtles in our area hibernate for half the year. They enter burrows or just dig into the ground, under woody forest debris or alongside downed tree limbs, in mid-October. They emerge from hibernation in late April or early May.

Box turtles mate throughout the summer. Males may fight over a female, often biting and scratching and attempting to flip their opponent onto his carapace. One mating can provide the female with enough viable sperm for up to three years of egg laying.

Box turtles lay eggs in June. A pregnant female will walk for miles looking for the right sandy/gravely location, with correct sun exposure, in which to lay her eggs.

When the desired location is found, the female uses her hind feet to dig a nest hole. This usually occurs early in the morning. It make take an entire day for the female to dig the nest chamber, lay her eggs and scoop the excavated soil back into the hole.

Box turtle eggs hatch in the fall and the hatchlings may immediately hibernate or over-winter in the nest emerging in the spring. 

Requiring protein for growth, baby box turtles are primarily carnivorous eating worms, slugs and most any insect they encounter and can overpower. They will also feed on carrion and road-kill and when dining on the latter often end up road-kill themselves.

Adults are mostly vegetarian with a fondness for wild strawberries, wild grapes, blueberries and other wild fruits. They are also often found feeding on mushrooms.

It is an environmental tragedy that we are losing these unique creatures. If you see one crossing a road or highway stop, if it is safe to do so, and carry it across putting it down facing it in the direction it was going when you picked it up. Our eastern box turtles need all the help they can get.

The eastern box turtle is the official state reptile of North Carolina.