Highlights

May 2024 - May Walk Cancelled; Turtle Walk June 8th

ACTIVITY ALERT - History Walk in May and Turtle Walk in June

THIS MAY WALK IS CANCELLED
Due to high water and muddy ground on some of the trails we would be walking we are cancelling this Saturday's History Walk. Will reschedule when the brooks are lower and woods drier this summer.
 
TURTLE WALK IN JUNE IS STILL ON!
 
May Walk this coming Saturday, May 11. Meet at 9 a.m. at Fighting Rock Corner, intersection Wilson, Blossom and Bell Rock Roads, Fall River, MA. Roads in this section of Fall River/Freetown are in very poor condition. Drive slowly. We will be walking to some historic locations and maybe driving to others. Length of walk variable, walk as little or as much as you like. Rain cancels walk.
Dress for the weather. Water and snack always a good idea. Black flies and mosquitoes may be a nuisance. Insect repellent containing DEET or picaridin is good to have when hiking in the forest from now through November. 


Who quarried this stone?

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 Watch your fingers!
 
JUNE IS TURTLE MONTH
Annual June TURTLE WALK, June 8, meet at 8 a.m. We will see if we can find a local turtle, out and about, searching for the ideal sun and shade location to dig a nest hole and lay her eggs. 
We will meet, hopefully, where some turtles are laying their eggs. Not sure exactly where we will meet yet. It is up to the turtles. Watch for location and direction info that we will send out the last week in May.
Approximate length of walk 1 1/2 miles. Insect repellent containing DEET or picaridin is a good idea. Water and snack also good to have on a walk. Dress for the weather and wear shoes/boots suitable for walking forest trails and uneven ground. Rain cancels walk.
 
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ACTIVITY ALERT - June is Turtle Month


Annual June TURTLE WALK to see if we can find a local turtle, out and about, searching for the ideal sun, shade and sandy soil location to dig a nest hole and lay her eggs. 




June 8, Saturday at 8:00 a.m. We will meet, hopefully, where some turtles are laying their eggs. Not sure exactly where we will meet in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. It is up to the turtles. Watch for location and direction info next weekend.
Approximate length of walk 1 mile. Insect repellent a good idea since it is just about summer and mosquitoes sometimes like to accompany us on our walks at this time of year. Water and snack also good to have on a walk. 
 

Eastern painted turtles lay their eggs from late May through June in our neck of the woods. The eggs will hatch in late August through September. Late nesting sometimes results in hatchlings spending late fall and winter brumating until spring in their nest. Quite amazing. 

 

An eastern painted turtle hatchling just out of its natal nest. Note the pointy egg tooth on the turtle's face. The egg tooth is what the baby turtle uses to cut its way out of the leathery turtle egg at hatching. The egg tooth falls off in a week or two since once hatched the baby turtle no longer needs it. Like you, the baby turtle has a "belly button". You can see its belly button on its bottom shell, plastron, where it had been attached to its egg yolk when it was developing in the egg. 
 
 
Gone but not forgotten. A shy and beautiful wood turtle. Worldwide we are losing our turtles. Massachusetts is too. Massachusetts has ten native turtle species, not counting sea turtles that visit us in the warmer months. Locally, within the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB), there are six native species. Of those six, three are still common, two are winking out, and one has been extirpated. One would think all native to the SMB turtles ...and other reptiles too ...would be flourishing in the SMB. Unfortunately the SMB turtles and other native flora/fauna are on their own and the state agencies, MA Fish and Wildlife, MA Department of Recreation and The Trustees of Reservations, that are all supposed to be managing and maintaining their properties within the SMB, ignore their most important mission. What part of biological diversity don't they understand?

Turtles have been around since the Triassic Period 230 million years ago. We Homo sapiens (wise man) have only been around for a few hundred thousand years and the way things are going, at this point in time, we may not be around for many more. Apparently Carl Linnaeus thought highly of his species. Maybe he was a heavy drinker?
 

 

 

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