Over the past month, I’ve visited the wetlands along western Lake Erie in Ohio and Michigan. Temps have rocketed from single digit windchill in February to a sunny 63 this past weekend. My area of SE Michigan has seen daytime highs 30 degrees above average. It’s hard to fully enjoy the record warm days knowing that winter is far from done with us here, and the impact that cold will have on plants and animals fooled into thinking it’s spring.
THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS.
Late January saw sustained bitter cold. February was a mixed bag, but mostly warmer than average. Lake ice has seesawed with the temperature, and remains alarmingly low this year.
Being shallower, wetlands are faster to freeze. So even when the lakes are mostly ice free, the marshes can still have extensive ice.
The next week saw a sustained warmup and record highs. Visiting some of the same areas was like visiting an entirely different place.
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Painted turtles hibernate in the water below the ice. From Lake Champlain Committee:
Turtles manage to tolerate low oxygen concentrations by breathing through their skin. In particular, they absorb oxygen through the lining of the mouth, the legs, and the cloaca (roughly equivalent to an anus), with uptake being most efficient through the lining of the mouth. Species that rely exclusively on skin breathing to survive the winter, like map and spiny soft-shell turtles, must hibernate in areas where oxygen is available in the water throughout the season.
A secondary strategy, utilized by painted and snapping turtles, is to switch in part to chemical pathways that don’t require oxygen. Humans also adopt this strategy for limited periods of time when engaged in strenuous exercise. The alternative pathways are less efficient and create yet another problem. While respiration with oxygen produces carbon dioxide, a relatively harmless gas, as a waste product, these alternate pathways produce acids. Build-up of acids in muscle tissue causes the familiar aches and stiffness we feel after a day of intense exercise. Imagine building up those acids over a few months of hibernation.
Painted turtles counter the acid build-up by liberating calcium carbonate from their shells. The calcium carbonate acts like an antacid tablet and neutralizes the acids preventing them from accumulating in the blood and muscles. It may be that soft-shell turtles cannot utilize this strategy because they have less calcium in their shells.
One last oddity for this spring. Snowy Owls, long on my would-love-to-see list, have been largely absent from this area of Michigan this winter. Usually, there are a few that can be counted on to venture this far south. But I’ve seen few reports on eBird and other birders I’ve talked to have remarked on their scarcity. However, an immature Snowy was reported near me this past Saturday. It was the first stop on Sunday’s birding trip. Lucky for me, it was still there and posing nicely.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN. WHAT’S UP IN NATURE IN YOUR AREA?