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NEW JERSEY
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Pine
Barrens
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Click on any photo to see a larger version (DM) photos courtesy Danny Mendez
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2 of 8
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Travel
half an hour from my house and you enter the Pine Barrens, a million acres of
forest, swamps, and sandy trails, the largest
stretch of open space along the eastern seaboard between Washington,
D.C. and Boston.
Most
frequently seen herps are Fence Lizards, frogs, toads, and an assortment of
turtles.
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Eastern
Fence Lizard
Sceloporus undulatus
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Grey
Tree Frog
Hyla versicolor
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Fowler’s
Toad
Bufo fowleri
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DM
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Eastern Box Turtle
Terrapene carolina carolina
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Eastern
Painted Turtle
Chrysemys picta
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This
Painted
had unusually serrated scutes at the front of its carapace (top shell) and
plastron (bottom shell). Compare to
the more normal scutes of the turtle above.
In early summer it’s not unusual to find pond
turtles along the sandy roads. Females
emerge from the water searching for a dry, open spot to lay their eggs, a
place with soft soil warmed by the sun.
Such chance encounters on land provide a rare opportunity for
close-ups of shy aquatic turtles, typically seen only from a distance before
they dive and disappear.
Red
Belly Turtles frequently lay their eggs on the levees of abandoned cranberry
bogs that have turned to lakes, providing the deeper water these turtles
prefer. While hiking one of those
roads I saw a Red Belly from a distance, but as I got closer I realized
there were actually two females digging nests right by each other.
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Redbelly
Turtle
Psuedemys rubriventris
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Baby
Red Bellies look nothing like the adults.
They have a light green carapace laced with intricate yellow lines,
similar to other members of their genus, the closely related Cooters. Red Bellies, however, lose those patterns
as adults, the top shell becoming solid black.
Multiple
turtles climbed this berm to dig their nests.
Most of the tracks are probably from Red Bellies, but one on the left
shows a clear drag mark from a heavy tail, the distinct signature of a
snapping turtle.
Here’s
a Red Belly in front of that same berm a few months later, after the high
water receded.
Painted
turtles also lay their eggs wherever they find sand around the bogs, as do
the non-native Red-Eared Sliders.
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Red-Eared
Slider
Trachemys scripta elegans
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The beautiful rivers of the Pine
Barrens are another place to find turtles. On a perfect day in early summer, kayaking
with my family, we counted lots of Spotted Turtles basking on logs. But the most unusual sight was this Mud
Turtle basking . . . in a tree!
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Karyn
Grunwald
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Shoshanna Grunwald
Spotted
Turtle
Clemmys guttata
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Eastern Mud Turtle
Kinosternon
subrubrum
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One
of my favorite spots is a secluded pond, quiet and still and surrounded by
green. Quiet, that is, except for the
rich k-chuck, k-chuck, k-chuck of
Carpenter Frogs calling, the banjo twang
of Green Frogs, or the rolling rumble of a lone Bullfrog. And on certain special nights it becomes a
magical place, when the bushes are adorned with jewels that take their name
from this unique region of New
Jersey.
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Carpenter Frog
Rana virgatipes
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Green
Frog
Rana clemitans
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Pine
Barrens Tree Frog
Hyla
andersonii
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