See more photos…
Hidden Lake Western Pond Turtles, 6/21/16 by Ronald Horii
On 6/21/16, I accompanied Open Space Authority docents Cait Hutnik and Les Krammer and OSA staff member Lauren Owen on a trip to a farm pond in a part of Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve that is not open to the public. It is called Hidden Lake. It is truly hidden. You can't see the pond until you get there, which requires following a creek along a narrow, heavily-wooded canyon. The trek requires 9 crossings of 2 creeks, so it's a wet trip in the winter. This time of year, the creeks were mostly dry. There's lots of poison oak along the way, so we had to trek carefully.
What's special about Hidden Lake is that it has a healthy population of western pond turtles. While these are the only native freshwater turtles on the West Coast, they have become increasingly rare and closer to becoming endangered. Their numbers have been reduced by habitat loss and predation by introduced species, like bullfrogs. They also have been affected by competition with the more aggressive introduced red-eared slider turtles, which are commonly sold as aquarium pets. These non-native turtles are frequently released into local lakes and creeks by their owners when the turtles outgrow their aquariums. To protect the native turtles, Hidden Lake is not freely open to the public and probably never will be. However, Open Space Authority docents can go there and have led public hikes to it.
Unlike red-eared sliders, which are easily and frequently seen sunning themselves in the water bodies they inhabit, western pond turtles are very shy. If they see you, they will dive underwater, hiding under weeds. It takes stealth and patience to see them, but we did see several of them. They are small turtles. They don't grow much bigger than 8 inches (length of their shells). Often, all you can see is their heads sticking up above mats of algae. They are easiest to spot when they move.
Cait has been to Hidden Lake many times. Here's her webpage on the turtles in the pond:
http://lightofmorn.com/html/wpturtles.htm — at Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve. (near Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve)
On 6/21/16, I accompanied Open Space Authority docents Cait Hutnik and Les Krammer and OSA staff member Lauren Owen on a trip to a farm pond in a part of Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve that is not open to the public. It is called Hidden Lake. It is truly hidden. You can't see the pond until you get there, which requires following a creek along a narrow, heavily-wooded canyon. The trek requires 9 crossings of 2 creeks, so it's a wet trip in the winter. This time of year, the creeks were mostly dry. There's lots of poison oak along the way, so we had to trek carefully.
What's special about Hidden Lake is that it has a healthy population of western pond turtles. While these are the only native freshwater turtles on the West Coast, they have become increasingly rare and closer to becoming endangered. Their numbers have been reduced by habitat loss and predation by introduced species, like bullfrogs. They also have been affected by competition with the more aggressive introduced red-eared slider turtles, which are commonly sold as aquarium pets. These non-native turtles are frequently released into local lakes and creeks by their owners when the turtles outgrow their aquariums. To protect the native turtles, Hidden Lake is not freely open to the public and probably never will be. However, Open Space Authority docents can go there and have led public hikes to it.
Unlike red-eared sliders, which are easily and frequently seen sunning themselves in the water bodies they inhabit, western pond turtles are very shy. If they see you, they will dive underwater, hiding under weeds. It takes stealth and patience to see them, but we did see several of them. They are small turtles. They don't grow much bigger than 8 inches (length of their shells). Often, all you can see is their heads sticking up above mats of algae. They are easiest to spot when they move.
Cait has been to Hidden Lake many times. Here's her webpage on the turtles in the pond:
http://lightofmorn.com/html/wpturtles.htm — at Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve. (near Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve)
2 Likes
