The Berwick and the Annapolis YNC Chapters joined Sarah Walton, a biologist from the Clean Annapolis River Project Wood Turtle Monitoring Project. Although we spent 2 hours searching for the little wood turtles (which have dark shells and orange underparts) and did not find any along a tributary of the Annapolis River by the Oaklawn Farm Zoo, we still had a great time exploring the area. The turtles were migrating to the muddy river bottoms this time of year to find a good squishy place to burry themselves for the winter. The Annapolis river and it’s tributary brooks and strams are ideal habitat for wood turtles according to Sarah. She also told us that when they are hibernating in the mud, they allow their bottoms to stick out into the water to absorb oxygen…. so… they breath with their bums! After our survey, Sarah was able to track down a large male Wood Turtle named Hanley. He was fitted with a radio transmitter that allowed Sarah to use an antenna to track him down. It took her a while fishing around under alder branches where he was hiding under water in the river. He was beautiful! Check out our photos page to see a picture of him! http://nature1st.net/ync/wood-turtle-monitoring-with-carp-october-4th-2014/