Here you see three members of the Brooklin Sunbathing Club spending yesterday morning together at their favorite meeting spot in our big pond. These eastern painted turtles and their spot are warmed by direct sunlight from early morning to mid-afternoon – when the sun is shining.
I’ve seen that rock (which we call Turtle Rock) totally covered by six PT members of the Club, large and small, sometimes stacked atop each other. Such turtle gatherings often are called “bales,” because they look like cargo, especially when the reptiles are stacking.
Why do freshwater turtles bask in the sun? Well, of course, they’re cold-blooded animals whose bodies can’t regulate heat. They need to get to a certain temperature before they can feel good, metabolize well and synthesize needed vitamin D from sunlight.
But why the bale bit? After all, they’re not affectionate, social animals. The literature contains multiple reasons, but the one that rings most true is that they all want the best basking spot and there often aren’t many real good spots that will allow them to literally chill-out a little in relative safety. Being non-aggressive, they don’t object when another of their kind joins them or even clambers over them, so long as they have a warm spot.
There also is the evolved animal-gathering defense that probably comes into play in turtle baling: The more eyes, ears and noses, the better the early-warning system is for many animals; the more numbers, the greater the odds of not being the one the predator catches.
You may have noticed that there are many ripped out cattail leaves in this pond. We can thank Bernie and Bernice Beaver and their successors for that. Beavers are messy creatures that cut down much more than they need and leave it lying around. Nonetheless, I haven’t seen any sign of beaver activity in 12 days. I suspect that the beavers have left us, but you never can be sure.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on May 22, 2026)