A western painted turtle lays eggs in a nest at Swan Lake in Vernon in June.
Image Credit: YOUTUBE
June 19, 2025 - 4:00 AM
Vernon resident Jeremy Wilson had the experience of a lifetime when he observed not one, but two painted turtles nesting in the sand at Swan Lake this month.
On June 9, Wilson watched a painted turtle finishing her nest in the middle a boat launch at a campground on the lakeshore. A few days later, he took a video of another mother turtle laying eggs in the same area.
“I've never seen that in my life, it brought me to tears,” he said in a message to iNFOnews.ca. “I go out every night looking for more.”
Wilson’s video shows a turtle hovering over the nest she dug out on a beach at the campground and depositing large, white eggs into it, then using her back foot to cover them with sand.
“The management at the campground called a local nature club and asked if the eggs would be OK where they were,” Wilson said. “We were fearful all the people walking and using the boat launch would harm them, but we were told they'll be just fine as long as we don't disturb them.”
The lake is the location for a western painted turtle study in June and July that aims to shed a light on the turtle’s nesting activities that are not fully known yet.
Led by Harold Sellers with the North Okanagan Naturalists Club, the study is relying on people like Wilson to report nesting turtle sightings in the provincial management area surrounding the lake.
The western painted turtle is a threatened species in BC due to human development activities and getting crushed by traffic during spring migration. It’s the only native pond turtle left in the province and a beloved wetland critter in the Thompson-Okanagan region.
The female turtles nest from mid-June to mid-July.
“They use their claws to dig down into sand or gravel to lay eggs at dry, cool depths, so they’ll be spotted in open areas rather than in vegetation,” Sellers said in a previous interview with iNFOnews.ca. “The turtles lay their eggs at night so will be active in the evening, at night or in the early morning.”
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Wilson reported his turtle activity findings to Sellers for the study that will be sent to the provincial government, the Okanagan Indian Band and local environmental consultant agencies.
If you want to contribute to study, you can submit your observations of turtle nesting activity in the Swan Lake Wildlife Management Area by email to naturevernon@gmail.com.
To access Swan Lake Management Area, drive north on Old Kamloops Road 2.3 kilometres from the intersection of 43 Avenue and Alexis Park Drive. Turn right at Swan Lake Regional Park signage at Stawn's Honey, then follow the gravel road 0.7 km to the parking area at the trailhead.
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