I’m still off work for medical reasons and I’ve been walking every morning. At about 8:15 AM it was quite chilly. I got to the part of my walk that passes along the edge of the lake and was amazed to see several turtles basking on the branches of a tree that has fallen in the water. About a minute later the local news came on NPR and they reported the local temperature as 38F! I never would have thought they would be out at that temp. Apparently I don’t know as much about reptiles as I thought. There was no visible steam coming off the water so it’s not like the water is way warmer than the air. It is very sunny, not a cloud in the sky.
I think you could have a pretty big difference in the air versus water temperatures with seeing steam or fog. I wouldn’t be surprised if the water temperature was in the 60s.
Turtles in temperate regions base their overall activity on several factors including the temperature of the water and mud in which they are hibernating and the length and strength of daylight hitting the water. They can apparently respond to brief abnormal temperatures in the dead of winter, as I once saw painted turtles basking at a Maryland reservoir on a New Year’s Day when the temperature reached a freakish 75 degrees.
Because most basking species are dark in color, they can raise their body temperatures well above the ambient temperature by basking. If the water temperature and photo-period have signaled to them that it is time to wake up, it doesn’t surprise me that they are out there today trying to soak up enough sun to go back into the water and forage and mate.
Seems like a good way for a turtle to catch a cold.
Crotalus is correct. These are painted turtles I saw. I just now drove the tractor down to the lake and measured the water temp. 55F. The water is murky from lots of recent rain so maybe it’s absorbing more heat. While I was waiting for the thermometer to stabilize a big snapping turtle was checking me out while floating at the surface. Bullfrogs are also out. Air temp is probably mid forties now.
I think they are past mating, a couple weekends ago when it was warmer, I fount two painted turtle hatchlings, still covered with mud. One was in my driveway, quite a distance and up a hill from the lake.
This thread really tortoise something.
Has it tortoise that terrestrial Testudines and aquatic Testudines are turtley different?
Well, that water temperature is a little cooler than I expected, but after posting my previous reply without research I did some checking. They apparently will mate when the water temperature is at 50F or above.
The babies you saw probably just came out of hibernation. Painted turtles usually lay their first clutch of eggs in late spring after mating in early spring. In Maryland, I would typically see females out of water looking for nesting sites around Memorial Day and see hatchlings around the beginning of August. In the more northern states, I’m pretty sure that the hatchlings hatch in the fall but remain in the nest until spring.
I admire your effort to get the water temperature.
Yeah. I’d have probably just gotten a hand held thermometer, not driven my tractor into the lake. But then, my tractor doesn’t have a thermometer on it like River Hippie’s must have. 
I’m down here where all of those temperature effects are theoretical rather than observable, so the only item within my actual experience is the turtle hatchling found a long distance from water. Females will sometimes nest at a considerable distance from water, so that cannot be ruled out. But I suspect at least some babies are displaced by predators, especially birds like crows and gulls, who pick them up, fly a bit, then drop them. Presumably they’re among those specialists who drop shelled food items to break them open. Or they’re clumsy.
Hey Dan, glad to see you checking in!
After I posted this my brother stopped by. He lived in this house (taking care of our mother, I bought the house from the estate after she died) for a couple years before me. He told me that he and the neighbors watched a big snapper come out of the lake, climb the hill, pass between the houses, cross the large-ish front yards, go across the road and dig a nest and lay eggs. No reason to think smaller turtles couldn’t do the same. I didn’t think to ask what time of year that was.
And to clarify I taped a thermometer to a stick and then drove down to the lake on the tractor because I had just finished a long walk and was feeling lazy. 
The water temp was taken at about one foot below the surface.
River Hippie, is the part of Indiana you’re in near Churubusco? I understand it’s famous for turtles.
I had a red-eared slider hanging out in the muddy spot by the horses’ gate today, just mudbathing.
StG
I’ve seen January garter snakes up here. That was in Maple Ridge, a bit east of Vancouver. They come out on unseasonably warm days to eat and heat up and then they den up again until the next warm day.
Beast Of 'Busco
I’m about twenty-thirty miles from "Busco, between Ft.Wayne and Auburn. Warmer temps today but no sun, no turtles.