turtles
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Painted Turtles
This is why they’re called painted turtles: We found this one on the road right outside the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary last week. I hopped out of the car to get it off the road. The turtle immediately pulled in all its extremities, tucking its tail along the side, which was nice since the claws…
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Yard Snapper
Glancing up from a book I was reading while on Nantucket two weeks ago, I noticed something dark in the grass. A snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina. And not the first time, either. Snappers can go some distance to lay their eggs. They are on the lookout for sandy soil to dig out for a nest.…
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Painted
A painted turtle on a rock in the Upper Pool in Prospect Park stands out from its red-eared slider companions.
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Painted Turtle
The seasons turn. The years go ’round. Last March, I photographed a painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Japanese Pond. It was surrounded by numerous eastern red-eared sliders. This past Saturday, I found the same — or, hopefully, another? — painted turtle in the same area of the Pond (where the rocks…
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March Turtles Beat the Hares
The Lullwater still had ice on it, but Prospect Park Lake itself was completely free of the stuff. I saw about a dozen turtles sunning themselves yesterday afternoon. These animals spent the last half year or so down in the mud at the bottom of the Lake in brumation, a form of dormancy that isn’t…
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Field Notes: Snapping Turtle
I was looking at the new lily pads in the Lullwater in Prospect Park when: Ol’ Snap appeared. Not the kind of turtle to run when you approach. Chelydra serpentina has a fearsome reputation, but that’s probably just bad PR. (Duckling-centric PR, since they are in legend supposed to decimate baby ducks.) Still, you don’t…
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Turtles
On Saturday, a day of glorious spring, the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden at the BBG was thick with turtles soaking up the heat of the sun. Being cold blooded, they really need that heat. On the other hand, they can usually survive the winter, and freezing water, quite nicely. Some bury themselves in the…
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Field Notes: Turtle ID help requested
Most of the turtles in our local fresh waters are eastern red eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans). I posted a picture of two of them last week in Green-Wood; note the distinctive red stripe behind the eye; note also that rough carapace. This is an invasive species, now pretty naturalized, that was, and I suppose…
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In the beginning
“We must tackle and grasp the larger, encompassing themes of our universe, but we make our best approach through small curiosities that rivet our attention — all those pretty pebbles on the shoreline of knowledge.” — Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life. Chrysemys picta
Backyard and Beyond 