In the lagoon in our backyard we have a number of turtles, mostly what are called pond sliders. When we first moved here in '03 we had maybe two or three turtles that hung around out back. Then Janet started feeding the fish and of course the turtles knew a good thing when they saw one. Pretty soon we had doubled the number of turtles out back and now it's not unusual to have twenty or more of them milling around out there. I have had to stop fishing out back for fear of catching one of "our turtles", as Janet says. We now buy a couple of loaves of cheap white bread and cheap hotdogs just for them. They follow me up and down the bank, if I try to fish, I tried sneaking around, but they find me pretty quick. It has gotten to the point that when I open the back door, which is at least a 100 feet from the lagoon, all these little heads start to pop-up. Janet has given them names, such as lefty, as you can see by the picture she is missing part of her right foot. About this time of year, the older females climb out of the lagoon at night, especially on a warm wet night, and dig a nest and lay eggs, I always try to find the nest before the raccoons.
I wanted to stop by and thank you for your recent comments and for identifying both the Spicebush Swallowtail and the Eastern Box Turtle.
ReplyDeleteIn the interesting way that life happens, we were at a nature museum on Saturday and I was able to see the slight differences between a spicebush and a black swallowtail, as there were several boards of mounted specimens. I might not have tuned into this without your recent comment.
I like knowing the correct names of plants and creatures as well as local names.
These shiny turtles look similar to ones we encountered in New England--several ponds we drove past had turtle occupants who lined up on floating planks to sun themselves.
I'll be returning to read some of your back posts as time allows.