So I found this guy today while mowing an overgrown field today. He had a beautiful shell of bright yellow orange designs on a dark background. So I picked him up and tormented him with my camera for a little bit. Then I put him back in his field to finish his journey. There is a difference, I found, between turtles (live in the water and have webbed feet) terrapins (live on land but need to get wet every so often) and tortoises (don’t need the water as much). Anyway, I thought it was cool catching this guy. He moved much faster than I realized, but did not snap at me. I was going to tell him he had something green on his face there, but I didn’t want to risk offending him and having him walk off the photo shoot.
Hi Josh, it is syncronistic! I was traveling home on my beautiful country rooad with the Heldeberg Escarpment in the near distance and what do I come upon in the middle of the country lane but a small black turtle. He had his little head straight up as if he was saying “Huh!” when he heard my car. He continued to mosy over to the other side of the road. It was quite nice. I am used to seeing wild turkeys, water ducks and dear but my first turtle. 🙂
I also used to love playing with turtles in the swamps in Watervliet. We brought a few home but eventually they went back home to their home in the swamp. I have not thought of this for quite a while, so thanks for the memory. I wish I had a camera to show you my little friend. Your big guy is very pretty.
Keep writing about the ordinary but not so ordinary things you see. We need to stop to look.
Mom
my son (jake – 3 years old) made some reference yesterday to the ‘teenage mutant ninja turtledoves’ which wiped me out completely for several minutes… ah, kids…
awwww! if you had somthing green out your nose, would you not want to know?! that was a little rude joshua.
i used to catch turtles all the time out where i live! we even used to raise a few. i think the last one we had died because we went on vacation, and our housekeeper at the time overfed him. i guess thats the leading cause of death in turtles is overfeeding them. its easy to kill them that way. anyways, i bet your glad i told you that story.