Turtles

I have a few notes about finding turtles in the neighborhood that I'm late in posting. About 1 month ago Steven McDonald who lives on Perthshire found this Ornate Box Turtle in his backyard and he sent me this picture of it. (If I remember correctly, the red eyes mean it's a male.) This turtle turned up the morning after a heavy rain which was very interesting to me. Because almost exactly the same time last year, I found a male Ornate Box Turtle on Broadmeade one morning after a heavy rain. Here's the blog entry I made. I wonder if the time of year or the rain were significant? Box turtles are not nearly as common as they used to be 20 or 30 years ago, so it's exciting to see one. And the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is interested in knowing when they are seen. If you come across one, please report it to them here.

Ornate Box Turtles are land turtles but every other kind of turtle I've seen in the neighborhood has been a water turtle somewhere along the creek. And by far the most common is the Red-eared Slider. But on May 11 I found one that I haven't seen before. The shell was slightly more rounded in the back than the Red-eared Slider, the head was pointier, and it had yellow stripes on its face instead of red patches. I took this picture and when I got home I found out it was a Common Musk Turtle. That brings my neighborhood turtle species list up to an amazing total of 5!