Sunday, June 23, 2013

Boxed In

We had some welcome rain this week that helped to break the temperatures that have been hitting the mid-90s. A good thunderstorm can drop the temperature a good twenty degrees.

It was during one of these downpours that B first noticed a box turtle in our little pond by the front door.


Box turtles are actually tortoises which are the land-dwelling cousins to turtles. It became pretty clear that the box turtle could not figure out how to get out of the pond. So when it stopped raining, B scooped it up in a net.


He released it in the butterfly garden. The next day, we observed fresh soil had been kicked up onto some of the foliage in the middle of this large, full bed. It was either an armadillo or the box turtle working on a hole. 


In some places it has become extremely rare to see box turtles. Not so, here. We are blessed to see them rather frequently. 

B learned that this was a female. Females have dark eyes and males have red ones.

This box turtle was high-tailing it when I took this picture while walking around the block.  We were interested in how jagged  the spine line was.



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