Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Painted Turtles

Yes, it is March - only March- Here in the Mid Ohio Valley in 2012, March is a summer month. We are supposed to reach right now it is 80 degrees.  Yesterday reached 86.   
Picture yourself and your family buried in cold dark mud for three months. When the weather suddenly soars 80 degrees what would you do?
If you are a Painted turtle (Chrysemys picta)  currently living in the Williamstown Wetlands, you probably want to crawl out onto a nice piece of ground or a log. . . 
  . . . settle in, then bake.
This large mob of Painted turtles included some shy ones 
who dove into the water as I drew near leaving this one brave turtle.
this one, below found a partially submerged log on which to heat its cold blood.
I see eleven here. Check out the one on your extreme left.  He must have wanted to stretch a bit.
These turtles aren't green, they are covered in Duckweed. A female turtle may get up to ten inches.  Males are a little smaller.  (That's how it is in my house, too.)
Do you see this one?
Does it help if I zoom?
For more on painted turtles from last year click HERE.
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7 comments:

Unknown said...

They are cute.
Costas

KaHolly said...

We came across some Painted Turtles last weekend on our hike. I am always delighted to see turtles because there aren't any in Cape Breton, except for the occasional wood turtle. It's too cold for them to breed up there.

TexWisGirl said...

i enjoy our red-eared sliders we have in our pond. ours stay covered in algae because our winters are warm enough. :)

Lona said...

There sure are a lot of them there. They are kind of shy about getting their pictures taken. LOL!

eileeninmd said...

The turtles do love to sun themselves on the logs and rocks. Great sightings. I have been seeing some turtles too.

RedPat said...

I was out looking in a local pond today for the resident turtles but our weather has turned cold again so they were hiding out in the mud again!

Sharkbytes said...

There was even one out last week here. I think they are probably back in their mud this week though.