found a baby Western Painted Turtle

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu May 19, 2011 3:36 pm

This is so cool!
Unfortunately I scared the heck out of him.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/5737756763/" title="DSC04694 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/573 ... 159c17.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04694"></a>

Great pics of what they really look like at this link:

http://www.bcreptiles.ca/turtles/westernpaint.htm

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu May 19, 2011 8:33 pm

Nice!
I love turtles. We have a lot of them on the farm. --Erik

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri May 20, 2011 8:35 am

You know...you can cook them in their shell

Just kidding.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Fri May 20, 2011 11:20 am

Very cool, nice find.

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Fri May 20, 2011 11:27 am

Sometimes I find the Central Asia tortilla in my garden. Always wondering what this creature is doing here. It must be found 100 km from my place in a semi-desert area...

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri May 20, 2011 12:43 pm

Thanks!

I did see the coloured underside when I inadvertently dropped him (oops) while I was running to place him in the pond.

Re turtle habitat, I was surprised to hear how often they're away from water.
Igor, maybe there are lots of garden ponds in your area?

People here say there's an area near the lake where female turtles cross the highway (or try to!) as their nests are on the other side

The orioles are back and nesting, hummingbirds are buzzing around the feeder, life is good!

Barb

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:37 pm

[quote="lucky1" Igor, maybe there are lots of garden ponds in your area? /quote]
Barb, my "monster" is not a water inhabitant. Strictly desert animal.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri May 20, 2011 2:02 pm

Igor,
The "monster" likely adapted to drying conditions over millions of years.

Barb

Okanagan desert-palms · Fri May 20, 2011 4:44 pm

So cool barb. Do you think it came from hanging around your pond? Got a humming bird feeder. No little helicopters yet. No hanging baskets yet either to attract them.

John

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri May 20, 2011 7:46 pm

Do you think it came from hanging around your pond

Didn't quite tell you the whole story.

Last year a friend brought over two adult painted turtles to--in his words--keep them from getting squished on the highway.
After he released them into our pond, they struggled to get out over the boulder-lined edges (they like muddy banks).
A day later we saw them a few acres away heading back in the direction that the friend lived.
And we vowed to never again mess with nature, as the two adult turtles were probably looking for their established nests 3 miles away.

So maybe they overwintered here after all.
There's a warning on the painted turtle website re salmonella and handling the turtles.
Probably a good warning just to keep idiots like me and friend from relocating them.

Our hummingbird feeder is used by 4 hummers, every two days I have to refill the supply.
Hungry little buggers.
Someone near you is feeding them, they'll visit your feeder too.

Lots of blooming orchard trees everywhere, now apple (after cherry and pear and apricot).
They're even buzzing around the lilac bushes.

Barb

damir · Post by **damir** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 2:57 pm

a turtle!!!
i love turtles too. had few californian red ear turtles. also had one testudo hermanni , native to croatia and balkan.
here is pic

))

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... aarung.JPG

and the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soDZBW-1P04

hahahahahaha

))))

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 5:26 pm

Funny man, damir!

Great song!

Barb