The Tortoise & the Lotus

[lavendertook]

Or, well, turtle and waterlily. For my bb jan_u_wine, who wished to see turtles. She requested a pic of my family turtle Cleo, who lived to be 20, but I don't have a pic of him. However, he was a red-eared slider just like the turtle with the waterlily here. He grew to be a couple of inches bigger than this one.




Cleo had a much cleaner shell, of course, being a pampered house turtle. I took these pics earlier this month.



They are also known as red-eared terrapins. They're called sliders because of how quickly they'll slide into the water if you approach them. One more angle of this red-eared turtle, and then on to more turtle spam from late April to early June.



I took this pic back in April, but one or two turtles come to perch on this stick most days I've been around the lake, which is most everyday this spring.



I don't know what kind of turtle this is swimming through the muck, but I think the pics are mostly either red-eared or painted turtles.



This is definitely an eastern painted turtle, like the little one I found in the path back in April.



This is the same pretty turtle. Look at the red leaf in the upper left hand corner: "<3 the Turtle." (-:






Did you spot all four here? They're ranging from about 3 inches to almost a foot.



There's at least one almost foot long painted turtle on this log most everyday, sometimes accompanied by ducks or frogs. I haven't uploaded the interspecies companionability pics yet, so you'll be seeing them later.

Comments

[lavendertook]

I'm glad. (-: Are there not many turtles in UK ponds and lakes? I think we have a bumper crop here at Greenbelt Lake this year. I will post many more over time.

[spiralsheep]

The only native chelonia in the UK are migrant marine turtles. There are a few escaped terrapins but I don't think our climate allows them to breed successfully. So your friends are proper "exotics" to my eyes. :-)

[lavendertook]

I did not know the UK was fresh water turtle-less.