Friday, April 24, 2009

Turtle days...


If you enjoy viewing and photographing wildlife, the boggiest, swampiest parts of Reynolda Gardens are now overflowing with turtles large and small. Professor Miles Silman of the WFU Department of Biology told me today that they are yellow-bellied sliders (Trachemys scripta). The proper name for a turtle's bottom shell is plastron, so if you could get close enough to turn one of these turtles over, you should see a yellow plastron. The biggest yellow-bellied sliders at Reynolda are probably 20 or 30 years old. As the photo shows, Jon was much more successful at turtle photography on his Thursday walk than I was a day earlier, although his Path Tracker ap failed him once again (I'm not blaming the turtles).

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