Painted Turtle

I thought I should show you a close-up of the turtle in the header. Even though he is sitting so close to the gator…he looks extremely contented. They really are a beautiful creature. Is he cute…or what!

Often you will see several turtles lined up on one log. They seem to go from smallest to largest. Like a family. Here there are only 2 but notice the one in front is a bit smaller. It may have something to do with the spread between their legs and the width of the log. The smaller turtles are able to sit on a smaller surface. It’s hard to get pictures of them. When they hear the boat coming they all tend to slide or splash into the water.

I’ve noticed that many have nice clean shells and others have a mossy or algae growth on the shells. I don’t know why.

In the winter they will look as if they are trying to fly… their legs and neck will be stretched out as far as possible to absorb as much of the sun’s heat as they can.