Two Turtles in Port Aransas 2017-05-29

Late afternoon on this Memorial Day I wasn't expecting to observe two turtles in my parents' backyard in Port Aransas! At around 4:30 while reading a book on the back porch I saw something moving in the grass about the size of a gopher or rat. Through my binoculars I could see that it was a turtle, and I got very interested when I could see that it was not a Red-eared Slider.

I walked over to it and took a few photos. My favorite is this one when it was extending its neck to see over the grass around it:

I'm pretty sure it's a Yellow Mud Turtle. Last night we got lots of rain, and a low spot that is sometimes a pond had water in it through he morning. I wonder if this turtle had been underground, and came out after the rain to find a new place to live.

Later at around 5:30 my mom spotted a turtle at the edge of the backyard from her kitchen window. I wondered if it might be the same one, but when I saw it I saw that it had the shape of a box turtle. I walked over to it to take some iPhone photos. As I got close I could hear some crunching, and I saw that it was eating the yellow fruits of a plant. Can anyone identify the plant?

The turtle is an Ornate Box Turtle. It's only the second time I've seen one here, and the first was just the remains of a presumably road-killed one. I was happy this one was doing fine!

Posted on May 29, 2017 11:24 PM by mikaelb