Monday, May 18, 2015

More Nature than Archeology

A couple of weekend walks netted more flowers than rock piles. 
Here are the flowers:
violets and cinquefoil:
 Early lady slipper:
 I forget the name:

...and some beasts:
a newt:
A [box or blandings] turtle:

I thought is would be easy to come home and look up "Massachusetts turtles" but no picture in Google shows a turtle with so little yellow on the back. Some photos of Blanding's Turtle show a smooth shell like a typical terrapin (painted or spotted turtle). Others show a corrugated shell, as in the first photo above. 
Seems a lot like this but how do I know if that is correctly identified? Searching on the appearance of the belly plates, seems like my find is clearly a Blandings turtle. Rather rare. Found near Wolf Swamp, Boxborough.
(Update: I asked a local expert if it was a Blandings Turtle. He wrote back:
"Yes!  Nice find.  That's a juvenile, looks to be about 9 years old (counting growth rings).")

Also these beaver stumps:

1 comment :

Chris Pittman said...

I really like that turtle and would have been pleased to spot it. I have never seen one like it.