A few days ago (July 12) marked the third anniversary of this blog. This will be the 129th post—not quite weekly, but close!
If you’ve read very many of those 128 posts, you must have realized that I am somewhat of a nature nerd. I’m interested enough in the nature around me that I actually attended a webinar recently, something I had pretty much happily sworn off after watching too many boring ones when I was still working. Fortunately, this one, Box Turtles: Disappearing Gems of the Forest, presented by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, was interesting and educational. (You can watch it yourself here.) So, although I’ve seen some fawns (so cute!), this post will be mostly about Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina). Many past posts have featured turtles I see on my walks; these are some that have been near a gravel road during the past few weeks.
Box turtles are territorial, and I sometimes see the same ones on the driveway and in the yard and the meadow. (Unfortunately, I later found the empty shell of the small one in the yard and the other small one dead on its back near the road.)
I also see box turtles in the shallow, wet-weather creek that runs by the road, sometimes singly but several times lately two at a time. (I started walking a short stretch along the creek instead of the road after the webinar.) Others in the Hollow are also interested in nature, and recently my 16-year-old neighbor went for a twilight walk with a couple of friends. They reported having seen EIGHT box turtles in the creek, including four that were “sort of grouped together” (no pics of this, however). Since then, I have seen at least four in the same ~75 yard stretch of the creek several times. (Some of these photos show the same individuals on different days.)
My turtle photos have usually been of the top (carapace) and/or the head as a means of identifying individuals. One of the things I learned from the webinar is that the pastron (bottom) of each turtle is also unique. Some of them are quite beautiful!
OK, since you managed to read this far, here’s a video of one of the fawns and a turkey.
And that’s about it for today. Next time I’ll show you more deer! 🙂
French Broad Hollow Ramble 