Doing a quick check last night (after finalizing the previous post,) I found that I’d uploaded 99 images for August, and that simply won’t do. I got a nice handful today at the NC Botanical Garden, but no time right now to write them up, so we’ll stick with just rounding up to a nice even C.
This is a male eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina,) the first I’ve seen in quite a while, despite doing a specific search for them – well, for a day, anyway. The red eye tells us it’s a male (most likely,) and the ridges on each of the ‘scales’ (scutes) of the shell tell us it’s about 12 years old. The crushed gravel substrate used in the paths there tell us it’s really uncomfortable kneeling to get a shot.
I have more images, but they’re likely not to get up here until tomorrow at least. Besides, why would I ruin 100?