The other night as I worked on the computer in Deep 13 (my basement office/workshop/studio/makerspace/junk room,) I heard a soft, repeated sound, kind of a cross between a tap and a thump, coming from someplace off behind me. Once the repetition had established itself, I got up and went looking for it. It didn’t take very long.
This is a spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer,)
I get a little tired of numbered posts, even though I’ve been the one that established them in the first initial place, and we had a ‘Sorting Finds’ post just two weeks ago. But in that intervening time, I collected over 700 more images before I even got the chance to back up the files to an external drive (I have two internal harddrives mostly for backups, and a backup
The turtles outdid themselves today, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to post another photo. There’s nineteen of them on this little tussock, now known to us as “Turtle Island,” because of course. And there’s even room for more if they’re careful (which they often are not.)
Near as I can tell, these are entirely eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I got these shots, having set them aside for a writeup, and I’m finally getting to it now. Don’t judge. Or judge all you want, because I’m not paying attention anyway.
While alongside the creek that forms the east edge of the property, I noticed a large yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) drifting in the water, and
Photography has been a little slow for the past few days, though this is also due to my own lack of effort. Still, things occasionally pop up.
Take, for instance, the conditions on the pond a week ago today:
… versus today:
Seriously.
These guys (which would be yellow-bellied sliders, Trachemys scripta scripta, and eastern painted turtles, Chrysemys picta picta,) wasted no time
… of these conditions.
These are all from yesterday, when the temperature here topped 18°c – not bad for December 30th, and I think it got even higher today. A cold snap is on its way, with the possibility of it dipping below -5°c, so these pics are in appreciation, and to refer back to when we’re not going out at all.
First off, the turtles put on a display.
That’s
Surprisingly so, like about 23°c, with even some sun for a little while. And don’t ask me how they know this when they’re mostly submerged, but the turtles were taking full advantage of it.
These two eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta picta) were perhaps a little longer than your palm – hard to judge while out in the middle of the pond, while
The function of getting established at the new Walkabout Estates is going much slower than intended, primarily not our fault – we’re still waiting for the truck with most of our belongings to arrive. Until that time, we’re bouncing back and forth between minor repairs/improvements and exploring the area, but this has included going down to the waterfront soon after
Or at least, a lot cooler than it has been for the past month.
Sunday finally brought some rain – not a lot, but enough to make some of the wilted plants look happier – and it also brought a brief drop in the overall temperatures, enough that last night we actually had the windows open, being cooler outside than in the house with the AC on. This morning, not facing the idea of overwhelming
… that it was Earth Day, but I’d gone out to the neighborhood pond for the first time in weeks, just to see what was going on, and so I have some pics for it anyway.
The turtles were out of course, but it was more necessary this time, because yesterday and last night it had gotten pretty cold. So we have yellow-bellied sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta):
I have a more