{"id":41730,"date":"2026-05-24T00:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T04:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=41730"},"modified":"2026-05-24T00:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T04:51:06","slug":"now-and-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2026\/05\/now-and-then\/","title":{"rendered":"Now and then"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HaveTheHighGround.jpg\" alt=\"yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta perched high on knees of bald cypress Taxodium distichum overlooking feeding nutria Myocastor coypus in water\" width=\"750\" height=\"509\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41731\" \/><br clear\"all\"\/>Well, it&#8217;s now &#8220;Then and then,&#8221; since I didn&#8217;t quite get things done while it was still <strong>World Turtle Day<\/strong>, but I got to recognize the holiday a little, anyway. The photos are all from WTD, which was yesterday now, though the video from a week ago. I did a patrol of the Estates while it wasn&#8217;t raining, but found nothing to do any closeups of. Above, we see a ubiquitous yellow-bellied slider (<em>Trachemys scripta scripta<\/em>) perched high up on a cypress knee, appearing to face down a nutria (<em>Myocastor coypus<\/em>,) though in reality neither probably even noticed the other<strong>;<\/strong> the turtle was catching the brief sunlight and the nutria feeding, a task that has a very short list of things which are allowed to interrupt.<\/p>\n<p>A little further down the &#8216;beach,&#8217; we had this<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Streetcorner.jpg\" alt=\"collection of turtles sunning themselves on World Turtle Day\" width=\"750\" height=\"303\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41732\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>The pond edge that sees the most activity lies almost due east from the house, but by afternoon is shaded by all the trees in the yard, so lighting is rarely optimal there. When I snagged this shot, I initially thought I only had three turtles, looking like elderly women trying to determine who just broke wind, but upon unloading I found two more hanging out subtly on the sides<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StreetcornerInset.jpg\" alt=\"yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta and possibly eastern painted turtle Chrysemys picta picta sunning themselves on pond edge\" width=\"750\" height=\"549\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41733\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>The one on the right is definitely a slider, but the one on the left may be an eastern painted turtle (<em>Chrysemys picta picta<\/em>.) The shell appears smooth and there looks like a hint of red on the skin around the tail. Regardless, still certainly a turtle.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, even though I was working in the yard, I found this one a little too late to see the start of things, but we have the wrap-up anyway.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1195072989?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" title=\"Brief clips for World Turtle Day\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/api\/player.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While I&#8217;d like to have the complete sequence, start to finish, I&#8217;m also not sure that any turtle would begin her nest when I was in sight &#8211; my only chance for such a thing <em>might<\/em> be from a great distance with the long lens. Once committed like this, of course, they have no choice but to see it through, and even then, you can see that my view was limited.<\/p>\n<p>As I said in the narration, there was another nest immediately alongside, laid not two days earlier, and these were in the same location as <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2025\/05\/estate-find-xx\/\" target=\"_blank\">last year&#8217;s slider nest<\/a> &#8211; there&#8217;s something about this spot. Additionally, they&#8217;ll cut through this area and alongside the driveway if they wish to go farther, and it seems like they do fairly frequently &#8211; we&#8217;ve found them several hundred meters away. To my mind, this would expose the young to unnecessary dangers upon hatching, given how far they&#8217;d have to go to reach the safety of water, but the turtles seem to know what they&#8217;re doing, so perhaps they&#8217;re selecting nest spots that have the best conditions for gestation. Then again, we have yet to see one that has actually hatched out, so perhaps not.<\/p>\n<p>And one to close, showing what Turtle Island looks like with the help of the beavers raising the water levels. Yes, this is the same little tussock <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2025\/01\/a-figment-of-imagination\/\" target=\"_blank\">as seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/StillMyIsland.jpg\" alt=\"yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta basking on Turtle Island\" width=\"750\" height=\"1099\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41734\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s now &#8220;Then and then,&#8221; since I didn&#8217;t quite get things done while it was still World Turtle Day, but I got to recognize the holiday a little, anyway. The photos are all from WTD, which was yesterday now, though the video from a week ago. I did a patrol of the Estates while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,3809],"tags":[6758,6941,6757,6942,6940,2828,6182,169],"class_list":["post-41730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photo","category-video","tag-chrysemys-picta-picta","tag-coypu","tag-eastern-painted-turtle","tag-myocastor-coypus","tag-nutria","tag-trachemys-scripta-scripta","tag-world-turtle-day","tag-yellow-bellied-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41737,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41730\/revisions\/41737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}