Very strange. I'm in rural north central Arkansas. I haven't seen a wild boxie in maybe a couple months even on warmer days. Not on my land or the road. Recently we had about 10 nights of hard freezing in a row. Today i was driving back from Mtn View on 66 and saw a youngish boxie, maybe 8-10...
Just now I went out and, in a wide open space a few yards from my front door, were these 2 adults, immobile and more or less nose to nose. I tried not to spook them, took pics with zoom. But one scurried off hastily.
Gratuitous frog porn:
Uh, why did both pics disappear as soon as I inserted...
I've been here 25 years almost and the only turtles i've seen are boxies and snappers. But today i cam across this old slider parked in the road. Is it an RES?
I left it in a little pool of water on the side of the road it was facing.
Note damage to back of shell. It was apparently hit many...
In 2017 i had a pond made, about 2/3 acre. It has very little vegetation yet, in fact only a few stems sticking out this early in the year. It does have minnows i got started last year. I didn't expect it to support turtles yet.
This morning i noticed this critter floating by the shore. No rigor...
Any entomologists aboard?
This is the base of a white oak with some poison ivy, etc. For days i have been noticing all these bugs swarming noisily around this spot: yellow hornets plus bald-faced hornets, houseflies, horseflies, butterflies, and some smaller flies or something.
I have no idea...
I've been considering radiant heat panels. The manufacturer recommends special fancy thermostats for them. Aside from the fact that these 'stats are expensive, i have some concern they may generate dirty electricity.
Do people find these heat panels work well with regular thermostats?
I had a 50W Fuxin CHE, the kind with the flared 9cm diameter on a stem. It got so hot it scorched the newspaper i unscrewed it with a short while after turning it off. Only a couple minutes later did it occur to me to get a temp read on it and it was still like 450 F!
Of course it was on a...
This friendly bird has been hopping around my place for days.
Arkansas roadrunners are a different type than what i used to see in TX.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wd9lgXQcZ2o
At 0:25 in above vid you can hear the ratchet-like sound they make.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/_IJ_3hgSLGE
He seems...
Yesterday i heard a little squeal or chirp and saw a small brown animal in my houytuynia vines in front of my cabin. Then later got a view of her body. At first i thought she must have a nest with eggs in the vines she was warning me to be careful of, but now i think she might be some juvenile...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA8DYlYXHWU
Small Speckled King Snake was on my path. I came back with a camera and took some still pix as it moved away from me but then it turned back toward me and i started videoing. King snakes are not poisonous, and they eat poisonous snakes.
Woodpecker...
I ran over a boxie today, instantly shredding it to bits of flesh and shell.:(
In retrospect, i could have done things a bit differently.
I have a small clear area of my property that i mow 2-3 times a year to keep the brambles from taking over. As a result it has dense grass (including rye...
I am posting this here as this is not a question relating to potential turtle food (i don't think).
I live in N Central Arkansas and have seen a few of these vines in years past, but suddenly there is an explosion of them all over one area and i am just curious what it is.
Seems to be ipomoea...
https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/24/great-white-shark-choked-death-turtle-trying-eat-9294614/
No mention of what happened to the turtle afterward. Probably got ate too.
This guy is not one i have seen before.
For reference, that is 2X4 inch welded wire he slithers past.
Previously i have posted about others at
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/cool-big-black-snake-on-porch.141723/#post-1324741
I'm visiting my mom in N VA and was hiking in a local park. It was mid-50s and somewhat hazy but i spotted these 2 critters in a shallow suburban creek:
This is the best pic i could get with the old 4X zoom camera i had with me. I didn't want to get close and spook them.
I am not normally enthused about increased government control and laws but this one applies only to pet shops.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46717173
Reptiles next?