It's very hot here for early June, mid-90s Fahrenheit, and it's been like this for several days. We usually don't get a solid heat wave until July, and everybody's doing a lot of complaining about it. Nothing unusual about that, but thanks to the constant babble about global warming, everyone feels obligated to speculate about the coming climatic apocalypse. Somehow the dose of fear makes the kvetching especially tedious.
The turtles aren't worried, though. They are loving the extra heat. The box turtles are out on the trail before the sun is completely up. The sliders are on the move, too. I just love seeing the large, ancient ones who are, sadly, becoming very scarce. We used to see an enormous male from our neighbor's pond traveling across our property every June, presumably to mate, but I've missed him the last couple of years. I suspect the nasty little housing development that went in near us destroyed the abode of his potential girlfriends.
The bugs and the birds love the heat, too. The hummers have been inspired to start fighting over the feeders, which seems to be their favorite form of entertainment. I'm looking forward to swarms of their babies in August.
Photo of Eastern Box Turtle from Wikimedia Commons.
Click here for a good general info page on box turtles that explains why you really shouldn't adopt them as pets. And here you can see some photos of the box turtle's surprisingly athletic sex life.
4 comments:
What a beautiful creature !
One of my friends has a venerable tortoise named Maya, and when I coerced my team to join 'em en famille, for dinner, we rhapsodized over her....
Would have made you proud.
I raised critter-folk.
[All of us grown people crawling around the floor with her!]
I feel for you and your poor dogs, with this swelter.
What a great pic. I love their hard-yet-soft shells.
It's still hotter than bejeebus around here too. We should have a break from the heat tomorrow.
I don't know how to act anymore if there's no thunder and lightening as I'm driving home! but yes, we're supposedly heading for a break.
Now I am mesmerized by this turtle sex and all I can think of is that he's surely being led around by his pecker but he doesn't seem to mind ... hm, reminds me of some nem boys I used to date ... Nevermind! :-D
R, You should google "turtle mating"--there are some wild videos. Turtle sex can get pretty violent. The Box Turtle is the courtly gentleman of the turtle world.
PS. So, does this mean you've known some men who aren't, or who do?
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