Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here a SE New Mexico ornata.
-ian

all of these animals are from SE NM

i lucked out and saw this guy scurrying through the grass and shinnery oak.

saw this guy on the road, shortly before 10am during sunny and humid conditions. it was hot enough that adults in the area ceased being active.

this is one of my favorite ornata ornatas i have seen this year. she lives on and near a very large construction site. i hope to see her again.

this fella's rustling among the dry leaves gave his position away among the oak.

old guy, check out the piercing eyes

ornata male

pictured as found, resting shortly before sunset in a dead-end hole in the side of a dune.

Dude...VERY COOL! It is really a treat to see them in the wild. I've never seen a turtle in a "fox hole" like that, really neat!

Me either.. I've never seen one in a fox hole like that.
WOW though, they look so much like what I see around here.
SE NM isn't too far from me.. insteresting that what you're seeing there is so like what I see in West TX... we're real close to Jal & not too far from Hobbs. So I guess the same general appearance in turtles can spread out for many miles.

Thanks a lot for posting the pics, I loved seeing them.
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PHRatz

Ratz, you hit the area dead on. Even in areas disturbed by hordes of oil wells,roads, and pads, the turtles can be amazingly dense in that habitat. makes ya wonder how impressive pre-disturbance densities were!

-ian

Unfortunately right now I'm kind of seeing first hand how humans building things affects them.
We live in an area that used to be "out in the country" then it was annexed so the city can collect more taxes (of course.)

For more than 10 years we sat here in the country seeing all sorts of wildlife and plenty of box turtles. I remember one year my DH had me come out to our backlot where he'd been mowing to see 3 adult box turtle's carapaces that were level with the ground because they'd burrowed in to escape the heat. He didn't mow them so we looked at them then we left them alone because it was about 100 degrees at the time.
Since then oil is up so it's booming here right now which means there's a housing shortage so today every plot of land in our edition is being built on. It started about 3 years ago one here, much later one there but today it's a constant thing. There's building going on all around us all the time & I haven't seen any wild turtles around here at all this year. We've seen several snakes and foxes, I think it's because they've been displaced.
Where are the turtles though? Hiding from humans & doing fine I hope!
It's a sad thing to not see them, with all the extra rain we've had this year, I should be seeing a lot but...
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PHRatz

Yay! Ian, thanks so much for sharing your photos with us periodically. It is really a treat!

As usual, all photos are fantastic!

What a treat for a City gal like me to see these pictures. Thank you. They are so beautiful, and you are so lucky to see these beautiful turtles in the wild. I feel bad for my poor Nora now.
Terry

found foraging one evening

i found 6 hatchlings in the yard from the yard turtles this past june who overwintered in the nest. there were 3 different nests last year, only one of which was accounted for this year. this one hatched 3 babies. i suspect there are one or two more babies still awol in the backyard.

i took this picture this year. they normally do not successfully dig a complete nest in the lawn as the soil is so compact. she started on the evening of july 3, and this shot was taken about 8am july 4th. interestingly this female escaped shortly after i moved to this house. 2 years later i heard rustling in the utility right of way as i was feeding the yard turtles, and it was her. i think she spent that whole time in the small piece of land between houses on my street and the houses across from mine.

AWESOME PICS hahah. what camera is that ,awesome too thanks for posting.

what camera are u using?