Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are some turtles I found a few weeks back during a two day rainstorm, all turtles were photographed and released. Enjoy
Adult male with a unusual shell pattern

Staying dry,

Adult female hanging out in a "form",

Best looking boxie I've ever seen, right next to above female and very similar looking,

Sud adult female

Huge pregnant female

Juvie

Adult Male

Adult Female found in roots of a tree

Juvie

Adult Male

Juvie

Juvie

Adult male with a deflated shell from a cow hoof or horse,


Beautiful adult female


Juvie possible offspring of above

Lastly another adult male,

Some spotteds, these guys were aestivating in mudd and some in roots of phragmites,
Female foraging along the forest floor,


Female in my footprint from last time I visited this place,

Adult male,

Another adult male,

Muds these guys enjoy the rain as much as boxies I think, saw a 17-18 of these guys a mix of adults and juvies




Also saw 3 ribbon snakes, 1 racer, some redback, leopards, and fowlers, and one painted turtle. The best part was seeing so many sub adults entering this population and very nice sign.
chris

holy crap dude you rock!!!! i guess thats ur hot spot bc i havent been seein too much lately . i went back to that one spot tho the other day ,saw some great looking boxies but didnt have any camera life tho.... very nice pics
paul

Wow! That's a hot spot for sure! Sheesh. I've never found a racer in Jersey! I need to brush up on the herping skills because I havent cought anything this year. But I also have only been out twice.
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As I turned around I smelled a
horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

~Ty

Fantastic pictures of some fantastic turtles!!! There are some beautiful markings in that bunch!!
I doubt the "deflated" shell was caused by a horse or cow unless the shell was actually cracked. It otherwise seems smooth and well formed, just oddly shaped. There is a population of boxies in an isolated area behind my work in central NJ. I have found two individuals where the back half of the shell was severely indented. Strange!
Thanks for sharing those photos.

WOW! Looks like you hit the jackpot!

I recently saw a wild adult male down here in VA that had a slightly 'deflated' looking shell, closer to the tail. I wondered if it was something that had occurred while the turtle was still in the egg...the thought I had was that a slightly caved-in egg may lead to a deformity like that. There was no sign of fracture, but the turtle did have an extra vertebral scute or two.

I wish I had a decent connection so I could download all the pics! The first few pics are really cool! What kind of boxies are these?
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

They're all Easterns, from New Jersey I believe.

I hate to use this overused word but I have to....

AWESOME!!!
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PHRatz

Great pics! Thanks for sharing. Someone said these turts were in NJ--is that correct?

Is it just me, or do easterns have the most variation in carapace pattern?

And golfdiva - when I use the computer at my dad's house, I have to wait a long time to see all the pics - like you apparently do. I frequent the KDL-Wyoming branch public computers when I want to see lots of pics. I don't know how easy it is to the KDL-Lowell branch.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I will try to post some more pictures of turtles from this spot I have seen around 30 different boxies, 125 spotteds, and 30 or so mud turtles. It is by far my favorite turtle spot, and not bad for salamanders.

yes i love NJ such a diverse wildlife.

Chris,

That's a classic combination of quantity AND quality.
You don't see that everyday!

Tim