Water's up.
Anyway, while we were out we happened upon some little ones just starting out in life. I snapped a few pictures and sent them on their separate ways. Good luck, long life!
A brand new turtle for the pond. This is most likely a yellowbelly slider, Chrysemys scripta. They are so cute and so vulnerable at this stage.
In this shot of the plastron you can see the scar from the turtle's yolk sac - sort of a temporary turtle belly button.
A brown water snake neonate enjoys the warmth of the pavement in the parking lot. This particular snake was extremely calm - not typical for a juvenile snake, especially a juvenile water snake. (Nerodia taxispilota)
It took a little gentle persuasion to get the snake into a defensive position. Mostly it was content just to cruise along as we encouraged it to get off the pavement and onto the grass.
6 comments:
Ya' gotta love baby pictures. Thanks for the pond update. I just carried my baby sliders out to bask in the sun ...as I feared, we are all so attached, their stay with us is stretching.
Like you said, they're just so vulnerable at this stage.
Who ever heard of a calm watersnake? Fiestyness must develop post cuteness.
Swampy, my sister works within walking distance (which for me, ain't very far) at a local elementary school. Once or twice a month she invites me for lunch on Pizza Day. I always bring a buddy with me from the office. By buddy I mean action figure. This year, I have a new buddy and I brought him just a couple of days ago for the first pizza day I was able to attend. The new buddy? A tiny toy turtle just slightly bigger than the one in your photo. I got SO much mileage from that turtle! The first student (3rd grade) came up and said, "Oh! Can I see? Um, it's fake." I said, "Yeah, you'd be fake too if you had a WHEEL in your belly!"
Then another student..."Oh! Can I see? Um, it's fake...." hehe
FC,
This was without a doubt the calmest little snake I have ever encountered. And such a cutie!
Bloggy,
:) At least they were disappointed that it was fake. Imagine if they had had the opposite reaction: "EEWW, it's real! Yuck."
But you know those kids are just waiting to see what you bring next time.
Flamebrain?
OW,
Flamebrain is our very smart, very red-headed, second born son. He is home to do some house sitting for us for the next couple of weeks as we travel to Maine for our vacation. He will resume his "real" life when we return...graduate studies in socio-linguistics I believe.
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