A Very Handsome Box Turtle

Wednesday, July 22, 2020,

This is a male Eastern Box Turtle. Look at those colors. Is he not magnificent? I very nearly missed seeing this handsome brute. In fact, were it not for younger eyes than mine, I would probably not be showing off this guy to you.

I had been hiking through Morton Refuge when I decided to rest my legs on one of the benches. I’m a big fan of benches. The older I get, the more I appreciate a good bench. So I’m sitting there on my bench, when a young man of maybe eight or ten years and his Grandmother came walking up along the same trail I’d walked not ten minutes previous. We exchanged pleasantries and the youngster mentioned seeing a turtle. I asked where and he showed me the spot not thirty feet away. A quick search and there he was, in all his orange and yellow glory.

The turtle got a bit spooked by our presence and quite sensibly tucked himself in. So I pulled out my collapsible chair – look benches aren’t always exactly where you need them to be – and sat my self down to wait him out. Eventually, he began to emerge from his shell and I was there waiting for him. After a bit, he crossed the trail and headed into an open field. He got to where he was headed and I got these pics.  JK.

JK

6 thoughts on “A Very Handsome Box Turtle

  1. Gorgeous flame colored creature! And those eyes! That expression! Definitely worth the wait for these shots. 🙂

  2. This was one of the best looking Box Turtles that I’ve been lucky enough to photograph. JK.

  3. Does the coloring have to do with gender? Like in birds? Is this a male because it’s so bright?

  4. While it is not a hard and fast rule, male Box Turtles are almost always more colorful than the females and have bright red or orange eyes. The defining characteristic is their concave plastron (lower shell) which comes in handy on date night. 🙂 JK.

  5. I guess it would. Yup. Good thing they aren’t like hermit crabs, which could stick a male with the wrong kind of shell. 😉

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