May 8, 2009

Another sunny Friday, so we went to Forest Hills to Turtle-watch for a spell before dinner.

Geese watched us

The Painted Turtles were enjoying the sun… on rocks and on the shore.

Our snappy pal was on the shore in the shade again. Now we’re a bit concerned. He’s an old guy and maybe he’s getting near the end of his days. I don’t know. He let me sit next to sit and, other than regarding me with his tiny eyes, didn’t have much to say.

He sure is a sexy chelonian, though

April 24th: Forest Hills Cemetary

Winter 2008 and 2009 sucked. Around January 15, we started dreaming about nature walks. We made an attempt in March, but it was herpless, despite seeing some interesting woodpecker behavior.

Knowing the weekend was going to be warm, we snuck out Friday, April 24 to see if there was any basking going on at the pond at Forest Hills Cemetery. There sure was! They were the first herps of the year!

The only camera we had on us was my phone, so we snapped a pic of a large basking snapper. We also saw basking painteds, and a possible red ear.



Mike couldn't resist the thumbs-up shot.



The turtle stayed on the shore for a while, but after several couples had come up to take its picture, it finally went back into the pond.



This was a great warm up for what would prove to be a memorable weekend.