Late afternoon on this Memorial Day I wasn't expecting to observe two turtles in my parents' backyard in Port Aransas! At around 4:30 while reading a book on the back porch I saw something moving in the grass about the size of a gopher or rat. Through my binoculars I could see that it was a turtle, and I got very interested when I could see that it was not a Red-eared Slider.
I walked over to it and took a few photos. My favorite is this one when it was extending its neck to see over the grass around it:
I'm pretty sure it's a Yellow Mud Turtle. Last night we got lots of rain, and a low spot that is sometimes a pond had water in it through he morning. I wonder if this turtle had been underground, and came out after the rain to find a new place to live.
Later at around 5:30 my mom spotted a turtle at the edge of the backyard from her kitchen window. I wondered if it might be the same one, but when I saw it I saw that it had the shape of a box turtle. I walked over to it to take some iPhone photos. As I got close I could hear some crunching, and I saw that it was eating the yellow fruits of a plant. Can anyone identify the plant?
The turtle is an Ornate Box Turtle. It's only the second time I've seen one here, and the first was just the remains of a presumably road-killed one. I was happy this one was doing fine!
My mom spotted this Ornate Box Turtle from her kitchen window. It was eating the yellow fruits on this plant when I approached it. Does anyone know what the plant is?
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Nice! The plant is some kind of ground cherry, Physalis sp. (tasty to humans as well!). I see a similar one from Port A labeled P. peruviana, but I don't think that's the right species. The leaves on this one look thick and leathery, much like P. angustifolia, but that species apparently doesn't occur in TX.
Thanks! I might get more photos of the plant before I leave.
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