Category Archives: Turtle

Dry cypress swamp 2026-07-09

Box turtle 2025-03-29

Blondie picked up this box turtle. She hadn’t harmed it.

Gretchen took the dogs elsewhere. I put the Terrapene Carolina back in the grass by the field. Continue reading →

Turtle in driveway 2024-10-31

Stopped pretty quick to avoid this turtle.

Not sure what kind of turtle. I’m guessing river cooter or pond slider. I’m leaning towards pond slider, Trachemys scripta scripta, due to the vertical thickness of the shell. Continue reading →

Turtle, dogs 2024-06-09

A small turtle crossing the path to the garden. It’s maybe 4 inches long.

Turtle, dog leg

That’s Sky’s dog leg.

None of the dogs noticed until I’d been looking at the turtle for quite some time. Blondie, Honeybun, Sky, and River sniffed and moved along.

I think it’s a box turtle, but I didn’t pick it up to see, since it wasn’t in the way and it was in no danger.

Turtle and dog leg

Turtle back

Turtle front

-jsq

Turtle in road 2024-05-24

This turtle was in the middle of the road as I drove home. It was in Quarterman Road, near Redeye Creek, which runs to the Withlacoochee River.

Turtle in road and on the other side

So I carried it to the other side. It was about a foot long.

What kind of turtle is it?

My guess is river cooter, Pseudemys concinna.

Could be the subspecies Suwannee cooter, Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis. Or the subspecies Eastern river cooter, Pseudemys concinna concinna first described by my cousin John Eatton LeConte Jr. in 1830.

Or maybe a Florida cooter or some other species.

What do you think? Continue reading →