Turtles & Tortoises
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I love seeing the turtles basking in the sun on a winter's day at the local park in Portimao, Portugal.
This green turtle was one of 20 this particular day that crawled on the Hookipa Park beach on Maui, Hawaii to rest. The turtle had just come ashore and was about to drop its head to sleep.
The green turtle is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Major nesting is done in the French Frigate Shoals but some goes on right here in HI and we ran into one ranger going on a 'turtle nest watch.'
Thank you, so much, for looking!
Painted turtle enjoying a warm Halloween.
Wildwood Lake, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Race Car Bob was a Kansas box turtle we found in our garage after we forgot to close the garage door one autumn night. We kept him with us for a month and then let him go back to nature. He sure was a funny fellow.
Happily it is spring again and my winter hibernation season is over, along with that of the turtles. But just to prove to my flickr friends I did go out one day in January, here is a photo with ice in it. :-)
Different kinds of turtles hibernate in different ways. Most water turtles go deep into the pond and snuggle down into some mud and leaves at the bottom. Then they let themselves get cold. Their bodies slow down so they don't need to eat anymore. Their hearts slow down too so that they beat only once every few minutes. They stop breathing through their lungs. Because their bodies are running at such a slow speed, they don't need much oxygen, but they do need some. They can get the small amount of oxygen they need from the water. It sinks in through some specialized skin cells that are just inside the tail opening. That's right! They "breathe" through their tails! Water turtles can stay like this for two or three months.
I was leaving local park when this big fella decided to cross my path. Made sure I stopped traffic so it could make it safely across the road. (Cell phone capture)
Don't let that smiley face fool you. These turtles can be feisty when out of water. Snapping turtles roamed the earth with the dinosaurs and have a strong bite but contrary to popular belief they cannot bite your finger off. They range from Canada to Florida. Their numbers may be in decline in some areas where trapping is legal. If you really want to get up close and personal with this snapper, view in Large! Didn't need 5 frames a second for this capture.
Bird Island | Seychelles
Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
There are seven types of sea turtle in the world’s oceans, six of which are officially classified as a ‘threatened species’ on the current IUCN Red List. The Leatherback and Olive Ridley are regarded as ‘vulnerable’, the Loggerhead and Green as ‘endangered’, and the Kemp’s Ridley and Hawksbill as ‘critically endangered’.
Seychelles is one of only a few major nesting sites around the world for the Hawksbill Turtle and, fortunately due to its remote location, Bird Island has perhaps more than its fair share coming up to lay each year. The laying season normally starts around the end of September / beginning of October, which coincides nicely with our annual visit. This is the time the south-easterly wind lessens and the sea becomes clearer and calmer. Green Turtles also breed on the island, but whilst they only come up at night when it’s dark to lay, the Hawksbill is happy to come up at any time of the day. However, the Hawksbill’s nesting season only lasts a few months to February, whereas the Green Turtle will lay throughout the year,
We’ve been very lucky over the years as we’ve probably now seen around hundred or so Hawksbills either coming in to lay, in the process of digging/laying or on their way back to the sea. For anybody who's interested in reading a bit more about the island’s conservation programme and the laying process then please see the final photo in this set where I’ve added some additional information.
I have so many photos of them that this year I only photographed them going back to the sea after laying - there are four shots here of three different turtles taken on three separate days.
Western Pond Turtle on the left, and a Red-Eared Slider (A 'dimestore turtle', as people call them) on the right. The Red-Eared Slider is an invasive species, basically descended from released pet turtles. They are very numerous and get about as big as the other species. This one is just a younger one. We also have Western Painted Turtles here which look a lot like the Red-Eared Slider, but with no distinctive red mark in the ear area, which this one had. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the turtle species as the striped ones, the Painted, and the Red-Eared, dull, as they age and their colors are not very vivid at all in later life.
This little guy is at a place where they rehabilitate wild animals that are found, the place has been there since my kids were little, I guess it's a good thing that most of the cages were empty, only 4 or so occupied, means less in need of help... my Grandson enjoyed the trek around and up to the park... so it was cool, made for some good pics...
Some turtles snap and some are bored and yawn. After watching this turtle for some time, I'm convinced that both of us were a little bored, and this was a yawn.