Top Photo: Northern water snake patrols for young frogs, turtles, fish and anything else edible near the wetlands shoreline. A northern water snake has been cruising the water around and below our floating walkway and water’s edge browsing for food. Standing on the walkway you may hear a splash and glimpse a disturbance in the water as a young frog panics at the snake’s approach. Hit or miss, the snake steadily and stealthily moves on for the next potential victim.Read more
Posts tagged: #turtles
Spring Appearances
Top Photo: Fatsia japonica or Japanese Fatsia, fruit. Not native but planted on the Dinosaur Trail to enhance the sense of a long ago tropical realm, fatsia is in fruit, but going fast. The plant’s name is derived from the fact that fatsia, in an old Japanese language, means eight, presumably referring to the number of lobes on the plant’s large palmate leaves. This, even though the leaves never have an even number of lobes, or points. I’ve consistently countedRead more
What You May Have Missed
Above, a large snapper basks on a warm rock in the bright early May sunshine. As you stroll along through the outdoor exhibits here at the museum there are many interesting sights for you to enjoy. Turtles are out basking, birds are exploiting the wetland’s lesser wild life, new blooms occur almost daily, and closer to the ground, you may witness an arthropod or two going about their daily routines. But you have to look, keep your eyes open toRead more
Rare Sighting at Museum
The sun finally showed itself here at the Museum after over a week of hiding behind rainy, drizzly, stratus clouds. It didn’t take long before the turtles of the Wetlands came out to take advantage of the rarity by basking in the warm sunshine. A small tree has fallen onto one of the turtles’ favorite basking boulders limiting access to the spot. Even so, the turtles began filling up space on the boulder early in the day. Good day sunshine!Read more