Box turtles probably prefer not to be seen and they've been achieving that goal in my yard this year. Last week, however, I walked out the front door to see a female traversing my small area of lawn. Hooray! I took some photos and sat on the front steps watching her for a while, enjoying the beautiful fall day and the pleasure of the moment. Later I walked down the path to the backyard to finish my original errand and found lots of rucked up dirt and mulch - evidence, I think, of her journey to the lawn.
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| Female box turtle |
Box turtles can be long-lived (20-100 years) and generally stay in a fairly small range (one site says 250 yards!). So clearly this turtle shares this yard with us and may even have been here first (we've been here 20 years). In 2018, I found a mating pair in my neighbor's yard. You can distinguish the male by his red eyes.
After a little while, she headed off into the woods, gently crunching over the occasional fallen leaf. I put some cut up pieces of apple ahead of her in the woods; she found them and ate some of the pieces, and then buried herself halfway in the leaf litter. It was a wonderful and much appreciated #momentinnature. Be sure to find your moment!
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