Last week Chris and I found a box turtle cruising down a row of recently mowed barley. He seemed no worse the wear for having had a combine just pass over him.
This week we found two small box turtles, the first in a thick hedge as we were looking for groundhog holes (picture of that turtle above and below) and another on a path by a creek after we had put the dogs up for the day (it was very hot!).
Eastern box turtle shell patterns are quite variable, and the one pictured above is called a "sunburst" pattern.
The second turtle, the one we found on the forest path, was very yellow and had lost a small part of his carapace at the front. He had the more traditional "crown" pattern.
For more on box turtles, and their steep decline across the Eastern United States, >> see here
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