Larger Turtle

Wandering about our yard this evening Patty, who seems to have an eye for turtles, spotted this guy.

The first eastern box turtle we've seen in the yard (we have a rescued three toed box turtle named Magnus that Patty has had for years, which is now living in special enclosure we built out by the back pond).

We've had snapping and painted turtles visit the yard as well.

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There was a time, not so long ago, that this fellow would have been shipped off to Philadelphia (where we, and Magnus, once lived). John McPhee, in his wonderful book The Pine Barrens, noted that the Pineys "... sold box turtles by the gross to people in Philadelphia, who used the turtles to keep cellars free of snails - a market that has declined."

Hopefully this guy will hang around for the summer, performing a similar duty, munching on the slugs that in turn munch on our garden plants.

Now if we could only find something to munch on the groundhog ...