Turtle Time Again

Cappy, our turtle huntin' dog, has found several

 turtles so far this spring.  She literally comes to me

and wants me to follow her, when she's spotted one.  

She even has an odd turtle bark.  I nearly stepped on

this one before I saw it. 

We have lots of turtles here in Missouri & I 

didn't research this one, but it's probably one of 

the several semi aquatic turtles common around

 here.  I've never seen one this small.  

 

The little white speck on his nose is called a turtle

tooth.  The baby uses it to break out of its shell.
Eventually, it falls off.

After the photos, I put it back in the same spot.

As always, Cappy left it alone.  She's a funny little dog!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last June I did a post on a turtle laying eggs in the 

front yard.  Sadly, when the incubation period was 

almost up, I found the nest destroyed and empty 

eggs shells strewn about.  Some critter had enjoyed
a fine Ozark baby turtle dinner!

Missouri Red Eared Slider Laying Eggs 

Missouri Box Turtle & Barred Owl

Cappy's full of smiles when she finds a turtle.

Missouri has 2 species of box turtles.  This is a
3 toed box turtle.  They can actually have 3 or 4
toes on their hind legs.
 
 He wasn't very shy, until I picked him up.

 Box turtles have a hinge across the bottom shell.
(vertical in the photo above)
When frightened the turtle pulls its head and feet inside
the shell, and pulls each half of the lower shell up
tightly to meet the upper shell, literally closing the box.
Hence the name.

 

The box turtle has a hard high domed upper shell
with a ridge down the center.

Turtles are one of our favorite little critters.

    This is the other species of box turtle, the
 colorful ornate box turtle. (prior post)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I am still nursing the arm, I've had some

time to go through photos.  I came across these

from a few years ago.

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We had a knock on the door one morning and our neighbor
 John wanted to know if we had a cage large enough for an
 injured owl he'd found in his yard.  I just happened to
 have a rather large useless "white elephant" flea market find
 hanging on the back porch.  It took my husband, Rufus our
eccentric neighbor, John and heavy leather gloves to carefully
 move the owl into the cage.
  The Missouri barred owl has large dark eyes and brown-

streaked feathers.  They make the classic series of hoots

commonly heard and are easily recognizable, we just 

call them hoot owls.  They live near water and eat small

rodents, snakes, frogs, crayfish and sometimes small fish.  

They can grow to 21 inches tall and have a wingspan of 3 to 4 ft.

After a call to the Conservation Department, the owl was

taken to a wildlife sanctuary, where he was treated for a broken

wing (easily seen in the photo below) and later released.  He 

was a magnificent bird, and we enjoyed seeing him close up.

Gratefully, I never saw that monstrous

 "white elephant" again, but I was glad

it finally came in handy!!

Buzzards, Bugs & Other Ozark Creepy Critters

I took these pictures a couple of weeks
ago.  Thought you might enjoy them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cappy has a specific bark when she
comes across a turtle.  When I hear it,
I grab the camera and head outdoors.

.

We  have 14 kinds of turtles in Missouri.
I am not able to positively identify this one.

It was about 8 inches long with a
rather drab beat up shell.

Underneath he was very colorful.

I thought I'd just walk around the yard and 

take a few pictures.  I checked on the bats.

This year they have decided to sleep together.

How many do you see?

This is a home for the Doodlebug.  We have lots of

these around.  The Doodlebug builds an inverted cone

shaped home.  He waits for an unsuspecting ant to fall

inside, then he jumps out the bottom and grabs them.

The kids used to dig some dirt, put it in a bowl and

add a Doodlebug.  They'd watch him build a home

and then they'd catch ants and feed him.

That's an Ozark make do pet!

Click below to see a 30 second video of a doodlebug.

Doodlebug Flip

This looks like a swallows nest, but I didn't

see any activity.

We have a large dead oak tree that is a 

favorite sitting spot for the buzzards.

Technically they are vultures. The United

States has 3 native vultures.  The turkey vulture

 and the rarer black vulture (below) live in Missouri.

 Their wingspans are about 5 feet.

 

They sit silent like stone gargoyles.

 

They have no voice box, but they can hiss.

We often see 3 in the tree.

We call them the Buzzard Brothers 

Ozark Clean Up Crew.

I came across a praying mantis, (Thank you Jan!)

 a lizard,

a spider egg sack,

a mud dauber (wasp) nest,

a very busy wasp nest,

and a dobson fly.  This is a female about 4 inches
long, males can be bigger and have longer pinchers.
 They are rarely seen, as they live for only a day,
 just long enough to mate. They are also only
seen near water.  
 If you think this is creepy,

in the larvae stage they are even creepier.
They are called hellgrammites, even the
name sounds scary!
They live in the creeks for up to 3 years in
the larvae stage.  I used to catch these for
my Dad to use as fish bait.  Yes, they
can inflict a very painful non poisonous bite.

I love the browns of this large moth.

 This is a grand daddy long legs, they
 are completely harmless.

We disturbed an armadillo, but Cappy chased it off
before I could take a photo.
We may not have the prettiest most colorful
 critters around here,
but they sure are interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Missouri Red-Eared Slider Turtle

This morning when I went outside
to water my flower garden,
(Yes, this is my entire flower garden,
I haven't killed it yet!)

I noticed something odd. 

 

 We had a visitor..........

one of my favorite woodland critters.

This is called a red-eared slider, a semi-aquatic 

Missouri turtle.  They are common around 

our creeks and rivers.

Notice the distinctive red mark.

They love to sun bathe on logs near

the water's edge, and quickly slide away

 when disturbed.  Hence the name.

Average size is about 8 inches, this one was

 a whopper, a good 11inches in length.  They can

 live up to 30 years.

She was very busy.............

laying her eggs.

The red-slider can lay up to 22 eggs in a clutch.

They hatch in about 65 days.

These eggs are the size of a small hen egg or golf ball.

She carefully covered them up

& merrily went on her way.

Nary a sign she'd been there.

She must have thought this the perfect place 

to lay her babies!

Cappy knows to leave turtles alone & she's not a
digger, but to be on the safe side, we covered
them up with chicken wire.

Have a great weekend!

Missouri Department Of Conservation-Red Eared Slider