Garden Pic Wednesday: Baby Boxie Taking A Drink!

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I have 3 Box Turtles living around my garden this year. One is a Baby, about 4 inches long. The two are mature Boxies: one with an ornate yellow pattern on his shell, which is taller then average and one with patch albino markings on his head and neck, which gives his head a grayish appearance. 
(He was the one eating popcorn in an earlier post.)
It's been dry and super hot here for over 2 weeks with hardly any rain. Then, this past Sunday, a brief rain fell and Baby & Mr. Albino Head popped out to enjoy it.

 First a Baby Boxie crawled out onto my cement patio eager to drink from the puddles:

First Picture:
Baby paused and withdrew into his shell a little when I opened the door, uncertain whether I was a threat or not.
A moment of unsureness as I opened the door to take a picture!

Next Picture:
Then, deciding I wasn't a threat, baby put his face in the puddle and slurped away.


Baby Slurping Away!
He would drink, move a few inches, drink some more, move a 
few inches further, drink some more and so on for at least 5 minutes.

Last Picture: 
Finally, his thirst quenched, baby crawled away, heading for the grassy yard.

Baby Leaving

About 20 minutes later, Mr. Albino Head suddenly popped out of the flag iris, making a bee-line straight for the nearby shallow water bowl I have sitting on the ground for a bird-bath and, quite deliberately, I could tell, threw himself into it.
 He then adjusted himself to face the direction he'd just come, stood in the water a few seconds, then suddenly bolted out of the bowl, straight back the way he'd come, back into the flag iris.
I think he just wanted to get his skin wet and have a quick bath.
 It was the funniest thing I ever saw. 

(Box Turtles, being tortoises, are not aquatic; they can drown, but they do enjoy a rain shower and, apparently, a shallow water bowl.)
*****
Seen anything interesting in your yard lately?

Comments

Nancy Waterbury said…
This is a fun post, enjoyed it very much. You are so fortunate to have such little cuties living in your yard:)))
Sep 11, 2014, 5:34:00 PM

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