turtle

Found a turtle wandering across our front yard. Don't think turtles are all slow- this guy moved quickly! I had to scramble to grab him before he headed out into the street. He didn't appreciate being caught either, scrabbled his legs, opened his small threatening mouth and hissed at me. I'm sure he'd bite given a chance.

We stuck him in a small cooler and took to the local nature center at Claude Moore park hoping they could identify him for us, but we were too late and the center was closed. So let him go at the nearby pond. He ran straight for the water, dove in and disappeared.

My husband put his photo up on facebook and someone told him this is an Eastern Painted Turtle. It has a dark shell with no markings, red stripes on the legs and neck, yellow stripes on the head. I didn't turn him over to get a look at the color of his plastron. Remembering now another turtle I found several years ago when we first moved here.