Wow! Look what I saw today...

Adrya · #1 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 07:43 PM

I had pulled up the blinds in a couple of my windows in my bedroom, and I was looking out the window at my fish pond when I noticed a familiar shape that was kinda shiny and black on one of the pond plants.

It was one of my female painted turtles I thought I had lost last year, basking in the sun!! She had hibernated over the winter in my fish pond! Woohoo! I'm so happy she's still here because I missed her greatly. Apparently she still has some good instincts.

She had somehow escaped from the turtle pond and ventured into the fish pond and I figured she had escaped to the river behind my house instead... I couldn't find her in the turtle pond anywhere when fall started coming around. I figure she buried herself in one of the many submerged pond plants in a pot or into the several inches of thick muck in the bottom... which gets vacuumed out every spring. It's only 47 degrees out right now but the sun is so nice.

I am in the process of remodeling, fixing and doing some maintenance on the turtle pond anyway as it needed a few of the big rocks around the edges of the pond repositioned as they were sloping in too much, so hopefully this won't happen again.

_Sam_ · #2 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 07:45 PM

cool!
good job on finding her!

Adrya · #3 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:02 PM

Oh I might also mention that when I was looking for Nikki (the female painted) I was also missing another one. I wasn't sure what exactly had happened to the both of them as I have had some weird occurrences happen before with muskrats and such and I wasn't sure if maybe they either escaped to the river or something got them.

BUT HOLY CRAP THERE'S TWO OF THEM NOW!! LOL they're basking on one another!

Xeikeness · #4 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:06 PM

That's awesome, congrats!! I hope you catch them and get them put back where they belong.

DannyBoy · #5 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:14 PM

Very nice. Congrats a good discovery.

jtmoney · #6 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:35 PM

Glad to hear they came back

Adrya · #7 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:48 PM

I went over to the pond, and they got spooked and went in. I went in my herp building and got the turtle food and I kneeled down to the edge of the pond and tossed a little bit in for the fish, and Nikki came swimmin' over to me and she ate just a little bit too, so she still remembers me.

The other one is shy, I still haven't figured out who it is yet.

For awhile now I have thought about putting my painteds in the fish pond since they don't devour and inhale all the pond plants up like my red-eared sliders and redbelly cooters do. I have kept my painteds with plants before and they did fine, but I'm still thinking about it... I would have to build an egg-laying area for them too.

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