eastern box turtle

aww that's so sweet -where was it ???

Turtle on a mission! Lovely colours, Lauram.

He was crossing the trail in front of us. This was about 2 minutes after Natalie screamed "look, a turtle!" and we stopped for a painted turtle. After a few photos we took off again and I saw the box turtle up ahead; then I yelled "a box turtle!" and poor Natalie nearly fell off her bike.
Usually the males are more brightly colored than females; I saw a male once who was so gaudy, so ridiculously spotted with orange and red and yellow, that to this day he's the most beautiful turtle I've ever seen.

It is a lovely little thing :):)

You are so lucky to have these in the wild. Would love to see a picture of a male box turtle..when/if you see one again :)

Ditto to that Judywolf!

This is actually a male - but there is tremendous variation in color and pattern. Overall the females do tend to be a little duller. They generally also have brown eyes while males mostly have red eyes.

Great picture. They are so pretty.