Last summer I wrote a blog about the absence of turtles. I still do not see as many as in years ago, but I have seen more this year. In particular, outside my window where I sit at my computer. There is an almost daily stream of female Elegant Sliders Trachemys scripta looking for a good place to lay their eggs.
I have taken at least a dozen of them out of the main area of the RV park and put them down towards the end of the populated area where they can lay their eggs in a place much more conducive to survival of the offspring.
It does make me feel a bit better about the numbers, even though they are still low.
Same as with lizards. I have seen more lizards this Spring as well. Still not in great numbers but more than I saw last year.
Perhaps all that has something to do with the incredible amount of rain this year. I may just not have been as observant last year, but I don't think that was the case.
Regardless of the reasons, I have enjoyed seeing more of them. I have gotten a chance to take more pictures of them this year. Naturally, I hope that will continue. It is only mid June.
I would like to see some recent figures on how many thousands and thousands are being sent to China. I don't know that the laws passed a few years ago had that much impact. I will do a little research soon and see what I can find.
Michael is a former biologist and Texas Master Naturalist. Originally from Newsome, Texas (Between Pittsburg and Winnsboro), educated in Dallas & Garland schools, then off to the University of Texas system where he received a degree in biology and worked as a biologist with the University of Texas system. After many years away from nature and biology, he relocated to the banks of Lake O' the Pines where he has been rediscovering the joys of nature. He is somewhat surprised that he has become a birder. Most of his interest in nature was centered around reptiles. Perhaps just like birds evolved from reptiles starting in the late Jurassic, he has begun his own evolution. During his formal education, his interests in biology/nature grew to include community ecology and population studies, all with a binding of evolutionary processes. He liked birds, but they were secondary at best. All at once he finds them fascinating.
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