A couple of weekend walks netted more flowers than rock piles.
Here are the flowers:
violets and cinquefoil:
Early lady slipper:
I forget the name:
...and some beasts:
a newt:
A [box or blandings] turtle:
I thought is would be easy to come home and look up "Massachusetts turtles" but no picture in Google shows a turtle with so little yellow on the back. Some photos of Blanding's Turtle show a smooth shell like a typical terrapin (painted or spotted turtle). Others show a corrugated shell, as in the first photo above.
Seems a lot like this but how do I know if that is correctly identified? Searching on the appearance of the belly plates, seems like my find is clearly a Blandings turtle. Rather rare. Found near Wolf Swamp, Boxborough.
(Update: I asked a local expert if it was a Blandings Turtle. He wrote back:
"Yes! Nice find. That's a juvenile, looks to be about 9 years old (counting growth rings).")
Also these beaver stumps:
I really like that turtle and would have been pleased to spot it. I have never seen one like it.
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