Last week I featured an actual mud turtle, but today’s muddy turtles are actually Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) that appear to have been painted with a coating of mud. The last few months we have had a lot of unusually cool weather, and I think the turtles have been spending a lot of time in the mud at the bottom of the ponds. Last week the weather improve and there were turtles in all kinds of places at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge trying to absorb the warmth of the sun.
The pose of the first two turtles brings to mind a well-known scene from the movie Titanic in which Jack and Rose (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) were standing at the railing at the prow of the ship. I must confess that I spent 4+ hours watching the movie on television last Sunday night, which may be why the scene is so fresh in my mind. Yeah, I’m a bit of a romantic.
I encountered the second Painted Turtle as it was slowly making its way across a trail at the wildlife refuge. In addition to noting the large amount of fresh mud still on its shell, I was delighted by the way the two little leaf fragments on its shell matched the yellow markings on its neck.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I love these guys!
Painted Turtles are a common species here and it is fun on sunny days to see them, along with Red-eared Sliders, lined up on logs, sometimes spaced evenly, but most of the time they are partially on top of each other.
Nice Mike! Always fun to see turtle images!
Thanks, Reed. I have always loved turtles and when I was a little kid I remember well when we had a couple of little turtles as pets.
Jack and Rose. Perfect.
My brother and I had turtles as pets too, as boys, and that’s one of the reasons that they hold a special place for me. I’m always delighted to find them sunning on logs in the Minnesota lakes that I canoe and kayak. It looks like these guys could use a good wash and TurtleWax!
🙂 I remember TurtleWax so well–I wonder if they still make it.
The top photo is great!
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Thanks, Mitzy. Turtles are always fun to see, though it is rare to be able to take an action shot of one. Most of the time when I see them, they are either swimming lazily in the water or basking in the sun–which sounds like the typical behavior of an American on vacation at the beach. 🙂
Ha! Turtles = summer on the way! Oh it was 87 here yesterday
Yikes, 87 is hot, Molly, especially early in the season when we have not gotten used to the heat.
I bet the turtle in the second image is a female on her way to dig a hole somewhere to lay her eggs in. Otherwise I don’t think they ever leave the water. Like so many others, I love images of turtles, so thank you for posting these today!
Thanks, Nina. I know that there is a lot of truth in what you say. I have seen a large snapping turtle, for example, burying her eggs quite a long distance from the water.