Today, as my son was gathering sticks and rocks in our yard, he discovered a Florida Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) - a subspecies of box turtles found in the United States. He always gets so excited when he finds a turtle and can sit and watch it for a long time while the poor turtle hides in its shell (as you can see in this picture). These little turtles are all over the place in the pine rocklands of the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge. There have been many babies roaming around our yard this year too! It's really great to see them (along with the Key Deer) on a regular basis. My son sometimes likes to feed them his unfinished bananas and/or banana peels; they will stick their long necks out really far and devour those bananas, making very loud breathing and slapping sounds with their mouths as they eat the sticky fruit and then try to wipe off their faces on the mulch. Very funny!
