Mother Nature: A portrait of the painted turtle.

It seems as if spring has finally sprung. The dreary, drab grays and browns of winter have been replaced by the lush greens of spring in Pennsylvania. With life once again teeming around us, what better time to examine some of the wildlife Mother Nature has to offer in Chester County.

In this installment, let's examine one of the reptiles commonly found in this area, the painted turtle. I happened across the one seen in the photo when I went to get some sun at Broad Run Park. It was lying by the edge of a pond when I rudely interrupted its lazy bask and it had to scramble for the water.

The painted turtle, or Chrysemys picta, can actually be divided into a number of subspecies. Two of these subspecies, the eastern painted turtle and the midland painted turtle, are commonly found in Pennsylvania.

As their names suggest, the eastern painted turtle originally inhabited the eastern half of Pennsylvania, and its midland counter part was largely confined to the interior of the state. In recent years, however, the range of the midland painted turtle has expanded eastward. Where the ranges of the two subspecies now overlap, they frequently interbreed, and most of the painted turtles found in eastern Pennsylvania (including Chester County) are an intergrade of the two subspecies.

Painted turtles can be distinguished from the other turtles that inhabit Pennsylvania by their distinctive set of colorful markings. For example, their heads are marked by a myriad of stripes, which are typically yellow in younger animals and red and yellow in a mature adult.

This species displays sexual dimorphism, with females typically growing larger than males. The largest painted turtles can reach a length of around 10 inches.

Painted turtles typically prefer ponds and still water to fast moving rivers or streams. They are omnivorous, and eat amphibians, insects, duckweed and filamentous algae.

I admit the picture isn't of great quality. Click here to see what these turtles really look like. I tried for some time to get a better shot, but it was no use. The turtle stayed far away, close to the center of the pond the entire time I was there. But I suspect we will meet again. Broad Run Park is a good place to get some Sun, and after all, a worship of the Sun is what defines the kinship of almost all living things.  

Note- a Google search for the term "painted turtle" will turn up a website named "Portrait of a Painted Turtle." I did not find this website until after I had come up with the title for this blog.