{"id":143207,"date":"2025-04-30T02:48:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T07:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=143207"},"modified":"2025-04-29T15:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T20:17:05","slug":"three-toed-box-turtle-in-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/04\/30\/three-toed-box-turtle-in-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-toed Box Turtle In Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought that I was seeing things for a few seconds two days ago when I spotted this Three-toed Box Turtle walking north through the dew laden grasses.<\/p>\n

\"Three-toedThree-toed Box Turtle in spring grasses \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f8, 1\/250, ISO 1000, +0.3 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been since last September since I\u2019ve seen a Three-toed Box Turtle in the yard. The turtle was quite a distance from the deck, and at first I thought it was a grackle foraging in the grass.<\/p>\n

Then my memories of these turtles kicked in, and I recognized the slow way they move forward.<\/p>\n

Seconds after realizing what I was seeing, I was off like a shot, camera in hand, so I could photograph this amazing box turtle.<\/p>\n

These turtles can basically pull their heads inside their shells, and they do when they\u2019re startled. After getting close, moving slowly and deliberately is necessary to get photos that show their heads.<\/p>\n

Once I was near enough to the Three-toed Box Turtle<\/span><\/a>, I knelt on one knee to steady myself and took photos from a low-angle perspective that gave me a turtle\u2019s-eye view of the scene.<\/p>\n

The markings on the face of this box turtle are interesting. I saw and photographed this same turtle last September<\/span><\/a>. It has the same markings on the right side of its shell, or carapace, plus it had a lot of white on its face too.<\/p>\n

Paying attention paid off once again. I could have missed out on photographing this turtle if my brain hadn\u2019t let me know that it wasn\u2019t a grackle walking through the damp grasses.<\/p>\n

Keeping an old file, one where the head didn\u2019t show on this turtle, proved I had also seen and photographed it last September.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Three-toed Box Turtle photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought that I was seeing things for a few seconds two days ago when I spotted this Three-toed Box Turtle walking north through the dew laden grasses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13950,13951,14071],"tags":[4004,5142,13931,3747,4109,13136,165,15824,14072,14073,7945,7946,13966],"class_list":["post-143207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-sebastian-county","category-three-toed-box-turtles","tag-adult","tag-dew","tag-garden","tag-grass","tag-grasses","tag-reptiles","tag-spring","tag-suburban","tag-terrapene-carolina-ssp-triunguis","tag-three-toed-box-turtle","tag-turtle","tag-turtles","tag-yard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/three-toed-box-turtle-spring-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-9475.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-BfN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/09\/02\/urban-three-toed-box-turtle\/","url_meta":{"origin":143207,"position":0},"title":"Urban Three-toed Box Turtle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I was enjoying my coffee outside yesterday morning when I spotted this Three-toed Box Turtle walking through the dew-covered grasses. 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Turns out it was a Red-eared Slider turtle.","rel":"","context":"In "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up Red-eared Slider in grass, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-eared-slider-yard-arkansas-mia-mcphrson-1237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-eared-slider-yard-arkansas-mia-mcphrson-1237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-eared-slider-yard-arkansas-mia-mcphrson-1237.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-eared-slider-yard-arkansas-mia-mcphrson-1237.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128188,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/06\/birds-and-wildlife-from-arkansas-and-sequoyah-nwr-in-oklahoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":143207,"position":4},"title":"Birds and Wildlife From Arkansas And Sequoyah NWR In Oklahoma","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing a bunch of bird and wildlife photos that I have recently photographed in my friend Steve's yard in Arkansas, and from Sequoyah NWR in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "American Lady Butterflies"","block_context":{"text":"American Lady Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/american-lady-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Northern Flicker in Arkansas, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/nothern-flicker-adult-female-grass-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/nothern-flicker-adult-female-grass-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/nothern-flicker-adult-female-grass-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/nothern-flicker-adult-female-grass-mia-mcpherson-5375.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3715,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/11\/18\/female-loggerhead-sea-turtle-friday-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":143207,"position":5},"title":"Female Loggerhead Sea Turtle – Friday Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"At first I was so stunned that I wasn't taking any images of the Loggerhead Turtle, I just stood there admiring this temporarily earthbound sea creature. She was so beautiful to me.","rel":"","context":"In "Florida"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Loggerhead Sea Turtle leaving the nest site, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/loggerhead-turtle-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-7997.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/loggerhead-turtle-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-7997.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/loggerhead-turtle-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-7997.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/loggerhead-turtle-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-7997.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}