{"id":149016,"date":"2025-06-19T03:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T08:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=149016"},"modified":"2025-06-19T03:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T08:39:18","slug":"ouachita-map-turtle-on-the-arkansas-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/06\/19\/ouachita-map-turtle-on-the-arkansas-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Ouachita Map Turtle On The Arkansas River"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was two years ago today when I photographed what I believe is a Ouachita Map Turtle on the Arkansas River at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n

\"OuachitaOuachita Map Turtle on a stump at Sequoyah NWR<\/span><\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t looked closely at the photos I took of this turtle on that day until now, and I\u2019m not really sure why. That was a rough time for me. It was during the period when I was losing my mother and I was dealing with her hospice care.<\/p>\n

I opened this file yesterday and tried to figure out what kind of turtle it was. My ID landed on Ouachita Map Turtle, partly because of the black stripe through the eye, the geographic location, the habitat, and the vertebral spines on the carapace.<\/p>\n

I uploaded the image to iNaturalist<\/span><\/a> this morning, and within minutes one member there agreed with my ID. It appears that my research had me on the right track for identifying this turtle. This is a “lifer” turtle for me.<\/p>\n

I’ll be looking more closely at basking turtles on the river at the refuge now! I’d like more photos of this riverine turtle species.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see my reptile and amphibian photo galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was two years ago today when I photographed what I believe is a Ouachita Map Turtle on the Arkansas River at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13973,16532,13974],"tags":[14023,16537,16536,13136,165,5113,7945,7946,3996],"class_list":["post-149016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oklahoma","category-ouachita-map-turtle","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-arkansas-river","tag-graptemys-ouachitensis","tag-ouachita-map-turtle","tag-reptiles","tag-spring","tag-stump","tag-turtle","tag-turtles","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t