She usually comes out in the spring time, usually in mid March when the days become warmer. This year, she didn't make her usual appearance even though we'd gotten some nice warm weather in mid March, so I was a little concerned about whether she'd made it through the winter or not. Friday afternoon, I was logging some of the geocaches I'd found that afternoon on the computer when my youngest came into the family room and looked out onto the patio in the back yard and announced the tortoise was out. I didn't think twice; I grabbed the camera and went outside intent on documenting the moment. Fortunately, I hadn't mowed the lawn yet this seasons, so it was highly overgrown with dandelions.
Dandelions are good for tortoises because they're high in calcium which helps build strong shells. She started chowing down on the dandelions I picked for her and I got some nice shots, this one being the best of the bunch. Saturday I mowed, but she was out eating again, so it looks like she's going to be active again this season. I think we'll see her regularly now until sometime in the middle of September when she settles down for her hibernation.
Nice shot of her :-) I've been lucky enough to see her once or twice in your yard.
ReplyDeleteTwo tortoise stories, one good, one not. Many years ago - in fact, several years in our marriage, B.K. (before kids), Sharon and I were vacationing in Arizona, and I ran over a tortoise :-( We were driving along some highway or other and I didn't see it until too late to do anything about it. Very sad and I was quite annoyed with myself. However, in about the year 9 or 10 W.K, we were all rock-hounding west of Barstow, and after camping on a playa, we were heading home when I saw a tortoise on a small rise of the dirt road we were on. I stopped to let the kids see it. It had trouble getting up the berm - the road had been freshly scraped - so I "helped" it up. We watched it eat a fiddleneck, and were about to leave when a motorcycle came roaring along. Might have saved both the tortoise and the cyclist. Aside from Lucy and the zoo, I've not seen a desert tortoise since.