Painted Turtle on the Ramsey Survey: June 16, 2022

The tiny community of Ramsey is located on the railway line about a 90 minute drive on mostly logging roads south west of Gogama. The road is rough and I lost an auto muffler on it in 2006.

Survey scenes:

after logging

We occasionally see wildlife as we drive on these remote roads and have had bear, moose, deer, fox, coyote, skunk, porcupine, red squirrel, chipmunk, European hare and, this morning, a Painted Turtle. I identify this one by the yellow stripes on the throat and neck.

Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle  is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Painted Turtle
Painted Turtle
Painted Turtle
Painted Turtle

Some botany:

False Buckwheat (Polygonum scandens)
Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)
Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
Mushroom
Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium murorum)
Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana)
Speckled Alder (Alnus incana)
Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Red Maple (Acer rubra)
Bracken Fern
White Pine (Pinus strobus)

NATURE POETRY

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;  
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,  
And over it softly her warm ear lays.    
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten.      – James Russell Lowell (1819–91)

Miles Hearn

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