On the Nature of the Universe

A friend of mine said she never saw turtles in Gallup Park, so while going to work over the past few days i've taken photos of turtles i've spotted in order to form a turtle-spotting tutorial.







Sometimes turtles like to sunbathe on a log, looking much like an odd-shaped stump raised off the main trunk, and with a little branch sticking up. Sometimes they float or swim in the river, sticking just their head out and looking like a very shiny broken branch of a submerged trunk. They are a little skittish in the water and are likely to dive if approached; keep your eyes on them as you walk towards them so you can watch them scurry into the water.

The smallest turtle i've seen in Gallup had a shell length of 1.5" (3.8cm), the largest had a shell length of 15" (38cm). I've seen one soft-shelled snout-nosed turtle, but the majority look like what i consider a "standard" turtle. I have yet to see any turtles wielding hammers in Gallup.




The above photograph is a test; the turtle should be fairly easy to spot.




This bird is included because it recently started chillin' by the side of the bike path through Gallup.