Tag: reptile

Rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus), in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Chesapeake, Virginia. 

Please click photo for enlarged view. 

Bonus etymology: The species name aestivus is Latin for summer. Alternate common names for this lovely little snake are grass snake, green summer snake, green tree snake, green whip snake, huckleberry snake, keel-scaled green snake, magnolia snake, and vine snake – most making reference to the camouflage coloration that lets it achieve near-invisibility in the summer forest. 

Rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus), in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Chesapeake, Virginia. 

Please click photo for enlarged view. 

Bonus etymology: The species name aestivus is Latin for summer. Alternate common names for this lovely little snake are grass snake, green summer snake, green tree snake, green whip snake, huckleberry snake, keel-scaled green snake, magnolia snake, and vine snake – most making reference to the camouflage coloration that lets it achieve near-invisibility in the summer forest. 

Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina), at Clay Bank in Gloucester County, Virginia. This youngster is only about 3 inches long (7.5 cm).

Please click photo for full view. 

As a boy I called box turtles terrapins – from the native Powhatan word for turtle –  though the word applied equally well locally to cooters and sliders and diamondbacks, but never to foul-tempered snapping turtles. Eastern Virginia is turtle-species rich. 

An elderly box turtle lived in my grandfather’s vegetable garden. He reluctantly sacrificed a few low-hanging tomatoes or cucumbers to the turtle each season in exchange for grub and insect control services. These turtles can live up to fifty years. Ours was a regular garden inhabitant for at least seventeen years. 

Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina), at Clay Bank in Gloucester County, Virginia. This youngster is only about 3 inches long (7.5 cm).

Please click photo for full view. 

As a boy I called box turtles terrapins – from the native Powhatan word for turtle –  though the word applied equally well locally to cooters and sliders and diamondbacks, but never to foul-tempered snapping turtles. Eastern Virginia is turtle-species rich. 

An elderly box turtle lived in my grandfather’s vegetable garden. He reluctantly sacrificed a few low-hanging tomatoes or cucumbers to the turtle each season in exchange for grub and insect control services. These turtles can live up to fifty years. Ours was a regular garden inhabitant for at least seventeen years. 

Yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta), in the Washington Ditch in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Suffolk, Virginia. Please click photo for full view. 

The ditch is actually a shallow canal, about 18 feet wide (5.5 m). It was constructed in 1763 as part of a logging scheme devised by George Washington, who surveyed and oversaw the digging, which was done by slaves rented from local plantations. The canal system was designed to provide drainage and access, and a means for floating lumber out of the swamp – primarily cypress for shipbuilding, and cedar for housing. The network of ditches later provided access for slaves who fled into the swamp  seeking freedom – a dangerous and uncomfortable early stop on the Underground Railroad before reaching water routes to the north through Portsmouth and Norfolk. 

Yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta), in the Washington Ditch in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Suffolk, Virginia. Please click photo for full view. 

The ditch is actually a shallow canal, about 18 feet wide (5.5 m). It was constructed in 1763 as part of a logging scheme devised by George Washington, who surveyed and oversaw the digging, which was done by slaves rented from local plantations. The canal system was designed to provide drainage and access, and a means for floating lumber out of the swamp – primarily cypress for shipbuilding, and cedar for housing. The network of ditches later provided access for slaves who fled into the swamp  seeking freedom – a dangerous and uncomfortable early stop on the Underground Railroad before reaching water routes to the north through Portsmouth and Norfolk. 

Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Hatteras Island, North Carolina.

From head to tail this formidable fellow was about two feet long (60 cm). And he was not the biggest turtle in the pond. 

Please click photo for full view.