Sunday, June 7, 2020

A Duck Standing on a Turtle



When things changed from Coronavirus News to Rioting and Looting News, I decided to end my foray into blogging about current events.  Now I plan to blog about a bunch of my recent nature photos.  

In our first picture we see a Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) standing on a Red-bellied Turtle (Pseudemys rubriventris) as the turtle basks on a log in the Potomac River.  

This is not the first time that I’ve posted a picture of a Red-bellied Turtle.  It’s not even the first time that I’ve posted a picture of a bird standing on a Red-bellied Turtle.  In 2015 I posted poorly-focused pictures of a Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) standing on a Red-bellied Turtle’s shell.  

Judging by claw length, the duck is standing on a female turtle, and the other turtle is male.