habitat ~ 12/25/13 ~ San Francisco Botanical Garden

San Francisco Botanical Garden 

December 25, 2013

We went up to San Francisco on Christmas again.  Get this, it didn't rain like 2012 and 2010.  It was gorgeous.  Of course, with beautiful, sunny weather, the people come out in droves, but I didn't mind too much.  The great thing we've discovered about rain is that it keeps many people indoors, which makes San Francisco feel like a totally different city.  This excursion may become a tradition for us - scenic drive up Hwy 1, House of Bagels, Botanical Garden, finding Le Soleil closed yet again and asking for recommendations from Clement St. locals, visiting with friends, and marveling at the Union Square hubbub.  It was a very good day.

red-eared slider ~ 12/25/13 ~ Golden Gate Park

 

red-eared slider

Trachemys scripta elegans

I rarely get pictures of turtles I find, because they're either very shy or inaccessible and surrounded by water.  This one at Stow Lake was very accommodating to my creeping up on it.  Maybe it's used to lots of people, or maybe it was someone's pet?  According to Austin's Turtle Page, "Red-eared Sliders are thought to be far & away the highest volume pet turtle produced world-wide & are often sold to people who believe they get little larger than hatchlings.  Therefore they're probably the most widely & often dumped into the wild (both inside & outside their native range) of any turtle species on earth."  That's too bad.  They're a striking-looking turtle, and like its look-alike western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii), they're introduced into CA.

wordless Wednesday

wordless Wednesday