Field Herping in Georgia

[Morris Reese]

Which is to say I was cutting the grass when I found this little one. It is a baby Eastern Box Turtle. It was hiding in a small pile of pine needles on my patio. I went to rake the needles onto the lawn to suck them up with the mower, and I saw a little plastron there as it was upside down. Probably a fortuitous event for him/her that I did or who knows what horrible fate might have befallen the little darling. Makes me think of the mower scene from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" This is the first one I 've found. It's fairly uncommon as they spend a lot of their early life hiding under leaf litter and vegetation.
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You can see from this next pictures their pretty small, about the size of a half dollar, which makes them really vulnerable to predation. That is why they spend so much time hidden.
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Thanks for looking.

Are you in South Georgia? I live in NE Georgia and have never been lucky enough to see one here!
Thanks for sharing!