The Grass is Always Greener....or Two Turtles in Two Weeks???

this week

this week

I went out tonight to check on my morning glories and good grief, here is a TURTLE! The 4th one.  See this turtle? He showed up inside my front yard fence today....exactly where the last turtle was, exactly, when I picked him up with a shovel last week and set him over the fence so he could be free.  He is sitting in front of a 6 ft fence ...  I carried him over to another part of my property where the fence is only 4 ft and I could easily set him over ... if this is the same turtle.  His shell is much duller than last week but we had rain and that could have made him dirty looking.  By looking at him I decided he was a smaller turtle, although male, because I could see orange spots on his legs.  I barely got to see them because he kept his legs in his shell most of the time and when I did see them they weren't the vibrant orange of the other one.  Maybe they were just dirty today.  Like I said, he didn't extend his legs but once while I was watching, although he did extend his head really far once --- whoa! What a long neck!  He wouldn't let me get a photo while his neck was extended though.  You can see he is looking out of the fence like he wants out so I picked him up again (with that shovel --- I'm not touching them!) and set him out of my yard, just like last week.

last week

So here is last week's turtle, pictured above & below this text--- do you think it is the same one?  I am not sure how they get in my yard since my entire property is fenced in with chain link fence.  And why would the turtles, all of them, be in the same small front yard out of the entire property, and in the yard where the dogs play.  I wonder if they hatch out in my yard as when we first moved in we found white golf ball looking eggs in this part of the yard and the 2nd year we lived here we found more golf ball looking eggs about 6 feet away from the spot where we saw the first batch.  Both were partially buried and we didn't know what they were.  (I was just hoping they weren't rattle snakes!!!)

last week

this week

  I'm thinking it may not be the same turtle.  On today's turtle see the center line and at the tail end there is a rectangular box? 

I don't recall that on last weeks' turtle.  I could have just not noticed and can't see it in the photo though.  No, I think it IS a different turtle.  I don't think the yellow markings are the same either.  This turtle pictured above, was tonight's turtle.  Right after I took this photo I scooped him up in the shovel and put him over the fence.  Just like last week.  I went back later to check on him and he had crawled from where I set him back around the corner of the fence almost back to this spot....and now seemed to be looking towards the fence like he might want to get IN.  I just left him outside of the fence.  Maybe he thinks the grass is greener on the other side, and then he gets over there and changes his mind. (not that there is a lot of grass for him to see)