Yellow-bellied Slider

Last weekend I was walking along the Potomac river. We have a lot of turtles here, which is one thing I like about this area. The turtles like to bath in the sun and with some luck they won’t disappear into the water as soon as you get closer. I didn’t bring my 55-200mm zoom, so I had to walk a bit closer.

The area is in a little bend and all kinds of things accumulate here, unfortunately some trash, but also tree trunks. Those are welcome resting places for the local birds and turtles. The tree trunk in this photo must have been there for a while, different kinds of vegetation were growing on it.

The turtle in the photos is a Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys scripta scripta). At least I think it is.

This one did not seem to be disturbed by me, his or her buddy that was sitting a bit further away disappeared into the water quickly. My reptilian friend here let me take a bunch of photos while enjoying the sun, leg up in the air.