by Mary Reid Barrow

This little diamondback terrapin greeted visitors to the Bay Lab aquarium at First Landing State Park  on World Turtle Day Saturday, swimming  back forth perhaps hoping for a forbidden treat.

The diamondback, with its designer patterns straight from a house of fashion,  lives in the Lynnhaven River and is the only brackish water turtle in our area. It is considered a species  of “Very High Conservation Need” in the state.  Prized for terrapin  soup in the early 1900s, as well more recent development along the coast and their getting trapped in crab pots aresome  reasons for their decline.

As if a case in point, Brent James Brent James, LRNow’s Oyster Restoration Manager, discovered  this tiny diamondback  terrapin born in a nest out near the road  at the Brock Environmental Center.  Brent took it down to the safe grasses along the Lynnhaven.

Diamondback terrapins, box turtles, sea turtles, sliders, spotted turtles  mud  turtles and more all live quietly among us. Box turtles that cruise under my blueberry bushes in my yard every  summer are  ones are I know best.  They are like old friends, you might say,  even intimate ones, comfortable  enough to tryst in  in my driveway in spring!

But there are many more,  like the diamondback, that we don’t see often.  Take  this pretty little spotted turtle I saw in First landing about six years ago. I haven’t seen one since.

 There are others like the spotted turtle that I only see occasionally and more I’ve never seen.  I really realized that  when I was writing a LRNow Facebook post for World Turtle Day which was Saturday.  According to Google,  up to two dozen turtle species live in southeastern Virginia. I tried counting the ones  I knew  of and ran out of fingers.

So, I went to the Virginia Herpetological Society website  and used their  range maps in our neck of the woods and came up with about 20 species for sure, including 5 species of sea turtles.  The checklist  from First Landing State Park alone lists 12.

There are not many critters that live among us that don’t occasionally bother us and turtles are surely one of them. They don’t bark, growl or squawk.  They don’t raid the bird feeder, peck at the house, eat copious amount of fresh baby veggie leaves or chew holes in plants. Their worst sin may be to snag a cocktail tomato off a very low branch.

 And all they ask of us is protection–protection of their habitat, protection from autos, protection from getting trapped in crab pots and more.  That’s not much to ask for being such good neighbors that offer only nice surprises when you see them.

Brent James also took this photo of sliders he came across sunning at a neighborhood. LRNow has trap pot turtle excluders available for free at the office.   You might enjoy “A Guide to the Turtles of Virginia” for sale at First Landing  Trail Center or a visit to the Herpetological Society website: https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com