Traffic Jam

Volunteers at the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary have tethered floating logs here and there all around the edges of the lake as basking spots for the Western Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii). But when I was out there last week all the logs were vacant except for this one. Why they all decided to pile up on this one log is a mystery to me. However, these animals have been around for about 15 million years so I guess they know what they're doing.

Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta)

Here's another Victoria resident that many of us have never seen, the Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta). This one lives at the Swan Lake nature Sanctuary and was basking in some spring sunshine on the edge of the lake when I took this photo. There are only about a dozen species of reptiles in British Columbia so I felt a little privileged to see this turtle. It was quite large, about the size of a small dinner platter.