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As the days finally begin to warm up, reptiles are beginning to make their appearance. Neither amphibians nor reptiles have internal mechanisms to keep themselves at the right body temperature to move about, as mammals do, and need to rely on external conditions instead.
Amphibians are the first to make their appearance in the spring because they have an edge on their reptilian cousins. They live in water, which maintains a more constant temperataut! than the air. Tb get their temps up in the spring, most reptiles have to find a warm terrestrial spot, preferably one that will stay warm long enough to get their metabolisms up to speed so they can feed and breed.
Late in April, as I was driving down the farm lane, I noticed what looked like some odd piece of machinery in one of the smaller ponds on the farm. On a closer look, I realized it was actually three mature Eastern Painted Turtles, all in a line, basking on a sunny rock. As I came and went down the lane during the day, the trio seemed not to have budged— like reptilian statuary.
Unfortunately, snakes seem particularly drawn to nice, warm pavement in the spring. My first snake sighting was on the same day I saw the turtles. Sadly, the pavement it was drawn to was Route 522, where he ended up as road kill.
Last year the Thornton River behind the old school
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