Friday Follow Up re "turtles having your back..."

In a recent entry here on Blogger, I mentioned that "turtles as the saying goes, 'got each other's back..'" which may be true, but something else is also going on when you see turtles atop each others back.

Reunited with Turtles

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

TURTLES ARE THE INSPIRATION FOR ONE OF MY KALEIDOSCOPIC PRINTS

The turtles seen in the pictures atop this entry were seen by yours truly when I ventured out into nearby Central Park this past Sunday for the first time since March (at the initial time Governor Cuomo shut down New York and advocated for people to shelter in place).

I have been heeding the governor's plea for people to shelter in place in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) ever since the eve of March 21st and did not go out (with the exception of walking a few blocks to the postoffice, walking a few blocks to a bank and walking a few blocks to check the status of a local laundromat, which is two blocks away).

However, I had to go out on May 11, 2020, to my orthopedist as I was past my need to follow up on the injury I sustained to my Greater tuberosity this past January and two days later, I began physical therapy at a facility in my hood.

Other than the aforementioned occasions, I've not been outdoors except to water my rooftop garden and to stand in it when participating in nightly #ClapBecauseWeCare sessions (tributes that honor first responders, healthcare professionals and essential workers who keep people safe during the this COVID pandemic).

Under normal circumstances, I spend time in Central Park on countless occasions enjoying the array of flora growing there as well as seeing the many varieties of dogs, and observing wildlife, including numerous bird types, fish and turtles.

The ones included here were spending time in the lake as well as in Turtle Pond and seemingly not concerned about social distancing.

Hey! Hey! Hey! It's #WorldTurtleDay!

Today's post is dedicated to World Turtle Day, which is a holiday that has been celebrated on the twenty-third day of May since 2000. According to Wiki it is sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue and this event "is celebrated around the globe in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways, to research activities. Turtle Day lesson plans and craft projects encourage teaching about turtles in classrooms."

I've written about World Turtle Day in prior entries here on Blogger, including posts you may reference by clicking here. This year I am honoring the day with the photographs atop this entry featuring turtles who appears to be drumming their nails on a sidewalk in Central Park.

Their nails seemed unusually long to me, but I have learned that turtles (unlike humans) do not need to have regular man/pedis —  at least the ones in CP.

Pet turtles will require having their nails trimmed but in the wild, turtles and tortoises walk or exercise enough that their nails will naturally wear themselves down to a manageable length.

Seeing what looked like drumming, prompted me to research the activity of drumming one's nails and the web has a lot to say about this including a page called Changing Minds, where the following is proclaimed.

Monday's Musings: Making Room

The photo atop this entry is from a story that went viral after a young boy sprawled across a few subway seats, refusing to move so others could sit down, and one passenger retaliated by sitting on top of him. Comments from those siding with the passenger to those who took the judge-ye-lest-ye-be-not-judged approach with the little boy were all over the Internet.

I thought of this breaking news story when I came across a few turtles sitting on a log that was within the lake in Central Park as seen in the next photo.

As you can see three of them were resting upon the log, while another (far right) swam towards it.

Evidently he /she soon noticed the small space between the two turtles at the left...

... for he/she began swimming towards it in order to grab a seat on the log, much like public  transit passengers make their way to get an available seat.

Turtles Go Bananas for Bananas

Last In a recent posthere on Blogger, I discussed some reasons that turtles pile up on top of each other as I've seen them do when I am in Central Park. A few days after I published that entry, while taking a walk in by the park's lake, I saw these creatures partaking in another activity which I have witnessed them doing on a few occasions: they were eating bananas, which they throughly seemed to enjoy as evidenced by the pictures atop this entry.

#turtletuesday is trending on social media! (Tuesday's Truths WK 126)

Hello and welcome to the one hundred and twenty-sixth segment of my Tuesday's Truths series. I realize I am a bit late in my posting here on Blogger today, peeps. Let me confess that it's been one of those mornings (and into the late afternoon) which Jermey (the boy featured in the Zits comic strip atop this entry) can probably identify with.

The fact is I've been very overwhelmed with using social media re getting the word out about my additions to my You Tube Channel (which I hope you will check out) but I believe I will get into a rhythm with the new demands that are on me. I also need to learn a lesson from one of my favorite Central Park reptiles; turtles.

They move slowly but get it done. For as Henry David Thoreau supposedly once declared, "Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance."

And speaking of turtles, they are now trending on social media (both Instagram and Twitter) with the hashtag: #turtletuesday. Maybe it’s just me, but the turtle featured in the next image looks like he/she is about to do some pushups!

As I’ve mentioned before, the shells of turtles in Central Park are the inspiration for my kaleidoscopic photographic print titled Turtle Pond.

Saturday night's alright for posting?

Today I got delayed  due to preparing for upcoming meetings so this entry will be short. First let me say, I have been posting on this blog for nearly nine years and I've never published an entry on a Saturday night! Since that is what I'm doing now, I hope Saturday night's alright for posting which makes me think of Elton John's song, Saturday Night, and in honor of the fact, I've posted a You Tube Video featuring it atop this entry.

In any event, earlier today while in Central Park, I came upon numerous (probably hundreds) of turtles in Turtle Pond.

Turtle Pond Trivia & Sighting Turtle Trees

This past Saturday, I published a post re the numerous turtles I had encountered while at Turtle Pond (which is in Central Park) on that day. The aforementioned entry includes an array of photos of this creature basking in the sun on one of the "walls" surrounding this body of water.

Monday was unseasonably warm and when I returned to this place, a large array of this creature type was there and one of them allowed me to take pictures of the inside of his/her shell; as evidenced in the images atop this entry.

In Honor of World Turtle Day

I've just learned that today, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. According to Wiki, this holiday has been sponsored yearly since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue "to bring attention to, and increase knowedge of and respect for turtles and tortoises, and to encourage human action to help them survive and thrive."

The picture featured atop today's blog entry is of a turtle at a lake just north of Strawberry Fields in NYC's Central Park, and he/she seems to be a perfect spokes-turtle for the occasion, given his/her quizzical expression. Turtles are often found sunbathing in this lake as they do their people-watching. This one was not camera-shy, another quality making him/her a great candidate for a spokes-turle on World Turtle Day (or any occasion for that matter). Other turtles – as is the case with yours truly — do not enjoy having their picture taken.

Swimming with Turtles Instead of Dolphins (Tuesday's Truths WK 130)

This past Saturday when I was at Turtle Pond (in NYC's Central Park), I noticed a Mallard swimming with turtles as seen in the photo directly above as well as in the ones below.

My seeing this occurrence of a Mallard swimming with turtles prompted me to recall a human activity: swimming with dolphins and in doing some research, I was somewhat surprised to discover (which is my Tuesday's Truth for week 130), "the reality is that it can be a really intrusive and stressful experience for the whales or dolphins."

Life Tips From Turtles?

There has been a long heat wave this month in NYC; and I don't think it's over yet. The series of hot days with oppressive humidity are leaving me short tempered as many things seem to do. However, the weather conditions are not stopping the turtles in NYC's Central Park from enjoying life, as evidenced by this guy/gal soaking up the sun atop a rock near a lake located in close proximity to the park's west seventy-second entrance. I like how he/she works on his/her suntan by rotating sides of his/her body, seemingly unaffected by the heat wave. Perhaps I need a few life lessons from him/her. 

In any event, seeing turtles enjoying Central Park in the  summertime begs the question, what do turtles to survive the winter? I did some research and here's what I found:

#turtletuesday is STILL trending on social media! (Tuesday's Truths WK 127)

Last Tuesday, here on Blogger, I announced (in my Tuesday's Truths segment) that  #turtletuesday was trending on social media. Now, a week later, turtles are still the topic of many tweets and they are still the subject of many photos that have been posted on Instagram.

I can certainly see why these creatures continue to fascinate so many people. As I’ve mentioned before, the shells of turtles in Central Park have always intrigued me and I'm thankful that the one seen here (in the photos atop this entry) allowed me to take a picture of the inside of his/her shell.

Mixed Company and Other Central Park Stories (Throwback Thursday)

This past Tuesday I published an entry here on Blogger that featured a Mallard swimming with turtles in the area of Central Park known as Turtle Pond. I'd like to use this throwback Thursday to refer to that posting by adding this Mallard seemed to enjoy being in  mixed company of turtles and fish, as evidenced by the pictures atop this entry, which I took this past Saturday when I took a walk in the park.

Consider the turtles...

On September 20th 2017, when I took a  walk for pleasure in Central Park, (at someone's advice), I came across an array of animals including the turtles seen below.

Observing creatures puts me in a better frame of mind. However, Central Park was far from relaxing on that day. This is because there were a number of barricades and detours, due to an event that was set to occur in the coming days; however the turtles did not concern themselves with the chaos, their wisdom was not lost on me.

International Skeptics Day 2019 ETC

I am featuring this October 2018 image of a turtle in Central Park as it seems to me that the turtle featured in it (where he/she is lounging upon a rock alongside the lake in Central Park) may have been feeling a little skeptical, which would have been apropos for this day of January 13th, as this is one of two days that a holiday known as International Skeptics Day is celebrated. I guess there are so many creatures as well as humans are skeptical that it requires two separate holidays!

Saturday (Yesterday) In The Park

"Another day in the park... Everyday is the Fourth of July," are lyric lines from the song "Saturday in the Park," by the rock band, Chicago. I have quoted the song in prior posts here on Blogger when I've published an entry re my spending a Saturday in the Park, which is something I did yesterday.

I went to Central Park to see if turtles were coming out of hibernation on the third day after the official onset of spring in our hemisphere. There were only a couple of turtles swimming (such as the one seen in the image posted above) in Turtle Pond, which means many of them are still hibernating under the water; for usually that pond is oversubscribed with this type of creature.

It's Reptile Awareness Day! (Monday's Memo)

Every October 21 is National Reptile Awareness Day and this year I'm honoring the event by sharing a few facts that I recently learned about turtles regulating their body temperatures.

Monday's Musings (8/13/2018)

My sister snd her son (James Miranda) were in NYC for a few days last week and he wanted to see The Plaza Hotel, so at my suggestion, we walked through a portion of Central Park and headed towards the Gapstow Bridge to give him a scenic route of getting there.

An image of this famous bridge (which was taken from a web-page) can be seen atop this entry. The text accompanying states the following:

"Curving gracefully over the neck of the Pond at 59th Street, Gapstow is one of the iconic bridges of Central Park. It is the second bridge on the site. The first, a much more elaborate wood and iron bridge, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, deteriorated and was replaced in 1896. The bridge offers postcard views of the surrounding cityscape. Facing south, you can see the famed Plaza Hotel and distinctive New York skyscrapers rising from above the Park's trees. Look southward in the winter and you'll see Wollman Rink's twirling skaters; in the warmer months you'll see the colorful amusements of Victorian Gardens."

Wildlife and trees provide inspiration for my kaleidoscopic images. Tuesday's Truths WK 89

Welcome to the eighty-ninth segment of my Tuesday's Truths series where I will be reminding you how certain wildlife (such as the turtles featured in the mini video atop this entry and in the photos directly below),

provided the inspiration for my kaleidoscopic image, Turtle Pond.

Turtles in New York City's Central Park: SO HAPPY TOGETHER!

The turtles in NYC's Central Park:     
SO happy together.