I posted on the Name That Animal Forum, too, hoping someone will id it for me. My guess is red eared slider but my sister has one and i don't think it has so much red on him. If that's what it is, is it likely to be someone's pet that got away years ago or was discarded? Do they come up from the lake to lay eggs in the ground like the Snapping Turtles do? We live close to a lake and I have seen many Snappers making that journey, but this is only the second time I've seen one like this in my yard. thanks for any information.

It looks to me like what we call a painted turtle. They lay eggs just like the snappers.

Here's one laying eggs.

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Very cool! Thank you so much for the reply. I wonder if I did the right thing putting her on the other side of my yard. She is quite far from the lake where I assume she must live. What would have been the correct thing to do? My dog had flipped the turtle on its back so I don't know which direction it was going.

I should have called it an eastern painted turtle but I think that is what it is. I have seen turtles hundreds of yards from their watery habitat. I really doubt that moving the turtle had any effect on it at all. It may have been looking for a place to dig a hole to lay eggs.

This is what my wife and I call "crazy turtle week" around here. Turtles like to lay their eggs in gravel. In the old days it was a shoreline or a streambed. These days its often your gravel driveway they want to dig up.

John

I concur on the "painted turtle". They have a nasty temper and a mean snap so be careful.

My sister has a red eared slider that is about a foot long and when he bites, it HURTS! As a youngster he was quite nice, but now that he is maturing he has bitten unexpectedly a couple of times. I steer clear of him!