Walking around the yard. It's getting warmer!

Mort continues to enjoy walking around outside. There's a fence and gate at the top of this photo. Mort likes to go under it on his walks, but he doesn't fit, so I open it to let him through.

He goes out when it's warm enough, but not TOO warm. So, at least 70 degrees, but not above 90 degrees. The three videos below are Mort walking all the way around the old willow tree.

He seems to like going off into a protected spot sometimes, such as behind some plants. Once, he started to go behind a stone slab and had to be retrieved. I can't let him go places I can't get him back out of.

Here's Mort heading into some plants. Is he just walking? Or trying to get out of the sun?

Mort walked past Bloodroot, not yet blossoming.

Then past the Mayapple, now with leaves opened up.

And past the Trillium, white flowers open in the middle of the three leaves.

And past the False Solomon's Seal, which must look like trees from Mort's point of view.

Notice that Mort puts his head up in the air to look and listen. It must be so different from being in his tank with water.

Hiding again!

Now that it's warm, the heater won't be needed to keep the water warmer in Mort's tank than the house temperature. However, it's important to make sure it doesn't get TOO warm anywhere in the tank. I use this great heat sensor which tells the temperature.

 Checking the temperature of the water in the tank.

With it warmer now, the heat lamp can make the basking area TOO HOT, so I keep checking it and turn it off when necessary.

I use the sensor to check the water in the feeding tank, too, so Mort doesn't get shocked by a big temperature change.

Just for fun, here's a photo of turtles native to this area. My husband took it when he was out fishing. The group of turtles are basking right next to each other near the center of the photo.