Please drive slowly and be on the lookout for turtles while driving down Valley Brook Avenue and into the DeKorte Park complex. Chris Takacs saw this Eastern box turtle just outside the gate to DeKorte early Sunday morning.

Eastern box turtles are identifiable by their tall, dome-like shell that varies in color from yellow to orange to olive on a black or brown background. Although essentially terrestrial, these turtles sometimes soak themselves in mud or water. During hot, dry weather they burrow beneath logs or rotting vegetation, but brief summer showers usually bring them out of hiding, often in numbers.