lenrely

A lot of sliders become melanistic with age.

There may be members who can identify this. I know about a dozen in my area esp. asking how quickly it stains blue.

A lot of sliders are melanistic, which can make it hard to tell if it's a red-eared or yellow-bellied slider. There are also ordinary RES in the wild that have no red ear. I had a theory that there were once native sliders here that have been obscured by released pets, but they may be just an older population of released pets. There's also the question does the red stripe make it a "breed"?

It has 3 stripes like a garter snake.

Could be ringless honey mushroom, Desarmillaria. If so there's a buried root or stump under there. The plant is ground ivy.

I found just one sighting in Hawaii but I think this is right.

That is a huge crop! In places where they're becoming a problem some naturalists are searching upstream to find the source garden.

Thank you! I knew this site would be different, the quality of the photos seems high and there's an international feel with a lot of exotic species. You have some hard-to-get badges, I'm going to start identifying so I can earn them myself!

I found it in my hand. Just kidding, I found it in the conservation area where I work during the City Nature Challenge bioblitz.

TY sir! Most snake calls are to somebody's basement, not somebody's pond where the water snake is becoming a problem!