A Day in the Life...Part 50

Well, as I stated in the last post lots of time spent pulling invasive euonymus, but also taking advantage of the good weather to do needed home repairs. Yesterday afternoon, while walking back from a euonymus pick Nora spotted something in the pond. But was it a turtle or just a log sticking out of the water? We were pretty sure it was a turtle, but wanted to confirm that. So I headed back to the nature center to grab my waders. ( I really wanted to go all Crocodile Hunter, but I had some good boots on!) Meanwhile, Nora waited with her trusty iphone to document the adventure.


I grab a hiking stick on extra support and stated out towards the object. As I got closer, I could see that it was indeed a large Snapping Turtle...but he had turned around and was now facing me! So I had to navigate my way around behind him, which is not that easy to do in a mucky pond bottom.


By the time I got to turtle he had submerged but was still visible just below the surface of the water. Next I reached down to find its tail and pulled the HUGH thing out.


As one might imagine, this did not make the ol' snappy very happy!!
This turtle was estimated at 18" across the top of the shell from front to back and felt like it must have weighted 35-40 pounds.


In the picture below, you can see the much smaller plastron (bottom shell) and the large tail, which makes a convenient handle!  


Having satisfied our curiosity, the turtle was safely returned to the pond where he disappeared out of sight.

This sighting illustrates just how mild the recent weather has been and this large cold blooded reptile was just taking advantage of the warm shallow waters.


Posted by TS