At least once a year, especially after a rain (and last night we got 4 inches!), we walk outside and find unwelcome visitors in the yard: snapping turtles.They're unwelcome because when they end up in our pond, they eat our fish and frogs, and they pose a danger to Buster!
If you've never met a "snapper" in person, they're rather nasty -- interesting, but nasty -- creatures. Their legs don't move especially quickly on land, but their jaws are another story, hence the name. Their necks are long, snakelike and help them strike extremely quickly, and if they get ahold of you, or preferably the stick you're using instead of your hand, they will latch on and refuse to let go. The only way to safely move one and retain your fingers is by scooping it into a deep bucket.
Mom and I drove around the neighborhood this morning to survey the damage from last night's storms (nothing too major -- a few limbs down, but the main problem was flash flooding), and when we pulled back into the driveway, this snapper was in the yard.
So we went to get Dad (the almighty brave snapper relocation expert). He emptied one of our recycle tubs and grabbed a baseball bat, and he and I headed back to get the sucker. We scooped him into the tub, with all fingers and toes intact, and drove him a quarter of a mile down the road to a creek -- far enough for him to forget about trying to come back to disturb the serenity of our pond.
And there, he happily made his way off into the woods.
Camera: Canon Rebel DSLR 1/400s, f/8 at ISO 100 in sunlight at about 10:30 a.m.
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