Friday started out cloudy and cool but cleared up nicely. After dinner I took my massive basket of Sugar 'n' Cream out on the deck to start my dishcloth and bib knitting.
Bear was there to keep me company. As I knitted and enjoyed the peaceful beauty, I heard an occasional splash near the shore of the lake, just out of sight under the bank. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I tried to see what it was.
What is that... thing in the center of the ripples? Was it Lucy, who had streaked away while I was maneuvering myself and the laundry basket through the door? Nah, she isn't much of a water dog.
Maybe a beaver or an otter? although I haven't seen either of those in recent years. More likely a muskrat, I thought.
I moved closer.
I walked quietly down onto the dock.
Hmmm. Those two rocks don't belong there; the lake level is down a bit this year, but the water is still about six feet deep at that distance from shore.
Oooooh, we have splashing!
Let's see that close up...
What in the world?
Apparently, it is...
...mating season for snapping turtles.
It may be hard for you to get a sense of scale from these shots. As a point of reference, the larger turtle's foot/flipper was the size of the back of my hand, about 3" across. (And then there are the claws. Yikes.) These turtles were the size of small- to medium-sized dogs, 16" - 18" long.
Yes, we swim in this lake and shall continue to do so. No, we have never been bitten by a snapper, although some years the tiny sunfish seem to consider themselves Pirahnas of the North.
I think the larger one (in the foreground in the next two pictures) was the female because the other one seemed to be making all the advances. Can you see the "skirt" of algae growing around the rim of her shell? Apparently that part seldom rises above the surface of the water.
Ahhhhhhh...
For all you other nature nuts out there, here is a link to some real turtle porn. It's big file, 7+ meg, and takes 3-4 minutes to download on my DSL. But it's totally worth it, imho. Turn up the sound, too; that occasional gasp or Darth Vaderesque sound you hear is the turtles.
