Meet Billy

Turtle season is in full swing. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been too cooperative this past week. A lot of dreary cold drizzly type days. That was the case until Sunday afternoon. Once I woke up and speedily rushed through a couple errands and household chores, I zoomed up to rare turtle country. Of course I totally forgot my real camera, but remembered everything else. Stop one was unfruitful but I had called one of my bosses earlier in the day to find out if the weather was good. She said that if I found a turtle, she'd come by and take some pics. Stop two was a site I had never been too. It was big and dense. See the dead cattails in the background. But then plain as day was a rare turtle sitting on the ground. I still get in full panic OMG mode when I see this rare type of turtle. It's like the world turns the black and I just focus on grabbing it. He saw me but made no attempt to run or hide. By the time my boss arrived, Billy as I named him, was ready to flail about after hiding in his shell for a good 20 minutes. I name my rare turtle finds because trying to remember them by their markings is tough for me. So I have the names to help trigger the memory.

Big thanks to Lioux for fixing my top photo. I had autocorrected the pic and then immediately saved it. The pic had turned a purple tone that I couldn't undo with my low budget technology.
Then since I was muddy and up there, I made on last stop. No rare turtles were found, but I found some unhatched old eggs. Sad.

I encountered a dead snapping turtle. Sad again. But on the same plant that I had found old turtle eggs, I spotted this little one. It was a hatching snapping turtle. So cute and so small. Life continues.