Worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack

We've can only now go to turtle sites that may or may not have these rare turtles. I hit two of these sites Saturday morning with little luck. I did see a bunch of frogs and birds. Then I headed to my local wetland which may have this rare turtle as well. Of course, the area I am talking about is massive. I have yet to walk the entire area. When you look for these turtles, you are supposed to concentrate your efforts on the good habitat. It's tough to do when there is miles of area that has OK habitat. So it's like searching a hundred haystacks which may or may not contain one needle. It went from rare turtle search to find any turtle search. Then onto to walk in the woods. It didn't help that I received a call from a person I hadn't spoken to in awhile so we had catching up to do. I didn't want to trek through tough mucky and watery terrain while on the cell phone. I've seen too many cell phones get dropped into the muck. While on my woods hike, I stumbled upon my second fawn of the season.
I ran into two garter snakes as well. Then off to the other side of the road which also has potential rare turtle habitat. It quickly went from find any turtle search to find some irises to clip, bring home and put in a vase. Then I headed to woodchip trail in the woods to make it back to my car. Literally 20 feet from car, I saw a spotted turtle on the trail. Spotted turtles are one of my favorite kinds. Since I had all my equipment to measure and weigh the rare turtles, I worked this little chap up. Upon his release, he tried to dig himself into some wet leaves in the adjacent wetland. I had found a spotted turtle crossing this road years ago. I had helped it across the road. I was delighted to find one again and it's my first this season. I am pretty sure it's not the same one since the first one wasn't so smooth.