The super rare turtle quest has turned out well this season. Most of my super rare turtle finds have been made under great duress. It's been at the end of the day when I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, feeling depressed/cursed, etc. A recent time I was out with two of my bosses and they were finding turtles left and right. They had a bunch of hatchlings and I was coming up empty-handed. Cue the internal cursing and damning! One boss found a turtle within a minute of coming into a site I had only ever found one turtle. It was my nemesis site. Then we hit one last site at the end of the day. I was running on fumesand ready to quit all super rare turtle searching for good. I think we've all been in that place before. Let's just say I was going to call this post "Frustration!" Then within 10 minutes at this final site I spotted a super rare turtle underwater. Jackpot! I searched another 30 minutes. Nothing. It was getting so warm I could tell my face was totally flushed. My water was dwindling and very warm. Yum! I'm turning back to head towards the car and I spot a super rare turtle partially hidden under the tussock curtain, as I call it. He appears to be standing motionless and all appendages are out. I grab him and realize that another turtle was below him. I think we all know what was going on here. I grab her and she's mad as hell. All appendages are flailing and he's completely pulled in and motionless. He could have been asleep for all I know. The happy or unhappy couple is pictured here. I think you can figure out who's the girl. That's my second two for the price of one this season. I seen to have the rated r turtle luck.
So in all, I believe that most things in life require 50 percent skill/knowledge and the other 50 percent is luck/karma/x factor. When I'm searching for turtles, it's that x factor of finding them. I always feel like I'm zigging when I should be zagging when I can't find them. What if I went to the left when I should have gone to the right! But that luck eventually has to change.
6 comments:
For me, things happen in the woods when they do. You can't push things. You have to take your skills into the field and sometimes exciting things happen. I spent last year mostly just sitting in the same place every day, letting the nature come to me instead of chasing around for it. I was surprised to find that I had many "good" days. I even saw a turtle!
I am wondering if you could tell us just what kinds of turtles are rare turtles?
You are definitely making lemonade. What a beautiful photograph of you. And I enjoyed your writing very much.
Have a happy memorial weekend.
P.S. Humidity in NJ is worse than Florida - no magic hair serum found as of yet, I will tell you as soon as I find one that actually works well.
:)
It depends on your state and country to define what's a rare turtle. A turtle that may be endangered in New Jersey may be thriving in the next state over and vice versa.
So what's a rare turtle in NJ? Are there turtles that are endangered?
In New Jersey, there are endangered and threatened (less rare, but still rare enough to warrant protection) turtles. As for the land turtles, you have the federally-threatened and state-endangered bog turtle and the state-threatened wood turtle. There's also a bunch of state and federally listed sea turtles, but I don't look for them.
In New Brunswick, Canada, where I live both Blanding's Turtle and the wood turtle are endangered. I found a very nice wood turtle last year, about fifteen years old. I haven't found any yet this year ...
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