A Great Personality

The weather hasn't been too cooperative for successful turtling. I did get out today for a few hours and thankfully the weather held. This site is huge and in south jersey. I'm used to north jersey sites and this site has very deep water and muck. Plus there's the floating effect of walking on a mat of vegetation that doesn't quite hit solid ground. Every step that's taken is met with thousands of bubbles and ripples of vegetation and water going out in every direction. Did I mention the random bottomless pits? So every step is calculated and tested before full commitment. It's so deep that I bought hip waders. I sort of feel like a pirate.

The super rare turtles at this site are the most unattractive. Their shells have been deformed or eaten away presumably by the acid in the soils. We are not sure what is going on here. When I spotted this lady, at first I thought she was dead from her appearance. Second, I wasn't sure exactly what species she was. But all worked out and she put up a good fight while I measured her and took notes.

This weekend I noticed a large dead snapping turtle along the road in my local wetlands. It didn't look run over but each time I went by it was in a slightly different spot. Today it was fully on the road and pretty beat up. I guess some scavengers have been moving it...either that or kids have nothing better to do. Monday after work I drove by and spotted two small turtles on the road. At first I was excited, but that quickly turned south when I realized they had both been run over. In years past, I've helped a bunch of turtles cross the road in the area. It just might be time for some turtle xing signs to go up.