The Thirsty Turtle

Sunday was supposed to be my turtle free day. I was going to run an errand in the morning and then the afternoon was going to be devoted to a wine festival. I was driving past my local wetland and I see a turtle on the shoulder of the road. I slam on my brakes and quickly turn around. Sure enough it's another spotted turtle. It's a real old dude and almost all his spots have been worn away. I don't have any equipment nor a real camera so he rode shotgun back to my place. It's only like a couple minute drive. Music is pumping but he is brave enough to come out of his shell and start to walk around. I get him home and take notes, measurements, and pics. Poor chap has lost his front left claw and he has a growth on his tail. He didn't seem to have a real idea of where he wanted to go on the road when I saw him. He wasn't crossing the road but was sitting parallel on it. I was concerned about putting him back where I found him and there really weren't any real wetlands in that spot. So I put him in the same wetland I found the other spotted turtle.

The wine festival was great. It was held at a former estate which is now owned by the County. I've been lucky enough to be inside that old mansion on the hill. I didn't know there were going to be so many wineries but we lucked out and the first one we hit was great and cheap. We had to be smart about our selections since it would be impossible to do full tastings at like 20 wineries. It was a cloudless awesome afternoon and I bought 6 bottles of wine.
Monday was spent doing household chores and getting my car's oil changed by my dad and brother. I decided to bring Cashew along to crawl around in the grass for the first time. At first, she was brave and craning her neck in amazement. Then she got freaked out and hid in her shell for at least 20 minutes. I got tired of waiting for a good camera opportunity so I put her back in the tupperware. She came out of her shell again and I let my mom and brother watch her in the grass. She walked around a little bit more (each time my mom squealed which probably didn't help the cause) and had a staredown with an ant. Then it was back to her tank for now. I'm running out of food so this weekend will be her release date. The weather is finally being consistently nice and warm and I found a good spot for her to go. It's going to be bittersweet but it's for the best.

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.