Wildlife Sightings

I spotted this turtle in the middle of a road yesterday and swerved to avoid hitting him. For some reason it was moving away from the local wetlands pond where turtles usually hang out. I decided to turn around and get him out of the road, which I did, snatching him up just as another car was heading right towards him.

We don't keep wildlife as pets, but we do sometimes invite them to stay overnight while we enjoy their company, and that's what happened with this turtle. He spent the night out on the porch in a terrarium and in the morning Paul took him along to the nature camp he attended this week. One of the counselors was seriously into turtles and told Paul this turtle was a mud turtle and confirmed that no, we shouldn't keep him, and yes, he should be released near the place he was found.

He was an active and entertaining turtle and both Paul and I were sorry to see him go. Paul had quite a fun time with him on the ride home from camp, but then it was time to say goodbye. As soon as Paul put the turtle down on the mud, whoosh, he was gone, diving into the water and leaving no trace.


As we started to walk away, however, we heard an odd chomping sound and spied two beavers, not five feet away, lazily munching the green shoots of tall pussy willows! We were close enough to see their paws clutching the shoots, their slicked-back hair, and their wide flat tails. It was pretty neat!