Shell Game

Yep, you can tell it's really fall when the turtles begin to crawl south for the winter. Like on our Monarch search on Saturday, 09/18, when we found a (5" wide) painted turtle crawling along the Service Road towards Wood Duck Marsh. And again on Friday, 09/24, when a large snapping turtle was found in our new "stump garden" behind the Comfort Station.

Turtles often do a "ditch switch" to search out new wetlands, and prior to this week's rain (09/27-09/30), Fox Marsh had been drying up almost completely.  Tadpoles and fry had been conveniently corraled in a few small puddle pockets, much to the delight of raccoons, sandpipers and herons. Maybe these two turtles were summering in Fox Marsh, got to feeling vulnerable in "dry-dock" and went looking for a nice new squishy pond bottom to exploit!? Or maybe they were just out for a nice walk on a beautiful September day!?