Caution: Turtle crossing

It's time for an update, and this time I'm going to talk about critters. I like critters. You figured that out already, right?

A year and 10 days ago, I wrote an entry about how I appointed myself crossing guard for turtles trying to get from one side of rural roads to the other.

It's something I do as a public service to Mother Nature in honor of one of her most interesting creatures.

Today, my wife and I were at my mom's place to go through her stuff. We spent most of the day there and were driving back home at about 8 p.m. when, on the road ahead of us, on the other side of the road, I saw him. (Or her. With turtles, it's hard to tell.)

Alas, on this day, I decided to leave the camera home, so there is no visual evidence. But he/she looked a lot like this ...


I passed him up, but since there was hardly any traffic, I backed up a hundred yards or so until I pulled right alongside him. Got out of the car, walked to the turtle, picked him up, carried him across the road (in the direction he seemed to be heading), let my wife get a close look at him (by then he had pulled his head way inside his shell) and then put him down at the edge of the weeds. Presumably he had an easy stroll from there.

Last year's post talked about the time I stopped to help a turtle but got there a few seconds too late. I certainly didn't want that to happen to him--since he was right in the middle of the eastbound lane.

In fact, the turtle was crossing the road at almost the exact place where I saw another turtle about a week earlier. This time it was at the edge of the shoulder--but poking out far enough to catch my eye ...


But upon closer inspection, this one turned out to be a snapping turtle. Not the kind to play around with. Not that I would have ... it was far enough off the pavement and didn't need human help ...


Then I noticed the dirt and mud dug up behind it. What was the turtle doing? I stepped behind it for a closer look ...


It was clearly digging into the dirt with its hind legs--it stopped when I got near but you can see one of the hind legs ...

That's the kind of behavior you see in nature films when turtles are laying eggs. Nothing was visible, but maybe there was something just below the loose, wet dirt.

I certainly wasn't going to snoop around, and the turtle seemed uneasy with me so close, camera in hand. Not ready to deal with paparazzi. I took one more photo ...

... and left, letting nature take its course.

So maybe this is one of Mother Nature's daughters at work. Another has taken up residence on my front porch. It's the robin, of course. Mother robin has been on her nest for the last week, and when she flew off briefly, I got the chair and mirror and saw what I expected to see ...


The last time I looked (Sunday), the eggs were still there. But I will keep an eye on the nest, and if I see it unattended again, I'll hurry for a new look.

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Nothing new on my father-in-law. The last we heard was last Thursday, when my wife talked to him on the phone. He is supposed to go in for a checkup this Thursday.

We spent today (Tuesday) working on my mom's house. I was disappointed last week that we didn't seem to get that much done--got distracted with this and that. That didn't happen today, and I think we got a lot done. We will be going back on Wednesday for another day of work, and we may spend one of the weekend days there.

We are discovering all kinds of interesting stuff. One of these days, the camera is making the trip, and I'll show you some of my finds.

One thing is becoming abundantly clear: I come by my "packrat" tendencies honestly.

But like I said, it was a long day, and I'm getting tired. Time for a shower and then sleep. Another busy day is ahead of us.