Beware - The Turtle

"For, lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land".~ Old Testament, The Song of Solomon ii. 11, 12.

I had the distinct pleasure recently of observing snapping turtles within their natural habitat on 2 separate occasions. Good stuff!

I’m in my kayak, of course, in one of the coves that I like to go to which is tucked in just around the first island. (When we were kids we used to refer to this island as Crocker Island – so, from here on in it is so called!) You can go around the island clockwise then into the cove or you can go between the island and the main land (where Crocker’s house was, I guess) and you come out right into the cove. The water is still and as smooth as glass, like a mirror. There is no breeze, so no rippling of the water at all. Little things really stand out when it is this calm. I can see a leaf floating on the water from 50 feet away, as “something.” You can’t really tell what it is until you are closer and then you realize – oh, it’s just a leaf!

So, as established, I’m in the cove just sort of chillaxin and dangling my fingers in the warm water. I spot something sticking out of the water ahead. (It’s definitely not a leaf.) It’s not sticking out all that much. I am moving (coasting) ever so slowly – I’m practically still. Approaching the thing sticking out, just 5 feet off to the side and in front of me, I see now that it is a turtle. It is rather small, probably 4” in diameter. (I’m reminded of the turtle that lived under my parents dock and when my boys were small they would seek out this turtle, whom they named Tom.) Just as I saw it --- it saw me and dove down quickly. I could see it go – it’s little turtle feet and hands paddling through the water propelling it downward until I lost sight of it, after a couple feet and within seconds of spotting it, due to the murkiness of the water there. Pretty cool.

Well, a couple of weeks later, which was just a couple of weeks ago, I’m in my cove again on my way back from meandering along the rocks near shore. Some of the rocks stick out like icebergs – just the tips. There is much more to them under the water. I guess these rocks are more like boulders and I really like to weave in and around them here, looking down to the smaller rocks a foot - more or less - under the water, getting stuck here and there and grabbing onto the “icebergs” to move myself about. The water is probably at its warmest this time of year, in late August, and I like to “coast” with my hands in the water. Just up ahead I see what I think is just another large rock sticking out of the water. It’s probably 8 – 10 feet ahead but I can see it extending below the water. I realized within a second of seeing it what it was. It is the biggest mother of a snapping turtle that I have ever seen. I pull my hands out of the water. (Are there more just below me waiting for a snack?) This turtle was way bigger than a dinner plate – probably as big as the seat of a chair - the bigger chairs like you’d see in a waiting room. It was gone as quickly as it appeared. I wondered how old it was. How old do turtles get to be? I think they live a very long time. I must have heard this on the Discovery channel (I love that channel). And now I’ll have to do my turtle research to learn all about it. What I did learn though, without doing any research at all, was never to dangle my fingers in the water while in that cove again! Lesson learned! ------- Good turtle, go home! Dive deep!

It was very exciting though. Another great start to the day. There is so much wildlife right here (yes, in my own backyard) I never cease to be amazed and in awe of it. I feel so lucky and blessed to bear witness to it – some of it so fleeting. It is all such a gift (as my neighbor Terry so perfectly put it one morning). After counting my blessings – (and counting my fingers - 10!) – I headed back to the dock.

1 kayak: $349.00
1 paddle: $70.00
1 life jacket: $50.00.
1 hour in the early morning on my lake: priceless.