turtles emerging..wow

too close to home to be online

ahhh biggs
i hope this cheered you up a bit....

hugs

Sky you are surrounded by every possible gift of nature.

Love the photo's! Thanks for posting.

a-MAZ-ing....
and i love the image of your hubby's big ole hands helpin dem little turtle people

R
we are all surrounded by great stuff..you just have to look around you to see them..and also carry that little camera at all times..

Hippie
i'm still smiling and heading down to just look i also found some kind of different berry bush that nothing is eating..so my search is to ID that today..life is a big adventure....and i have been smilin so much about those baby turtles that my teeth hurt..

i think i need to get a video camera so off in investigate the best deal for the least amount of cash...

Way cool pics of the turts Sky

I love how you posted a turtle thread not so long ago, which took us to look at your great work now! (in that realm, I'm going to work tomorrow to clean out all the shit I've been hoarding in lockers and shelves... insert twilight zone music...maybe it means something lol)

I've never seen tails like that on turtles, such cute little critters

hi Soma
sorry, i don't remember posting anything about turtles before
oh boy..i feel dumb..how could i have forgotten that other turtle thing..

i knew we had snapping turtles here but have only ever seen one adult and no way would i mess with them but dang
those babies were a treat
here's some stuff i found on them..not so cute when they grow up..




Family: Chelydridae, Snapping Turtles view all from this family

Description 8-18 1/2" (20-47 cm). The familiar "snapper," with massive head and powerful jaws. Carapace tan to dark brown, often masked with algae or mud, bearing 3 rows of weak to prominent keels, and serrated toward the back. Plastron yellow to tan, unpatterned, relatively small, and cross-shaped in outline. Tail as long as carapace; with saw-toothed keels. Tubercles on neck. Wild specimens range to 45 lbs. (20.5 kg). Some fattened captives exceed 75 lbs. (34 kg).

Warning Snappers have massive heads with powerful, hooked jaws. They strike viciously when lifted from water or teased and can inflict a serious bite.

Subspecies Four; 2 in our range:
Eastern Snapping Turtle (C. s. serpentina), blunt tubercles on neck; throughout our range, except Florida.
Florida Snapping Turtle (C. s. osceola), pointed tubercles on neck; throughout the Florida peninsula.

Breeding Mates April to November; peak laying season is June. Lays as many as 83 (typically 25-50) spherical, 1 1/8" (29 mm) eggs in 4'7: (10-18 cm) deep, flask-shaped cavity. Each egg is directed into place by alternating movements of hind feet. Incubation, depending on weather, takes 9-18 weeks. In temperate localities, hatchlings overwinter in nest. Females may retain sperm for several years. Females often travel to a nesting site some distance from water.

Habitat Freshwater. Likes soft mud bottoms and abundant vegetation. Also enters brackish waters.

Range S. Alberta to Nova Scotia, south to the Gulf.

Discussion Highly aquatic, it likes to rest in warm shallows, often buried in mud, with only its eyes and nostrils exposed. It emerges in April from a winter retreat beneath an overhanging mudbank, under vegetative debris, or inside a muskrat lodge. The snapper eats invertebrates, carrion, aquatic plants, fish, birds, and small mammals. It is an excellent swimmer: Individuals displaced 2 miles have returned to their capture sites within several hours. Some consider snapper meat a delicacy, and excellent soups are prepared from it

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recNum=AR0149