Baby turtles!
What are you looking at?
On our way out to breakfast yesterday we met some unexpected neighbors. Baby turtles. Sixteen of them. In our driveway.
We saw an adult snapping turtle in the middle of our street a few months back -- it was just sitting there like it was waiting to direct traffic. It appears that it -- or maybe some other turtle -- made a stop to lay eggs in our landscaping mulch. (According to the Wikipedia entry on snapping turtles, the eggs take 9-18 weeks to hatch.)
A handful of pictures are after the jump.
They were probably no more than 2 or 3 inches long
They were trying to get into the garage...
Not interested in keeping them until adolescence so we could train them as ninjas, we scooped them up in an old cooler so we could release them near Buckingham Pond.
Earlier on AOA:
+ Playing possum on State Street
+ Foxes and fishers and bears, oh my!
+ Your new neighbors, the fishers
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Comments
Cool! I'll look forward to spotting them on my morning walks around Buckingham. Although ninjas would have been awesome.
... said K. A. Laity on Sep 14, 2009 at 2:00 PM | link
Aw, that's awesome. :)
... said Summer on Sep 14, 2009 at 2:27 PM | link
After being bombarded day in and day out by stories and articles about all that is bad, contentious, and plainly stupid in the world, it's nice to come across a little story such as this to remind there are simple joys to be found in the everyday world.
Thank you - now back into my shell.
... said terence coughlin on Sep 14, 2009 at 2:51 PM | link
They are almost cute, considering they are prehistoric critters that will happily remove your finger given a chance. Hmmm... I wonder if 16 (if they all survive) new snappers introduced to the pond was a good idea... they are extremely aggressive towards other life, including ducks, fish and other turtles.
Oh well, I guess its too late.
... said EP on Sep 14, 2009 at 8:32 PM | link
oh my god toooo cute!
... said Kim D. on Sep 14, 2009 at 9:37 PM | link
Soooo adorable, although that first turtle looks like he has a cigarette in his mouth!
... said Kristi on Sep 15, 2009 at 9:39 AM | link
So cute. Reminds me of when my younger sister used to rehabilitate turtles. She used to have this snapper that she had raised from when it was a hatchling. It was quite the escape artist.
... said D. J. Carmen on Sep 15, 2009 at 9:43 AM | link
@Kristi: turtles are notoriously hooked on tobacco.
... said -S on Sep 15, 2009 at 11:13 AM | link
Great blog post. I do think bringing them over to 5 Rivers would have been a better idea, not only to get DEC wildlife folks involved, but also to release them in ponds which can support baby snappers.
... said KB on Sep 15, 2009 at 11:29 AM | link
Oh oh! SO CUTE!!!
... said Meagan on Sep 15, 2009 at 1:19 PM | link
Cute story! Power to the snappers.
... said Linda on Sep 25, 2009 at 12:22 PM | link
Personally I would rather you trained them to be Crime Fighting Ninja Snapper Turtles... Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael were Painter Turtles which is explains why they were always getting beat up...
... said Ryan Hanley on Oct 1, 2009 at 3:37 PM | link