A Turtle-y Good Year

I don't know if any cultures ascribe good fortune to seeing a turtle, but it seems like our day is always a bit brighter when we encounter one. Even though this year has been pretty rough, we did manage to see more turtles than usual. We chalk it up to our COVID-19 walk routine. Just about every day since the middle of March, we walked in a nearby park in which a closed-down road passes by a creek. Walk through the right habitat often enough, and you're bound to see a lot of its denizens. And these shelly neighbors of ours brought some much-needed good fortune to us this year.

This little baby snapping turtle was probably our favorite encounter of the year. While the lack of cars meant its crossing was relatively safe, we guarded it just in case a cyclist came zipping through.

Box turtles are our most frequently encountered turtles, and we saw this one in the usual setting, one of our many local woodlands. This was at a Sycamore Land Trust preserve called Trevlac Bluffs.

Later in the summer, we saw an adult snapping turtle who had parked itself in the creek, possibly waiting for fish to swim by. We'll occasionally see snappers in a small reservoir near our house, but it's rare that we get such a good look at one.

After a nice June rain, we came across this fine box turtle on our daily walk. Just like with our little snapper, we made sure it made it safely off the pavement before moving on. What can I say, we designed our "turtle crossing guard" stickers for ourselves as much as for others!