Tanner told me it was in the grass. I thought it was another rock, but I quickly discovered that we had a visitor - a lovely Painted Turtle! This is the first turtle I found on the farm in the five years I've lived here. It is the same type of turtle I found partially eaten on the road recently. When I was growing up in rural New Jersey - yes, 35 miles west of Manhattan was considered rural - we had turtles wandering through all the time. Now they are rare indeed. Agricultural chemicals plus loss of habitat diminish their numbers. I carried this little turtle up the hill, farther away from the road, and placed it in the hawthorne grove where there are rocks and a spring nearby. We have no shortage of snapping turtles here in upstate New York and I saw a tape on TV of a turtle invasion on the JFK tarmac. Hundreds of sea turtles in search of a mate climbed out of Jamaica Bay and swarmed over the runway. What a thrill to see them and very comforting that the airport officials stopped air traffic for two hours to scoop them up and return them to the water.
Friday, July 01, 2011
A Welcome Visitor
Tanner told me it was in the grass. I thought it was another rock, but I quickly discovered that we had a visitor - a lovely Painted Turtle! This is the first turtle I found on the farm in the five years I've lived here. It is the same type of turtle I found partially eaten on the road recently. When I was growing up in rural New Jersey - yes, 35 miles west of Manhattan was considered rural - we had turtles wandering through all the time. Now they are rare indeed. Agricultural chemicals plus loss of habitat diminish their numbers. I carried this little turtle up the hill, farther away from the road, and placed it in the hawthorne grove where there are rocks and a spring nearby. We have no shortage of snapping turtles here in upstate New York and I saw a tape on TV of a turtle invasion on the JFK tarmac. Hundreds of sea turtles in search of a mate climbed out of Jamaica Bay and swarmed over the runway. What a thrill to see them and very comforting that the airport officials stopped air traffic for two hours to scoop them up and return them to the water.
What a pretty little guy!
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