Almost like clockwork!

She’s baaaaack. Yup, the snapping turtle in the pond was up on shore and trying to lay her eggs again, just three days later than last year.

Here she is, perhaps thinking, “oh, it’s you again.”

Anyway, this year she had already marched past the bench when I found her, and she was trying to dig a hole through the turf right beside the road. That’s the concrete curb under her chin. She didn’t look like she was making much progress, but she wasn’t actually in the road, and it didn’t appear that she intended to cross it, so I left her alone and hiked around the pond to see who else might be there.

The mallard hen and her duckling and the wood duck hen with her four ducklings were all there, but I found this sight more interesting: a robin chick out of the nest perhaps a day or two before it was ready and looking fewer than thrilled with the development. The parents were nearby and expressing their agitation with me, so I grabbed a quick picture and kept moving.

When I got back to the turtle, she still hadn’t made any progress digging through the turf, so I borrowed a recycling bin from the beer garden, scooped her up, set her free on the east side of the pond where the sod is thinner, and wished her luck. There was no sign of her later on my second visit, so here’s hoping she found a better place than the dirt right in front of the park bench.

The next surprise of the morning was hearing this scarlet tanager and spotting it in a tree right at the crest of the bluff over the river. Dang, I wish I had my good lens back.

Finally, on my walk home, I found another subject that let me get nice and close, our first damselfly of the season, an American rubyspot.