June 3, 2008
-
Rainy Day Snapper
It was pouring rain around 2PM today and I had walked up front to take a break. Heard a very loud clap of thunder so I looked out to wait for the lightning strike and saw a large snapping turtle sauntering right down the center of the busy access road into our complex.
Yelled out to Wolfie to come take a look, and he grabbed a pair of gloves and ran out in the rain to pick it up, but every time he grabbed it, the turtle stretched out it's neck and tried to bite him! Must have picked it up and dropped it 12 or 14 times before he ran back in and grabbed an old plastic snow shovel to scoop it up with. In a downpour with heavy lightning all around, mind you!!
Pretty good size turtle,too. Shell is about 14" long and 8 1/2 to 9" wide, weighs 5 1/2 to 6 lbs. Could easily be 25 to 30 years old.
Aggresive little SOB
And very,very quick to strike!!
If you're one of those folks that think all turtles are slow, stay away from these guys!! Their necks can easily extend 2/3rds of their shell length in a millisecond and those powerful jaws can instantly remove thumbs and/or fingers!!
Got him back up on the shovel, thought I'd take one more shot, and he came right at me!! Guess he'd had enuff of us and wanted to be on his way!!
Wolfie carried him(on the shovel,of course)back across the road and sat him down in the tall weeds by the creekbank. We had had enuff of him,too!!!lol
Never a dull moment!!
Comments (16)
That is one ugly turtle.
Do you always carry your camera with you?
Way cool turtle, nic pix.
Thanks for sharing the photos of your adventure with the Snapper. Great fun!
vivid pics.
never knew that turtles could be so mean.
clever listening to "The Turtles" when posting this entry, heh-heh!!!
@buddly47 - Maybe so. HAHAHAHAHA I haven't had turtle soup before, at least not to my memory. I might like it.
@curlytopchick1973 - Maybe?? He might have crawled into the creek and drowned himself after we let him go!! Flatpick might have had the right idea after all!! lol
Maybe he WANTED to get hit by a car, and you all pissed him off by moving him? Poor little snapper had a death plan, and you all got in the way. Geeeesh. lol lol Those are some great shots though! You and your camera. Never a dull moment!
What? No turtle soup? Catch and release? WTF.....? LOL!!!!!
I love the pics. I say you are lucky to still have limbs. Snappers snap!
I'm sure he has had better days, but still a bit of appreciation would have been nice. = ) Good work and thanks for sharing your pictures.
Gee, is that handle still usable? I can see sparks fly!
Love your photos.
...GREAT phtographs AND you're listening to the Turtles? Entirely too amusing . . . Thanks, I needed that.
Sandra
@SaadiaOnline - All boys want a "snapper" of their own,it's only natural!!hehe.
I'm happy I have all of 'em,too..He got pretty close a couple of times!!
@Still_groovy - In his defense,he probably wasn't having a really good day.After all,he was in the middle of a busy street(not a good place for a turtle to be)before he ran into us!!lol.
That's cool. I showed the pictures to my boys and they immediately wanted to know if we could get a "snapper" of our own. Noah also wanted to know what "aggressive SOB" meant. hahahahahaha...I told him I didn't know!
I'm happy you still have all your fingers, Bud!!!
We've had a lot of rain and thunder tonight, too, but no excitement in the form of a snapping turtle! Cute little bugger! Too bad he doesn't have a nicer disposition!
Kathi
Comments are closed.