Turtles Do It Under Water

The water fauna in our park has been rather boring lately, ever since the masses of crayfish disappeared (or, more likely, burrowed into the muck). We had not seen our turtles in quite some time until I spotted one of the smaller snappers last week in a pond where I had never seen one before--and where Homer likes to cool off during our walks. Jfer saw a baby turtle on Saturday, but doesn't think it was a snapper.

It hasn't been all bad, though. There are still plenty of squirrels for Homer to chase. We also occasionally see a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron canvassing through the shallows. And recently we noticed a sizable orange carp that had somehow found its way into one of the ponds. It's too big for the birds or turtles to get it, so I'm curious how long it'll last and how big it will get.

This morning during our walk I glance into the water by the "Turtle" bridge (we decided to name the park bridges just this weekend) and to my surprise I see the big daddy snapper in the water. At first I thought there was a plastic bag or something caught on his fin (the water was a bit murky), but after he moved a little I noticed that it was another big ol' turtle under him! That's right, folks--I caught big daddy turtle making sweet slow turtle love to his snapper girlfriend. They seemed a little embarrassed about being caught going at it and disappeared in the sewer pipe--or big daddy's "pad" as I like to think of it--when they noticed me peeping.

So unless this was just one big turtle giving another big turtle a piggy back ride, there may be some baby snappers hatching in the park three or four months from now.