We never know what will fly or cruise through our yard next. While we have had turtles wander through after periods of heavy rain, I have never seen as small a one as I saw today while mowing the grass. Luckily it was in a sparsely vegetated area and as I was approaching on my riding mower, I remember thinking that it looked like someone had dumped a pet store turtle in my backyard. The area it was in was sparsely vegetated due to the heavy rains we have had pretty much since September of last year. In fact it was a good thing I had to stop to check out the turtle because otherwise I might have gone too far into a soggy area of the yard and gotten stuck.
The little turtle did not duck and cover as quickly as the big turtles I have come across previously. The leaf in the picture of the turtle walking is a burr oak leaf for size comparison. I decided to put the turtle in my pond to avoid running it over. I placed it on the dry portion of a rock that was partially submerged. It sat there for just a bit, then dove into the water and disappeared. Another reason for releasing it into my pond, is that while I love my water lilies, they need thinning regularly and I know that turtles will munch on them. Perhaps this young'un will help keep them in check.
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