Turtles

We have had a very wet spring.  At one point we had 14 inches of rain in a 10 day period.  The flooding that is occurring on the Mississippi started with the tons of water that fell on us and had to go somewhere!  Let me tell you that you know the rain is bad when you get an inch of rain and it's not even a topic for conversation at the coffee break group at Hardy's.

I realized that it was unusually wet when I started out the door one morning to be met by a turtle.  This wasn't the friendly box turtles or terrapins that we find in the fields and gardens, but a pond turtle.  I guess he had decided it was wet enough to come visiting.  My grandson showed up and identified it as a slider (whatever that is).  It was small, about 5 inches across the shell.  We decided to keep him around a while for the little ones to see, so we put it in an old dog cage for a little "show and tell."  After everyone had said "hi" we turned him loose and he disappeared. 

We often collect up terrapins or box turtles and bring them home for the little ones to see.  These are friendly creatures who soon become accustomed to little faces and hands petting them.  After a short while they will be ambling around the porch without pulling their heads and feet in when touched or picked up.  We usually keep them for a few days in the old dog cage with water and vegetables.  They mostly eat produce (which is why they are not welcome in the garden) and small insects.  We once dropped one in the window well of the basement and forgot him.  He hibernated all winter in the well and was fine and dandy come spring.

An interesting note on turtles is that they don't have box turtles in Iowa.  My daughter took her girls to the zoo to discover they were considered a rare, oddity in Iowa.  She laughed and said she had played with them growing up in Kentucky.  I guess it has been plowed so much that they don't have a habitat.  It could be they prefer the wooded, rolling hills of Kentucky.  I suspect the zoo personnel thought she was a little odd to be playing with turtles but when you grow up on a farm you have strange pets.

The pond turtle visiting remained just a strange event until I went out to the garage a couple of days ago and his big brother was sitting in the driveway.  While he wasn't the biggest I've seen, he was big enough.  Probably 12-14 inches across.  Now we have a problem.  Pond turtles are NOT friendly little creatures.  To begin with, they are meat eaters, which means they have razor sharp mouths (or beaks).  Also, they move incredibly fast.  Forget the stories of the tortoise and the hare, these babies can turn on a dime and fling their heads out half their body length or more, snapping viciously with their jaws they whole time.  Which is why we call them "snapping turtles".  They also get to be huge.  I'm talking two feet or more across the back.  Now, mix all this up with a really aggressive, mean disposition and you have a dangerous reptile. I used to raise ducks before the turtles moved in.  Turtles consider baby ducks to be a delicious snack.  Which is fair, I guess, since lots of people consider turtles to be great eating, too.

Another interesting fact is that they travel.  When a pond gets too crowded or there are too many young male turtles or the food gets low,  they just wander off in search of a better pond and adventure.  We have seen these big guys moving along the road, strolling through the pastures or wandering up the creeks.  However, I have never seen them come to the house before!  I don't know if it is the amount of rain that has flooded the ponds and creeks, or if they have just had a great breeding year but these things are on the move.  Believe me, two is too many.  I'm declaring war!

Turtle soup anyone?