Submarine Races

The sudden burst of heat (with temperatures reaching nearly 30°C yesterday), has brought a sudden burst of bicycle riding. At one point on the ride, I ride by a small stormwater management pond.

It's attracted quite a bit of wildlife. I see geese and an occasional heron, tiny frogs leap from shore to water. Last week, I saw a small turtle head poking up above the surface.


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Yesterday, I was hoping to see more turtle goodness. When I cam around the corner on my bike, I was greeted by this sight.

 I frantically tried to dig the camera out of my bag, park the bike out of the street, all while avoiding spooking the owners of the massive shells that were bobbing in the pond. Those are not the little sliders I'm used to seeing around here. It soon became apparent that the shells were too busy with each other to be particularly worried about me.

...There was quite a bit of rolling,

 tackling

...grabbing....

I wondered what was going on. I wondered what kind of turtles they were. (I was hoping for river cooter, since they are very rare this far north.)

After a few moments, the action stopped. A single head, the back of a shell, and the tip of a very long tail surfaced.

Snapping Turtles! Snapping turtles have amazingly long tails.

Then, another head poked up above the ripples, a nose, barely above the surface, and I totally got the event.

They were making a turtle stack.