The Turtle

On Saturday, March 28 Ed(the guy who runs the cattle on Maggie) and his sons found a turtle by the side of the road. And he put it in the crik that flows by our house.Ed came by the house to tell us the news and I went to the crik to see the turtle

Fearing that he might be invasive(as there are invasive turtles in the region) I brought him back to the house for identification. if he was invasive I planned to take him as a pet .Turns out he was actually a Western Pond Turtle(a threatened, native species).

Like this one we found by the side of the road and blogged last summer. The one we found Saturday was right in the middle of the mating season(when they go on to land to breed) and was probably heading back to the Umpqua. The Summer one was probably just heading through.

One of Dad's favorite poems:

The turtle lives 'tween plated decks

Which practically conceals its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle

In such a fix to be so fertile
-Ogden Nash

so we put him back in the crik

As he got close to the crik he started to grasp for it. He came completely out of his shell.

He happily swam away. From the crik he probably swam to the Umpqua

I guess the moral of the story is to rescue turtles you see on the side of the road

The turtle

A near impenetrable shell
Yet outcompeted by invasives