A Snapper Ready for Action
Our snapper Tilly napping at the bottom of the pond in an admittedly poor photo.
When we bought our house, the previous owners told us there was a snapping turtle that lived in the pond. I wasn't convinced for a long time since I walked around the pond a couple of times a day and never saw any sign of a snapping turtle. Then one day last July our daughter-in-law Nancey saw Tilly for the first time. We all got a good look at her as she lolled around the pond and basked on the shore during the next couple of weeks. Finally one day she made a quick meal of Catherine's carefully nurtured water lillies and then disappeared, moving on, we suppose, to one of the other ponds in the area. Snappers apparently can travel pretty good distances overland. I hadn't given her much thought since then until I noticed her sitting on the bottom of the pond during my walk this morning. As you can see from the photo, she had her head hidden under some pond plants, but this was unmistakably our snapper. We now wonder if she didn't hibernate this Winter deep in the mud at the bottom of the pond. We'll never know, but I do know I'm going to put some wire fencing around the two poor water lillies that are trying to come up.
2 comments:
Mia says:
'I think it came from a river. I like the name Tilly. I think the nose of the snapping turtle is funny.'
Camille says:
'I think it came from an ocean. I think the turtle is gonna eat the lily pads. I like the sharp part of the snapping turtle's nose'
Hmmm, I'm guessing it didn't come from the ocean, so I have to agree with Mia on this. If it does eat the lillies again, we're going to make all the grandkids put on snorkel gear and catch Tilly! Then we'll take her to the aquarium.
Granddad
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