Rose Cottage Ltd

And a bit of a scuffle back at the water bowl!

Happy Weekend!

Every year, once the geese nesting on the lake leave the nest with their goslings, thoughts turn to “monster” snapping turtles living in the property’s lake. I see them surfacing down at the deep end of the lake and their shells look like garbage can lids in size!

You can read about the first turtle experience here, about what these turtles will happily eat, and why I am at all concerned about moving them out of my lake here.

Today’s episode started with realizing a turtle was in the trap:

Now that he, or she, is in, how to get it out? The turtle has a shell with sharp edges and also has some rather talon-like claws that do tend to get caught in the net.

About 10 minutes later, we almost have the turtle free of the “ties that bind.” The turtle will go into this 30-gallon trashcan for its journey to a larger body of water.

Here’s a little look at size for this particular catch. The human hands seen in the picture above are of an adult male. The trashcan is a 30-gallon size. Estimated weight of this turtle is around 25 lbs so this is a much smaller turtle than the first we removed from the lake in 2008.

If you need to buy a turtle trap, a link to our turtle trap source is in the earlier post. If you’re going to trap and remove a turtle from your lake or pond, please be careful…you could easily lose a finger or toe otherwise. Also please do not transport a turtle to another private lake – you’ll only be creating problems for others.

I was taking a stroll around the lake early this morning. It’s so nice in North Carolina this time of year – not too hot, not too cold and today, no 20+mph wind like we’ve had lately.

I first spotted several pair of Wood Ducks.

There had been some dozen wood ducks hanging around this corner of the lake when I first ventured out. They are a bit skittish though so I figured they had taken off when they saw the “paparazzi” approaching yet again.

However, as I got closer to that edge, I noticed this…

Say what you want, but ducks are apparently NOT stupid!

They took one look at this Northern Water snake – pretending to be a stick, and said, “See you!” Pun intended!

There is one particular reader of this blog who will NOT be happy to see this post, but I wouldn’t be honest about the pros and cons of country living if I didn’t share all the details.

The good news about this snake is that it is not poisonous and never comes much further than in this photo – out of the water. The other fact is that until that rip-rap, (aka big, heavy rocks!) you see at the water’s edge, was added, I never saw one of these snakes. They like to lay on the rip-rap once it’s warmed by the sun so we’ve inadvertently provided them a summer resort – of sorts. Weighing the benefits of retaining the lake edge versus the occasional non-poisonous snake, the rip-rap was still a good and necessary idea.

The bad news is that this snake looks rather fat to me. Hopefully it is not a “she” and in nesting mode.

“Film at eleven” on that I guess….

Looks like these baby Cardinals expected my sister to at least bring some food if she was going to turn on the lights! These new babies were hatched just this week in Florida. This time of year, new “growth” seems to be happening everywhere you look.

Great photo – I know these “children” will be well looked after until they are out of the nest and off on their own…