Commuting - What's Up With The Turtles?

On Wednesday, Jean Beetham Smith posted ‘Shortly after that I encountered a snapping turtle crossing the road to lay her eggs, so I got her picture too’. This morning I saw a huge (for around here) snapper, approximately 12” diameter, crossing the bike trail. When I got to work I was telling my co-workers about it and a guy who runs in the mornings said he also saw one about the same size earlier this week too. I’ve seen turtles around here before, but nothing like that.

Made my day.

You're lucky!!
All I ever see on my ride are squirrels running across the road and dead birds, squirrels, and opossums that have been hit by cars. :(

I see plenty of badger and fox at night, even in the middle of town. I got pretty close to a green woodpecker a few days ago.

Our big attraction here in Rock Creek Park is deer. They come out at dusk this time of year. I was riding in the park the other evening around 8PM and three or four just sauntered across the road, right in front of me. They react relatively slowly to a lone bicycle on the quiet road, but when they react they really bolt for the trees. Some are huge, the size of horses.

Thanks RonH for reminding me I am lucky. I too see dear a few times a week and a fox once or so a year. The dear can be really Scary. Like FLASH said, you can sneak up on them and they bolt real quick. If one hit you it would be trouble.

Must be egg-laying season or something. There was quite a large painted turtle crossing the road near here a few days ago, and I had no idea that we even had any in the neighborhood!