Jeri Lunney sent this amusing note yesterday:
I noticed several people gathering outside my window at Thoburn Mill this morning. Our condo is about 30 feet from the trail.
Thinking that a muskrat or some other animal was in the water beside Thoburn, I had a look outside my windows. Eventually, I realized that they were looking at a large turtle walking along the trail.
As the people on the trail went on their way, a large ATV zoomed by and I worried about the turtle. I put my pictures on Friends of Mississippi Mills on Facebook and was happy to see another picture of my new friend safe and sound at the end of the bridge outside the fence.
This evening, the turtle had moved down the slope and was resting beside my neighbour’s patio.
Editor’s note: This is egg-laying time for snapping turtles. From Ontario Nature:
In Ontario, females do not begin to breed until they are 17 to 19 years old. They dig a nest in late May or June in an open area, usually one with loose, sandy soil. The nest site is often the side of a road, an embankment or a shoreline, but the females will use almost any area they can excavate. A single clutch usually consists of between 40 and 50 eggs, which hatch in the fall.
