the Way of the Turtle

1.6 Mile Walk at Five Rivers EEC
Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I had planned to go running this evening, but it was so freaking hot all day that once I got home I just had no motivation to go back out and actually work... though after a while I did convince myself to go for a walk. By the time I left it had cooled down a little bit, but by then I'd eaten dinner and running just wasn't happening.

Instead I headed over to Five Rivers to take a short walk around the Beaver Pond... I knew I wouldn't have enough time to do much more than that. The frogs were in full chorus mode as I walked past the Heron Pond. Unlike the peepers that I've heard so much this spring, these were tree frogs of some sort (making a loud high pitched chattering noise... I tried to spot one, but wasn't successful) and bullfrogs (I saw several of those.) Quite the racket they were making!

The water in the Beaver Pond was pretty murky, with a lot of scum and pollen on the surface, so I was surprised when several turtles showed up while I was on the bridge. Most were painted turtles but there was a large snapping turtle that also cruised by for a while. Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, since I've watched people feeding the turtles from the bridge. It's been fairly clear for a while now that they associate people on the bridge with a possible free meal.

At the far end of the pond, the beaver that I watched for a while several weeks ago was once again swimming around enjoying his (or her) evening meal. He'd dive to the bottom and come up a few moments later with a plant, then float there munching away on it. He seemed remarkably unperturbed by my being right there on the new observation platform... a couple of times he swam by close enough that had I been carrying one of my hiking poles I probably could have poked him with it (not that I would, of course!) I took some really nice photos of him and even shot a brief video clip, then moved on down the trail... only to pause a few moments later to watch and photograph a hungry muskrat that was gnawing the bark off a branch that had gotten caught at the outlet to the pond.

On my way back to the parking area I again spent a few minutes checking out the frogs at the Heron Pond. I tried to get a photo of one as he "croaked" but either never managed to take the photo at the right moment or he quieted down each time I started watching him... a fairly wise defensive move, I think. Along the way I noticed the almost-full moon was shining brightly in the sky and tried getting some pictures. For some reason tonight I was motivated to play with the manual settings on my camera a bit and found one that let me get some really cool shots of the moon... so now I have something new to distract me when I go out on moonlight nights.

JMH