Taking Gimpy Out for Some Sun. 5-6-2023

The sun was shining, the birds were singing  and Andrea was in a cast, unable to get around. I had a moment of lucidity and said, "let's go sit next to the pond at the cemetery... maybe we'll see some turtles". And that's what we did. It turned out to be a pretty good idea.

Upon pulling in, we saw a big flop on a rock... an unmistakable Snapper-shaped flop. Our first live one of the year. Already a good day.

We made our way to the little bench that looks out over the pond. She crutched her way through goose poop and we got comfortable.

From the bench, we could see plenty of basking. A couple of Red-ears...

A Red-ear and a Painter sharing a spot...

The island was hoppin'. Looks to be four Painters and two Red-ears.

These two Red-ears say "sharing is caring".

A big smile on this Painted Turtle.

I strolled about 50 feet away from the bench to get a look at another small island. There was another flop o' Snapper getting some sun up there.

We decided that neither of these ones were our beloved Whitey. Still, we hoped that the deceased one we'd seen earlier in the year wasn't our pal.

Secret Heron.

A guy pulled up and was taking pictures down by the edge of the pond. We struck up a conversation and he said he was looking to see if there were any goslings yet. There weren't, though I did see a few in Newton on the way home from work the other day. We pointed out the Snappers and he said, "yeah, there's one in the water down here..."

Excitedly, I ran to the edge and could see a light shadow a few feet under the surface... then it ascended...

I do declare, that looks like...

Our friend Whitey!!

I turned to tell Andrea, but she was already half way to the edge, hobbling as fast as she could to see her pal, crutch over cast. Boy, that sure cured a lot of ills.

We sat in the sun for a while. I tried for an Oriole but couldn't get the shot. Then we hobbled back and headed out. I decided to circle the pond to see if there were any secret turtles on the other side of the island, but there weren't. BUT, on the edge of the pond, we could see a shell up. I stopped the car and hopped out and got a shot of the resident Yellow-Belly, who made it through another Northern winter. First of year, even if he is a discarded pet.

Not a bad hour and a half of sun and fun. We stopped at the Urban Snake Spot on the way home, testing our luck, but came up empty. No worries. We saw turtles and, in particular, Whitey. It's good to have wild friends.