baby snapping turtle

In our pre-cell-phones-with-camera-days, we came across a baby snapping turtle while doing one of our favourite walks at the Fyke Nature Center/Celery Farm. Each spring, female snappers from the pond would lay eggs in the piles of wood chips around the preserve.

Our baby snapper was, like me, directionally challenged — it was heading into the field, away from the pond. We set it in the right direction, each holding it briefly in our hands.

Turtles rank up there as one of my favourite repitles. We love watching them do their “turtle-cises:” pilates/aerobics/excericses (with their legs moving, bodies staying still) on logs sticking up out of the water into the warming sunlight.

Large aquatic turtles have an affinity for me. From the first encounter in the early 1980s at the Vancouver Aquarium to more recently visits to James A McFaul Environmental Center, turtles in bigger tanks will follow me as I walk along their exhibit. If I stop, they “treadwater” to look at me. Okay, so there is the concept of motion, but they do seem attracted. Perhaps I was a turtle in one of my past lives . . .

On this national repitle day, who is your favourite reptile? So many to chose from, 1046 (give or take)!