More Wildlife

Although a cold front moved through last night, it was a beautiful day today! We took advantage of the sunshine and tried out a new-to-us trail and pond at a nearby metropark.

We went for a walk around the pond. Some of the trail went through a wooded area, which is where we think we picked up some ticks. Danielle was the only one who didn't have a hitchhiker. We found one on Tyler's head after we got home. It had already attached itself, so we had to get out the tweezers and fingernail polish. It was our children's first experience with ticks. I guess I didn't adequately explain to the kids about the ticks and overlooked telling them that they don't suck out all your blood. Apparently losing all his blood was a little more than Tyler could handle, so he was pretty upset about the tick on his head. Oops. Once I realized why he was so upset I quickly explained. I think he's traumatized now. Anyway...

When we got to the other side of the pond, the path was covered with gravel. Danielle loves shiny rocks, so she was paying close attention and happened upon a treasure today. She found this little turtle hatchling. As you can see, it was all dirty and kind of dry, like he hadn't been in the water for awhile. With as little as it is, it's quite possible it hadn't made it down to the water yet. The kids thought it was really neat and begged me to let them keep it. More about that in a minute. I was amazed she noticed him, but Danielle always manages to find the bird that's hiding in the branches or frog that's partially covered in mud. She's neat like that.

We finished out our afternoon with a little fishing. Danielle had several bites but didn't manage to land any. Tyler didn't catch any either. Ron caught the first fish of the season. Isn't he HUGE? We laughed so hard about this little guy. And holding him closer to the camera still doesn't make him look bigger! Ron ended up catching 4 other fish that were bigger than this guy. We had a good time.

I gave in and we brought the turtle home. We searched the internet to identify him. What did people do without the internet??!! We discovered that he is an Eastern painted turtle. Most likely it is a male because the gender of these turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs. Since it has not been consistently over 80, it is probably a male. It does not still have its egg tooth but does still have a rather fresh looking scar from where its yolk sac was attached, so it can't be more than a few days old. He loves the water and is fun to watch. Already I like him better than the leopard frog, and his coloring is very pretty. Once we get his habitat set up, I'll post more pictures (assuming he survives overnight!).