A couple of Ontario turtles

[UncleChester]

While wandering along the edge of a very slow moving river with my eyes at my feet looking for frogs, I heard a big splashing noise and looked up to see a big snapping turtle, Chelydra serpintina, scrambling into the water about 7 or 8 feet away from me. Cursing my inability to see anything that isn't a frog, I figured I must have disturbed it basking on either the log or the rock pictured below:



I went back to looking for frogs, but out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement by the 'rock'. Looking closer I saw a head slowly submerging beneath the muck...the 'rock' was another snapper. It would lower it's head under water, then after a few minutes raise it up again (all in extreme slow motion). Blinking a few times to get the algae off, when it saw I was still there, down went the head. I was able to get pretty close to it for the picture below, after several up/down cycles of it's head:



I wandered away, impressed by it's camouflage and wondering how many turtles I have in fact stepped on without even realizing it. It was so docile and calm that I was once again left perplexed at the absurd reputation they have for being aggressive in the water (on land when being handled is another matter...).

On my return trip, I came back to the same location and saw the snapper again, and was also treated to a Midland Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata. These aren't by any means rare, but this is by far the closest I've ever been to one in the water without it fleeing. It was on the other side of the log in the first photo, and seemed content to just poke it's head out of the water and stare at me:



I had thought I may have stepped on the log this turtle was under on my first pass and especially since it wasn't fleeing I became a little concerned that I may have squished in under the log, so I pulled it out just in case. It was fine, and I took the opportunity to snap a couple shots of it's shell before returning it to the water:



I've been back to this same location a couple of times since and have found 2 snappers there one time, and one snapper the second time. Most of the turtles I come across are on the roads at night, so it's a nice treat being able to consistently locate snappers in the wild.

Thanks for looking.

[Mentat]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing Brian .

[UncleChester]

Thanks Carlos!

[Gorgonopsia]

Nice turtles! Thanks for sharing!

[Heatheranne]

Great pictures! It's so much nicer seeing creatures in their own surrounds. They look nice and healthy .

[UncleChester]

Thanks Leo and Heather!

[Heatheranne]

You're welcome .