Big Scary... Turtles?

Up here in beautiful Minnesota, with it's 10,000 lakes and all of its open spaces, lies many different species of wildlife.

From muskrats, otters, ducks, pelicans, blue herons, and eagles to deer, coyotes, snakes and yes even turtles!?

One night a couple of weeks ago mom looked out the kitchen window and noticed something large and slow walking through the backyard. She told me to grab my camera and to come down but that I didn't need to hurry. So down I come camera in the ready and she informs me that there is a huge turtle in the backyard.

A turtle?

So out into the backyard we hike and get by the turtle. He tucks his head close to his shell but his flesh is overflowing out from under his shell. He cannot even tuck in his legs or his tail let alone his head. Mom makes a guess about it being a snapping turtle who waded in from the lake. All I know is that it's humongous! I think he was between 2 and 3 feet at least from head to tail. We didn't harass him just took some photos and gawked.

Eventually he decided that was enough of the photos and that the lake was a good place to be. So he got up and slowly started marching down the hill towards the lake. Seeing him lift his legs up to physically walk down there was somethin' to see. Especially with all of his flesh exposed like that. Every so many feet he would stop and lay down then lift his head and look for predators. Then he's back up on his mission to reach the lake.

At the edge he pushed his way through the tall grass and all you could hear was the sound of the grass rustling and you could see the grass moving.

Ruby was leashed on the dog run line out back sound asleep so luckily she didn't notice the turtle in the backyard and get bit. From the area that the turtle was at in the yard and the direction he was going I wonder if he did end up walking past her and she was too tuckered out to even notice. The great mystery! : )