Kraken

I'll start with my common snapping turtle.  It's name is Kraken.


DISCLAIMER:  Keeping snapping turtles may be illegal in your area, check your local laws.

I was walking along the local bike path here in Newport Vermont, I believe it was May 20th or so.  A great bit of it's length runs along Lake Mempremagog so there is no shortage of wildlife to be seen.  Further down the path my better half spotted a strange object.  I assured her it was probably a large bird, but as we got closer we noticed it wasn't moving.  Turns out it was 2 very large snapping turtles.  Both had dug holes on the bike path and were laying eggs.  I had the idea of waiting for the larger of the two females to stop laying her eggs and start burying them and move her down to the water so we could swipe a couple of eggs, then we would finish burying her eggs for her and be on our way.  We very carefully carried the 3 of them back to where we were visiting and put them in a macaroni box with a little bit of moist soil in it to keep them from rolling over until we got home and were able to build a make shift incubator for them.

More information on the incubator in the next post.