In the past couple of days, I have found and seen turtles everywhere. Well, I’ll start with the Painted turtle that has moved into our pond and he comes up to the surface every once and a while. Then last Thursday, I found a box turtle in our woods; I counted the plates on his shell to see how old he was and he was 25 years old! I took a few pictures of him and then let him go.

Photo by Sam Jacobs

Photo by Sam Jacobs

Photo by Sam Jacobs

The next day, my brother and I went into our woods and we were in a marshy part where underground springs had created a little swamp and I saw in the water a baby Alligator Snapping turtle. I told my brother we had get to the house quick because I felt uncomfortable being bare foot in a swamp that possibly had Full Grown - take your leg off - Alligator snapping turtles. Once we got home, we showed our parents and they couldn’t believe it. We cleaned the mud off the baby turtle and then we noticed that he was missing a front right foot. We thought maybe something bit it off or he was born without it. But he could still walk and we took a few pictures and then let him go.

Photo by Alex Jacobs

Photo by Alex Jacobs

Photo by Alex Jacobs

Later on, I’m going back into the marshy area and see if I can find another species of turtle; I’ll post if I find any.

S@m #25