I had to check on the banding site the other day after dropping off poles after our Orlando Wetlands Festival gig. When I got to the end of the net lanes I was greeted by this thing at the last bridge.
A very impressive Common Snapping Turtle! I was so taken by those spikes on the head that I didn't even notice that they retract until I processed all the photos. Pretty cool that it can raise and lower them.
My first thought was that this was an Alligator Snapping Turtle but folks have helped me track it down as a Common. Still a new addition to my Lake Lotus checklist. I made sure to get a shot of the tail as it moved back into the marsh. At 3-feet-long, it was an amazing site to behold.
On the mammal side, many of us were concerned about our local Coyote. We were used to seeing for a year or so and then someone saw a group of men apparently hunting for it after an article in the local paper concerning the increase of Coyote in the region. It had been weeks since a sighting but I found her again the other day.
She was still there the next day, panting in the sunshine, as I made my way home.
We miss the foxes that were breeding here, and possibly killed or displaced by the Coyote, but several of us are adjusting to, and enjoying, our new resident. Would be a shame to see some vigilante hunters kill her off 'just 'cause'. I will watch and record.
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