Snap!

The Frau took these picture the other day of a humongous female snapping turtle.  A common snapping turtle.

 click on the images to enlarge

Our best guess is that this is a female because they've been around this time of year before to lay eggs in the leafy litter around the shop building, the apple trees or the ancient lilacs.  No respectable snapper would have anything else to do with the joint this time of year. 
Snappers will travel great distances to lay their eggs.

Predictably, there will be silver dollar-sized turtles before too long running all over the place.

Chelydra serpentina.  These reptiles are omnivores, consuming invertebrates, small birds and animals, snakes, other turtles and anything else they can scavenge.   They are know for their belligerent attitude too.  

I wouldn't grab a snapper for anything.  And what was creepy about this snapper was that it had moss growing on top of its shell.  Gross.

Go figure...

Lab in Motion

Nothing more pleasing to the eye than the gracefulness of a Labrador retriever in motion.

 click on Girlfriend to enlarge

Velvet Buck

Testosterone levels are rising and this buck is growing a new set of antlers.

  click on image to enlarge


It will be interesting to see if his travel take him this way regularly.  That way we can monitor the antler growth remotely.
 

Hen

Hen turkey that is.

 click on bird to enlarge

Nice picture taken with a trail camera in a new location.

More About the Aliens

A week ago I mentioned that aliens had arrived again to visit The Platz.  As evidence of this I posted a picture taken by one of the trail cameras that showed the arrival of the aliens by means of their transporter technology.  These  transporters convert the aliens an energy pattern.  Then they "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter.  You've probably seen this on Star Trek.

They're still at it...

click on the creepy alien image to enlarge

Meet The Cranes

A week ago I mentioned that a family of cranes had taken-up residence here.

Here is a picture of a parent and one of the little ones.

 click on image to enlarge

 Baby Sandhill cranes are called colts because of their long, strong, well-developed legs.

Racoonasaurus

This masked marauder has been showing-up on this camera rather regularly.

Predator of my valued ground-nesting and nest box dwelling birds I shall have to keep my eye out for him.