Yesterday afternoon, while Timmy was napping, the kids and I proceeded on a turtle hunt around the pond. Armed with a bucket, but no net, we were disappointed over and over when we would spy a red or yellow slider but watch them plop off a branch and disappear in a cloud of mud. Mary is our turtle whisperer, she seems to be able to catch them by being as quiet as a mouse and sliding her hand close in a flash. Unfortunately, with 3 other children along, such peace is not easily obtained so we only managed to get one little guy in the bucket.
As we continued to follow the path home I spied not only 1, but 2 big snakes resting in the brush by the side of the pond, not 12" from the path. I'm no snake expert, but the tan and brownish diamonds didn't look good so I hurried the children on and told them to keep their eyes peeled. Later in the afternoon we found that one of us had brought home more than he expected when Will found a tick down his underpants.
Each animal was a little science lesson as I tried to answer, "What kind of snake is that? Is it poisonous? Why do ticks bite? How big do they get when they suck your blood? Why do we have to put Brave (the turtle) back in the pond, can't he live with us?" While there are lots of ticks and other creepy creatures in Maine, there are no poisonous snakes, making for slightly less dangerous nature hikes in the future.
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2 comments:
For future reference, slit eyes on snakes means they are poisonous, except for the coral snake which has round eyes.
I think your nature walk sounded awesome! We love hiking. We found a small snapping turtle on our last hike.
Peace and Laughter!
That is a good thing to know though we didn't see the snakes' heads, just big fat bodies, that was enough!
While running over the weekend I saw a huge snapping turtle in the middle of the road. It had walked up from the pond and hissed at me. Supposedly those things can run so I sprinted!
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