No, I’m not referring to Ilsa Lund. The dame who decided to walk into my gin joint is actually not a dame at all!

Mama snapper digging a hole for her eggs.

Saturday morning a rather large snapping turtle decided to lay her eggs at the bottom of my back steps. After digging up most of my new garden first  (“Ahhhh, too soft, too hard, Ohhhh, this is just right!”), the most logical place seemed to be where I tend to walk. No problem!

This is as good a place as any, I guess!

This is the time of year when female snapping turtles come on shore to lay their eggs (Umm, Dah!). What’s sad is many of them die crossing busy roads looking for the ideal spot to dig and lay. Last Sunday I was attempting to help a large lady (double the size of my snapper) cross a road in Tewksbury. She wasn’t having any of it. My stick lost a few inches due to her lack of anger management. So, there I am, in the middle of the road, directing traffic, and a nasty snapping turtle, when a woman stops her car, blocks the traffic behind her, and asks me to move so she can get a picture of the turtle. “Really lady?” “Just move out of the picture!” “How about this lady, you move your car or I’ll ……” (You can wonder what I threatened with my stick!) She drove off.

I continued to struggle with mommy snapper when a lovely man stopped, hopped out of his truck with a shovel and finished the job. “It would be a damn shame if she died. She’s prehistoric!” he exclaimed as he shoveled her into the brush. I’m sure she wasn’t prehistoric but probably a good 80 years. Thank you kind sir!

Back to my egg laying beauty. Her shell was so cool. All jaggy and edgy, like some Mad Max armor.

Mad Max would be proud!

Unfortunately, she didn’t lay any eggs. When I came home the hole was still there but mommy was gone. Perhaps the duck traffic was annoying. For cool snapper facts, check out the blog at http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm

Always something new on the Concord River (I wouldn’t want it any other way).

Blessed be :}