Nature Notes: The Ones That Got Away

I found this painted turtle just outside the gate of the Corn Fort. It's probably a female looking for a place to lay eggs. I thought I had some better shots of her, but they turned out blurry. In the time it took to go inside, load up the photos, and get back out there she had made a clean gettaway. Those must be racing stripes on her neck and arms.

An awful lot of good shots get past me because I'm too slow or my camera won't zoom far enough. This week alone, I missed photographing a red fox that trotted through the yard and down the path to the pond, a woodchuck sitting on my deck railing, a heron rising up in flight from the swamp, and another fawn. Dang. (There was another snapping turtle out in the front yard, too, but I'm kinda done with those.)

We see so much wildlife here, but we only get a fleeting look before they move on. It makes me wonder what I'm missing when I'm not watching, you know?




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