Reminds me of a similar scene I came upon a couple of years ago. A big
snapper (a little smaller than this fellow) had tried to cross a busy
road. Only two lanes but fairly wide at that point. Don't know when he
started but he'd gotten about 3/4 of the way across one lane and then
froze in position; too scared or, maybe, too smart to move any further.
Your shot of the car and Jean is what reminded me since there was a very
concerned couple stopped by the side of the road. They were out of
their car and standing at the side of the road. They were obviously
distraught at the peril of the snapper but had no idea what to do. Cars
were regularly zooming past and, so far, avoiding the snapper. But I
could see it was only a matter of time before the little guy got crunched.
I informed them I would go pick him up and move him. Suddenly their
acute anxiety switched to me with warnings about how I might be badly
bitten or suffer other undefined maladies. I advanced to the turtle and
sized him up as about 10-15 pounds. In other words, light enough that I
thought I could carry him out away from my body for a short distance...
a wise precaution given the very, very long necks of snappers. But I
also know that snapper's necks aren't long enough for the head to reach
the base of the tail. So I picked him (or her, I didn't check) up near
the base of the tail and carried him to the side he appeared to be
trying to reach. At one point I mistakenly relaxed my arm-out position
a bit and nearly lost a knee cap as the price. But he missed me.
Ungrateful, don't you think? :-)
Chuck Norcutt
Wayne Culberson wrote:
>
> My wife and I were travelling through a stretch of wilderness Sunday
> afternoon, coming home from a funeral, when we saw this one as it was
> crossing the road. Jean was reluctant to get too close, but I needed
> something in the picture for scale. You don't see them much bigger than this
> in our neck of the woods. I've never been able to get a good picture of a
> turtle, but this is my latest effort.. Shooting from above doesn't seem to
> do it, and front on gives DOF problems. It was raining, and I didn't have a
> polarizer with me to cut down on reflections. I sometimes turn them over to
> get a picture from the bottom, but I hesitated to nudge this fellow over
> with my foot as I thought he might take a chunk out of the dress shoe I was
> wearing.
>
> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/1485763/1/75556640 and the ones
> following.
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