Turtle!

Yesterday Hubby went outside to mow the lawn. He came back in and said "want to see a big turtle?" This big guy was in our lawn, up against the retaining wall. We have never seen turtles in our yard, ever. This is the first, and he's huge! I have never seen a turtle this big in this neighborhood at all. I was shocked! I thought it was so cool that this turtle graced our yard with its visit.


hubby's foot is there for scale


notice its big foot/claw against the wall? Wow!

Hubby went ahead and mowed the lawn, and Turtle sat there patiently. We went back inside the house and several hours later wondered what our turtle was up to. We went ouside to check. He had vanished! I'm so curious about where this thing lives and what it was doing in our yard. There is a lake nearby, but it is probably a quarter mile -- an awfully long walk for a turtle. We have seen turtles around the lake, but only tiny ones. And as I said, never in our yard or anywhere on our street.

Does anyone know anything about turtles? Is this a lake-dweller? I know absolutely nothing about what sort of habitat a turtle like this requires. Where does it spend its days?? I'm very curious. Time to do some research.

Edit -- I did some research and determined that this is a snapping turtle! It seemed extremely unaggressive yesterday, thankfully. Usually they have to eat while in/under water, so I'm not sure what it was doing so far from the lake. Now I'm going to be careful all summer long when going outside without my steel-toed boots!