The Nature of Water

This is a waterlily (lotus) that I photographed last year at Heald Pond in Wilton. Right now, lotuses are just buds on the water.

It is a warm and sunny Monday. I'm not a lover of heat so I was drawn to the watery habitats in the area - the brooks, ponds, swamps and wetlands (yes, there is a difference between the last two). I spent most of the late morning noting the best areas to find lotus blossoms for photographing in July, documenting hatchling turtles leaving the nest, and feeding Canadian goslings . Yes, I live a charmed life on occasion.

I started off looking for lotus buds. They look like little yellow and pink fishing bobbers on the ponds right now. I hunt for concentrations of them so I can go back to that spot for the couple of weeks in July when they will be in full healthy bloom. While walking a sandy bank to a swamp, I found a hole in the sand at my feet, just dug that morning. I followed tiny scrapings in the sand to the water's edge to find tiny painted turtles who were completely new to the sun and water world that they'll spend the rest of their lives in. Adorable, right?

And just to drive the 'adorable' home in your heart - here's some fluffy Canadian Goslings to take a *chuckle* GANDER at! Hehehehe Ok, that was a really bad pun and I'm sorry. :)
Now for some reason, I can't get the blog text to line up with the photos, so the next photo is below. This bullfrog needed a time in the limelight. He just chillaxed by my side as I took pictures of turtles and watersnakes. However, he's no William.

And to wrap up a picture of water life taken from the shoreline, I have a picture I took last year and is admittedly one of my favorites. This is a Northern Water Snake. These guys are not poisonous, but they do have anticoagulant in their fangs that makes a bite slow to heal. I handle them rarely because they are quick to strike and musk.

Water Turtles Of NH

New Hampshire has a chilly climate in general. Because of this, our state contains mostly water turtles (the one exception being the rare Box Turtle of which at last count, there were only a whopping TEN in the state!). Above is the most common - the Eastern Painted Turtle. Painted turtles are very intelligent, and in captivity are the grand moochers - meaning they beg for any food you can give them as if they've never been fed before. Anyone who walks in the door of my house is confronted with two turtles in an aquarium begging for food with hyper paddling and snapping mouths. :)


My favorite aspect of painted turtles is the coloration of the underneath of their carapace and their plastron. Red and black tribal stripes with vibrant yellow or cream.





To the left is an old 1.5 foot long snapping turtle. Growing up, I used to refer to these as dinosaur turtles. These turtles can live well over a hundred years. This particular girl is at the very least 30 years old. Snapping turtles get their name from their formidable turtle beak which is attached to a surprisingly long neck. The turtle can whip its neck out to half its shell length and bite hard! When these turtles bite, they don't let go.



In my hands is a young snapping turtle. Tiny dinosaurs with spiky shells and tails! At this age, their shells are so incredibly soft, that I'm always careful in holding them. Because their biting power is very weak, their musking power overtakes their defenses - its like holding a cute bundle of rotten eggs because of the stench.





But the baby snappers are the tiniest I've found. Speaking of stinky turtles, the little guy to the left is a Musk Turtle aka "stinkpot turtle". This one was by far the tiniest turtle I've ever found. My sister and I came across him while catching fish for my painted turtles out at Hartshorn Pond in Milford. He easily fit on the Nickel and I took many amusing photos thanks to his size.




The next photo is more for the turtle than the quality of the composition. :) This is a rarer for me to find; the Blandings Turtle. These guys have high domed, smooth shells. They spend their lives travelling from forest pool to forest pool, from pond to pond, from hill to hill. They are nature's wandering turtles.

The only turtle I'm missing for this blog today is the Wood Turtle. I do have photographs of this state threatened species that I took last year - but the poor little turtle I found was dead. I didn't think you would appreciate that image. You're welcome. As soon as I find a live one, you can bet I'll be posting oodles of images of this rare species in its own blog page! :D

And just because I wanted to add it...

Isn't nature wonderful? :D