Turtles, Turtles and More Turtles

Every year, turtles are hatched on our lawn... they emerge from their buried nest, scattering broken shells and then scurry into the lake. We happily find the disturbed mound in our lawn covered with broken shells afterward and always wish we had been sitting there as these baby turtles made their way out of the nest, to the lake and then dropped into the water off our rocky shore. 

Turtles can be seen all around the lake but you really need a fairly keen eye to spot them because they blend in so well with their surroundings... then they sit perfectly still until you get too close. Often, you don't even know there was a turtle on a nearby rock until you see what you thought was part of the rock quickly scurry into the lake with a plop!

One day last week, I managed to capture a few good photos of turtles as we were kayaking around the lake. And, I have to say, paddling this far makes for a very long day of activity! I was actually hoping to capture a good photo of a bobcat basking in the sun on a rock but we kept finding turtles instead!

I noticed this big guy in the first photo from afar... he was sitting atop this large rock and I was still at least 50 yards away when I noticed him... 

I slowly and quietly paddled closer... quietly and steadily getting my two cameras ready... while carefully paddling closer... finally getting close enough to begin shooting photos as my kayak inched more closely... 

By the time I got about 30 feet away, I knew I was about as close as this guy would allow. I then abruptly put my camera back down in between my legs under the front deck of my kayak... the abrupt movement and the quiet thump of the camera against the kayak startled the turtle and he then quickly scurried into the water making a big plop on the far side of this rock... but, not before I was able to get up close and personal...

These two medium sized painted turtles were basking in the sun on the northern end of the lake. I didn't even notice them but Sheila did and quickly pointed them out to me. These smaller turtles were a bit more skittish and only allowed two quick photos before scurrying away... one motion blurred photo and this one photo...