Something shiny glinted from beneath the arborvitae tree at the corner of my garden. Something on the ground.
Stepping closer, I realized the shiny “thing” was the dark green of a turtle shell and further inspection showed an average-size mud turtle. It sat there, hunkered down, motionless. I did what every red-blooded American would do, I ran back to the house, grabbed my smart phone and took a picture.
I haven’t seen but a few turtles during this year’s egg laying season, so I was more excited than normal.
Dick’s pickup pulled into the driveway, and I warned him to not frighten our temporary guest. Keeping our distance, we briefly watched from afar and then left the turtle to her task of reaching the South Shore Drive and laying eggs in the gravel roadside. However, I kept an eye on her from the back window.
I watched, curious as to her behavior—sooner or later she would make a run for it. I turned away from the window briefly, and when I turned back, to my astonishment, saw no turtle. Ms. Turtle was gone…vanished…disappeared, nowhere to be seen.
“You won’t believe this,” I told Dick. “The turtle’s gone. I took my eyes off her for a split second, and she’s not there anymore.”
We trekked outside and looked under the arborvitae. She was not there. “I’ll check the hillside leading to the lake,” I told Dick. “You walk the driveway up to the South Shore Drive…see if we can find her.”
We did with no luck, and soon returned, meeting back at the arborvitae. To our surprise, there she was in the middle of the gravel driveway, heading for the woods. Seeing us she stopped to pull in her head and feet.
“I can’t believe she moved that fast!” I said.
How did she do it?” Dick asked. “She had to be under the arborvitae, hiding, but to get out here, she also had to climb the retaining wall.” We stared at the six-inch-high barrier.
“With those short legs?” I was amazed.
Ms. Turtle stayed put, clearly hoping we’d go away, so we obliged and watched from a distance.
Slowly, the turtle crossed the driveway, finally reaching the underbrush at the edge of the driveway. No speed now. She stopped briefly before taking off into the woods, heading in the direction of the road. We watched as she inexorably moved through underbrush, around and sometimes over logs and brush piles before she disappeared from view.
Good luck, Ms. Turtle.
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