Greetings all! May was a busy month around here at Intrigued and June is looking to be more of the same. I have a 50K ultra trail coming up the first week of July – a bid for redemption as the first go around at this race two years ago put me in the emergency room (link here). I don’t do well with failure and need to get this only blemish on my racing career addressed. Hopefully they’ve learned not to put box fans out in the open at the aid stations ha. Although it may not have seemed like it from the wildlife side of Intrigued, but May was also a big month for posting – especially on the mothership. As mentioned in one of those posts, the BARwW Consortium (Birds Are Rats with Wings) was blasting my inbox with hate mail tired of all the feathers. Decided to finally address it with a number of posts up there which included a running post (holy crap finally had a REAL RACE link here) and several Halloween posts after that. While gathering up the images for those posts, noticed this in my cell phone gallery.
This prehistoric specimen decided to visit us back in May 2019. Every so often during the rainy season the wash will push the Turtles out of our ravines up to higher ground. I’ve made a few posts on our previous visitors (link here and here). This one was significantly younger than the other visits – younger being relative for a creature than has a wild lifespan from 30 to 45 years.
Hit the jump to read more about our country critters.
There is probably an interesting curve for their longevity. Early years probably a high mortality rate where as it gains size along with a lethal set of claws and jaws suspect there isn’t too many predators that would risk getting in a tangle. That holds for sure in the Midwest – in areas with larger apex predators such as Gators, that curve may be stretched.
I became a LOT smarter since my first encounter with the Snappers. I had no idea of the jaw strength of the larger ones and stupidly used my “handy” reference guide to give my readers a proper perspective (see what I did there hehehe).
Like an idiot, I put my hand right next to beast oblivious to the fact these giant Snappers do not let go – if they don’t slice through your finger you pretty much have to pay it a ridiculous sum of money to let it go or call someone to bring a sharp object – you decide which one gets cut. Kept my hand much further away this time. Not a huge one (although the hand is closer to the camera), but still nothing to get careless with. Unfortunately, this specimen didn’t want to come out of its shell so I could get a decent picture of its head.
Last May the rains came and sure enough, another visitor.
Not that I can tell for sure, but this one sure looked similar to the ones in the previous post. If so, it definitely added new growth over those three years. If I remember correctly, Linda is the one who spotted this beast coming down our driveway. Unlike Snakes and similar ilk, she doesn’t seem to have a fear of these creatures. Odd as I’ve never had a Snake continue walking hmmm, guess that would be slithering, up to me after we’ve made eye contact. Snakes also lack claws – if you are wondering, none of this logic has lessened Linda’s absolute hatred for the scaly tubed ones.
Feel free to revoke my man-card, but there was no way in hell I was going to put my go to reference tool anywhere near that damn thing. Looked around for a suitable replacement and spotted the paint can – even green labeled to complement the composition hehehe. Not up on my Turtle knowledge and thus not sure if there is a way to tell how old one of these armor haulers are – maybe it’s like a tree and you just count the wrinkles.
With a lot of coaching I did manage to get this thing turned around and headed back out the way it came. Figured it would take a couple of hours for it to make it out of our ~300′ rock driveway depending on which direction it decided to take and its ability to break out of the circle and not end right back at the same place. What I didn’t take into account was the position Linda left the Jeep when she came and found me. It was to the side probably 30′ away. This Snapper dragged itself under the middle of the car and decided to just sit there and enjoy the shade. There it sat for the rest of the day as we didn’t want to risk injuring it trying to move the car. Later that afternoon it finally disappeared – where I have no idea.
Since I’m covering large creatures that visit us out here in the country, decided to give you a bonus!
Yep, a true Rat with Wings. There are a lot of horses out by us which means we have to deal with these steroid slurping flies. This one was no longer in the “living” category (no tears shed here). No claws, no vice jaws…and best of all dead – sure I’ll pull out my trusty reference.
Horse flies are oblivious to insect repellent, have apparently no concept of depth thanks to their annoying habit of dive bombing your face while out on trail runs and apparently nothing else to do all day but follow your ass around. On the bright side, they are great motivators for you to run faster!
Will call it there folks – hope you enjoyed seeing some of the sights from the country.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Not the most photogenic of creatures but hey, that’s probably the only thing I could beat in a ten yard dash!
(several expletives) Am I glad we DO NOT have hossflies like that mf. The little ones we do get are nasty enough!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I often imagine myself crawling across a finish line while a Turtle in running shoes holding a drink with an umbrella in it laughs at me from the other side. Not sure how these mutants came to be and how the names were conflated other than the fact they are usually synonymous with Horse traffic around here. In either case, as you can imagine, annoying as hell when running the trails. Be glad they haven’t figured out how to build boats yet! As always appreciate you dropping in B. – hope all is well on your end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
great pictures!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Patrick – no worries about motion blur with these creatures.
LikeLiked by 1 person
the snapping turtle appears to be the same kind my step day threw back into a pond that came out walking on a busy road. i remember as a kid.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hope he didn’t pick it up with his hands to throw back – they have limited range, but if you cross it they will put a hurt on you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
that was a long time ago when i was in sixth grade. I’m a grandpa now. he was a mp with the us marine corp, had the bullet holes from the war, he had us coach the turtle to look at us then he got behind it to pick it up by its shell and he threw it back into the pond to save its life that was right off the highway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
that was the country. when ya get use to animals that are wild ya know how to get along with them. domesticated pets on the other hand is really different. man, i got more animals bites from domesticated pets then most normal people have chicken pock holes. yet when i was in the country id row a row boat or a canue and go out in the woods where there is a sense of comprehension between human and animal. my first water rescue was in the country of a submerged car.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear you, although we consider the animals “wild” out here, they are far more predictable that some of our domesticate animals. When running I come upon a new dog and I do not know if it is going to bite me or lick me – compared to coming up on a Coyote that is hanging that close to humans… I know it is going to bite me ha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
thank you for your reply
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazing pictures.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Deborah! I just had my cell phone at the time, but they came out pretty nice – Not sure why I did not just go inside and get the real camera – not like they were going to go anywhere fast ha. Appreciate you dropping in!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😅hahaha… true. But they came out good.
Besides, maybe the excitement made you forget about the camera. God bless and have more great days to come.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting country creatures.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Guessing you have dealt with the Horse Flies before – if not I liken them to they monster Mosquitoes you have up in Minnesota. The fortunate thins is I’d take an encounter any day with these specimens versus a SLUG as those things totally creep me out. Have a good one CJ and hoping things are loosening up over there – we are pretty much over it here.
LikeLike
I love the turtles. The snappers stay in the ditches and river, but we do get box turtles visiting the property. Horse flies are big, as you show, and very pesky as you mentioned.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We do not have the Boxes around are parts – well, at least I do not have encounters we sit in a large forest so it is possible they just know to stay away from the house ha. We do have a ton of Painted and Red-Eared that hang out in the local ponds but with our heat they’d just as soon wallow in the water than take a stroll down our driveway. Sorry to hear you have those bastard Horse Flies down there – truly rats with wings. As always, thanks for pointing your browser my way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is that Yurtle?
LikeLiked by 1 person
You mean Yertle! – I don’t know my Dr. Suess books all that well from my childhood (and wasn’t reinforced with children). Can’t recall if I ever read that one or not, but these were definitely not that one as it was normal colored – Dr. Suess tends to give everything flamboyant colors and assuming he made Yertle purple (whoa, maybe I should write for him ha).
LikeLike
fun post and great pics.. Ouch … grad you got wiser from the snapper.. would be less clicks for you 🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
Appreciate you dropping by and now following!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure. 💖
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! – would have been bad for both me and the Turtle!
LikeLiked by 1 person
for sure!🤣💖
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the follow… I’m following you now as well🙏🌷
LikeLiked by 1 person