Turtles, turtle and tortoise

We live near a small lake; I am guessing there is some geological reason for it being a lake, but I would consider it more of a pond. Living near this lake for five years, we get to enjoy seeing a lot of ducks and geese and figured a turtle or two might be around. We had our first turtle sighting a few weeks back on a sunny day. They were Painter turtles, I think. They crawl up the bank, away from the lake, creep across the road and sun themselves in the neighbors' yards. We saw about five of them coming and going on the first day.

Every day, the kids beg us to drive by the lake to see if there are any more turtles. If there are, we put the car in park, open the doors so the kids can see...admire the cute critters for a bit and move along.

Two weekends ago, we were slowly driving looking for crossing turtles and came across a big'un--a Snapping turtle. It didn't take us long to figure out mama turtle was up laying eggs. Later in the day, upon our return, we saw yet another female up from the shore laying eggs. She was there all day long. After doing a little research, we have learned that the eggs will hatch in 75 to 150 days from now. It seems like forever from now.

This past Saturday, we encountered yet another turtle. He seemed to be stuck and not able to get up the curb. So Kyle and the kids got out and had a "look-see." There was some seaweed and possibly a leech on its shell. Kyle picked the turtle up and just as he was about to set it down on the mud, the turtle peed--a lot--just missing Kyle's shoe! The kids sure got a giggle out of that.

We also got to the Minnesota Zoo and saw several varieties of turtles and tortoises. Below you see the kids on the bronze tortoise. I am beginning to think every zoo has one of these. Does yours?