During the warm summer months along the Saw Mill River in Westchester County NY you should always look towards the edge of the bike path while walking. Just sayin'.
That's the point Saty, this woman jogger was looking quite close at it and I was starting to come over and she said there's like a huge turtle over there and she thinks it's dead. Uh-uh,
I'm so glad my MMS on my smartphone worked last night. I was on my second tumbler of the Christian Bros., must've been bored and let me try to find out again how to do this (ah yes INSERT!). BB apparently there's several wrong ways to grab a snapping turtle not that I would but the old way of holding it by its tail you could actually damage the turtle's vertebrae. Can't hold it by the carapace or upper shell as the neck is highly mobile and then the head can reach all the way back and bite you. Holding it by the plastron or lower part of the body is the best way but seems to me that would take balls of steel.
It's an LG840G Tracfone. Two things, if you connect to WiFi like at a library you can browse all you want without using any minutes. Second when you google the LG840G some disparage it in the sense it's not a true smartphone although HSN advertises it as such. Not the most advanced on the market probably, the screen's a little smaller than an Android but I find it does many useful things in a smartphone sense. Should I ever get another phone I'll go with something else only to try something else after transferring everything on my memory card of course. I'm not really into that many apps yet but I download music left and right and the MP3 is a great quality.
I don't think she even knew it was a snapper until I told her. Many people use the bike path, the section of the South County Trail that runs from Farragut in Hastings to Ardsley and many walk their small dogs close to the side where the snappers like to hang out. No problems yet but I do think many people are blissfully unaware of the sit'chation.
Snapping turtle; back when I was in 6th grade, a couple of us kids took the long way home from school, along the lake. Came across a motherly snapper laying eggs quite away up the sand bank. Dumb Roger took a kick at her. (clearly, Roger did not grow up to be a naturalist). She was probably 35-45 lbs and latched onto Roger's tennis shoe. ..battle royal, after half an hour Roger went home less one shoe.
You're probably right soap, whenever I'm shopping for something entirely differentthan cells I always come across a newer product that I see by accident, try to forget about it, circle the store a couple times, go home and it nags at you. So if it's worth it you go back on your day off and make the purchase.
I always liked herpetology as a kid BB. I always stayed away from the water snakes which up here get rather large. Though nonvenomous they have a nasty disposition and according to one field guide when they bite you they have an anticoagulant. The snapping turtles up here ain't nuthin' when you go down South and where you'll find the much larger Alligator Snapping Turtle. They lie there on the muddy bottom with their mouth open and wriggle a pinklike appendage to catch unlucky fish that think it's a worm. You know when you study Nature it's all rather diabolical.
I'm not big on water snakes, either. One time river canoeing, we stopped during a thunderstorm- pulled the canoe up the bank and got under it to keep dry. So did a large member of the species , who stayed dry while we stood out in the rain.
Cloacal musk, Oh God I remember that when collecting garter snakes. Water snakes down south can easily be mistaken for the much more dangerous Cottonmouth. One of my favorite snakes growing up was the King Snake, always fascinated by the fact that they are somehow immune to rattlesnake venom.
We have our 24 vertebrae: cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral. Hard to relate to a slippery slithery creature with 200-400 vertebrae, all procoelus. Besides, they look scary.
According to wiki snappers have been known to travel some distance from water and to cross roads in their travels. I'll help any turtle but that one and I'm thinking they could also give you a flat tire if you run over them.
I think tortoises outlive alot of people. Interesting about snappers though, they can't bring their limbs and head inside of their shells like most turtles so evolution has made them overly aggressive if need be and their primary defense is biting. Oooops, did I say evolution?
As a kid I poked a snapper once with a stick and it bit the stick in half and hissed at me.
Needless to say I was properly intimidated.
I grew up on a lake (Tibet, in Putnam County) so all sorts of turtles, clams, snakes, leeches, frogs and assorted wetlands fauna were an everyday thing with us. But I learned the lesson and didn't mess with the snappers after that.
'You don't fool with me and I won't fool with you' is a pretty good policy. I use that on the copperheads around here.
BB's right but they will take fish and frogs should the opportunity present itself. I've often wondered this though but never actually seen it, I'm sure they're perfectly capable of taking down a swan or a goose swimming on the water but for some reason doesn't seem to happen at least around here. Saty I was thinking of that copperhead you found in your garden blog you once posted and I remember growing up picking up a real small baby copperhead in my yard, could tell by the pattern on the back and the viper-like shape of the head and even as a baby the thing was trying to bite me. Always remembered that.
That bad boy right there could take your finger off without even trying.
ReplyDeleteI love turtles. They're so Jurassic.
The indigenous chelydra serpentina.
ReplyDeleteIf you could have grabbed it without getting grabbed, you might
find a spot on RedNeck TV...
That's the point Saty, this woman jogger was looking quite close at it and I was starting to come over and she said there's like a huge turtle over there and she thinks it's dead. Uh-uh,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad my MMS on my smartphone worked last night. I was on my second tumbler of the Christian Bros., must've been bored and let me try to find out again how to do this (ah yes INSERT!). BB apparently there's several wrong ways to grab a snapping turtle not that I would but the old way of holding it by its tail you could actually damage the turtle's vertebrae. Can't hold it by the carapace or upper shell as the neck is highly mobile and then the head can reach all the way back and bite you. Holding it by the plastron or lower part of the body is the best way but seems to me that would take balls of steel.
ReplyDeleteI think you should have let her try to pick it up.
ReplyDeleteYou have a cell phone, you could have called 911 after it bit off a couple of her fingers.
What kind of phone do you have Z?
ReplyDeleteIt's an LG840G Tracfone. Two things, if you connect to WiFi like at a library you can browse all you want without using any minutes. Second when you google the LG840G some disparage it in the sense it's not a true smartphone although HSN advertises it as such. Not the most advanced on the market probably, the screen's a little smaller than an Android but I find it does many useful things in a smartphone sense. Should I ever get another phone I'll go with something else only to try something else after transferring everything on my memory card of course. I'm not really into that many apps yet but I download music left and right and the MP3 is a great quality.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she even knew it was a snapper until I told her. Many people use the bike path, the section of the South County Trail that runs from Farragut in Hastings to Ardsley and many walk their small dogs close to the side where the snappers like to hang out. No problems yet but I do think many people are blissfully unaware of the sit'chation.
ReplyDeleteYou'll probably go with that for a while until you step into a new Galaxy.
ReplyDeleteSnapping turtle; back when I was in 6th grade, a couple of us kids
ReplyDeletetook the long way home from school, along the lake. Came across
a motherly snapper laying eggs quite away up the sand bank. Dumb
Roger took a kick at her. (clearly, Roger did not grow up to be a naturalist). She was probably
35-45 lbs and latched onto Roger's
tennis shoe. ..battle royal, after
half an hour Roger went home less
one shoe.
You're probably right soap, whenever I'm shopping for something entirely differentthan cells I always come across a newer product that I see by accident, try to forget about it, circle the store a couple times, go home and it nags at you. So if it's worth it you go back on your day off and make the purchase.
ReplyDeleteI always liked herpetology as a kid BB. I always stayed away from the water snakes which up here get rather large. Though nonvenomous they have a nasty disposition and according to one field guide when they bite you they have an anticoagulant. The snapping turtles up here ain't nuthin' when you go down South and where you'll find the much larger Alligator Snapping Turtle. They lie there on the muddy bottom with their mouth open and wriggle a pinklike appendage to catch unlucky fish that think it's a worm. You know when you study Nature it's all rather diabolical.
ReplyDeleteI'm not big on water snakes, either. One time river canoeing,
ReplyDeletewe stopped during a thunderstorm-
pulled the canoe up the bank and
got under it to keep dry. So did
a large member of the species , who stayed dry while we stood out in the rain.
Cloacal musk, Oh God I remember that when collecting garter snakes. Water snakes down south can easily be mistaken for the much more dangerous Cottonmouth. One of my favorite snakes growing up was the King Snake, always fascinated by the fact that they are somehow immune to rattlesnake venom.
ReplyDeleteWe have our 24 vertebrae: cervical,
ReplyDeletethoracic, lumbar and sacral. Hard to relate to a slippery slithery
creature with 200-400 vertebrae,
all procoelus. Besides, they look
scary.
We make a practice of stopping to assist turtles crossing the road. Some of them are mighty healthy looking specimens way bigger than a supper plate.
ReplyDeleteWelder's gloves are a must, and even then you want to be careful.
According to wiki snappers have been known to travel some distance from water and to cross roads in their travels. I'll help any turtle but that one and I'm thinking they could also give you a flat tire if you run over them.
ReplyDeleteAren't they fabulous though... as a species they're like way howdy more successful than we are.
ReplyDelete& they live a long life 30 yrs. in the wild I think.
ReplyDeleteI bet it's more than that. Big tortises can live for a hundred years.
ReplyDeleteI think tortoises outlive alot of people. Interesting about snappers though, they can't bring their limbs and head inside of their shells like most turtles so evolution has made them overly aggressive if need be and their primary defense is biting. Oooops, did I say evolution?
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I poked a snapper once with a stick and it bit the stick in half and hissed at me.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say I was properly intimidated.
I grew up on a lake (Tibet, in Putnam County) so all sorts of turtles, clams, snakes, leeches, frogs and assorted wetlands fauna were an everyday thing with us. But I learned the lesson and didn't mess with the snappers after that.
'You don't fool with me and I won't fool with you' is a pretty good policy. I use that on the copperheads around here.
So all this aggression, it occurs to me to ask, are they vegetarian?
ReplyDeleteThey are omnivores, like us and the Grizzly. ..and yes, all three
ReplyDeletespecies are capable of a lot of aggression....
BB's right but they will take fish and frogs should the opportunity present itself. I've often wondered this though but never actually seen it, I'm sure they're perfectly capable of taking down a swan or a goose swimming on the water but for some reason doesn't seem to happen at least around here. Saty I was thinking of that copperhead you found in your garden blog you once posted and I remember growing up picking up a real small baby copperhead in my yard, could tell by the pattern on the back and the viper-like shape of the head and even as a baby the thing was trying to bite me. Always remembered that.
ReplyDelete