Gravel Hill’s snapping turtles, geese and new mermaid

A SUNNY SPRING DAY - Eventhough corona has Besche Furniture shut down, there was still plenty happening at Gravel Hill when I drove through recently.  Had to stop.  First, a new mermaid, more elaborate and sculptural than the last sweetheart who monitored the water level there for decades.  (Water level’s down now, barely enough for one lone fisherman to wet his lure.)

Then a sandy little island in the gravel pit across the street caught my eye.  Not so much the sand, but moreso the Canada geese and several snapping turtles enjoying the warm sunshine together.  Turtles can be skittish but the geese didn’t seem to bother them. Nice to see nature’s creatures getting along.

Back in the truck, I drove only about 20 yards before I had to pull over again. It was the next pond, closer to Route 30, that caught my eye this time.  I’ve never seen so many snapping turtles in one place. I mentioned skittish.  By the time I made it up to the chainlink fence with my camera half of the turtles had scurried and slipped back into the water.  But you’ll see by the photo I did get that there were still dozens there.  You could get a lot of turtle soup out of that Gravel Hill Pond.

A few more photos here.  Nature never lets me down.  First, the early green buds of a sassafras tree on the beach- and park-side of Freeman Highway bridge, glowing against the backdrop of dark pines.

Then a field of purple spring flowers in a cover crop on a farm just east of Church Hill on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

And in that same field, the seed head of a dandelion against the same purple field.  Shot that one pretty close with a 300 mm Canon lens.

Don’t forget to spread a little love around and call a friend. 

UPDATE: Marianne Walch wrote me to let me know that the turtles I photographed were red-bellied cooters, not snapping turtles. That’s comforting to know because that many snapping turtles would constitute a painful toe-crunching submarine army.  Still, I don’t think I’ll be wading in the pond at Gravel Hill any time soon.  Thanks Marianne.