A different pic not a moose but still cool

[CHRIS]

I was on my lunch break and I drive around this park near where I work and came upon this big guy so I snapped some pics. and felt like sharing.







He was a pretty big fella. While I was leaving I came across this flower that I thought was pretty.



I just felt like sharing some of my photos.

[MsCntry]

He is a big fella!! Looks like he has been in a few attacks by the look of his shell. Pretty flower also!! Thanks for sharing!!

[KD Talbot]

I hope you didn't get as close as the pictures made it look! Yeah, I'd say from the looks of his shell maybe birdshot. What a beautiful animal!

KDT

[forestgnome]

Awesome pictures! Thanks for posting.

He looks old to me, but I don't know much about snappers even though I've seen many over the years. I wonder how it got those holes in the shell.

I really like the closeup of the foot.

[TrishandAlex]

Wow, that's great. I don't know why, but turtles/tortoises always make me smile. There's a persnickety appearance about them which I find amusing.

And I'd rather see one of those on the trails than a bear or a moose, simply because I'm pretty sure I could outrun one if it turned grumpy.

[Breeze]

What great pics of the snapper.

Brought me WAY back to my childhood ( scary how far back!) remembering how BIG snappers would make their way up out of the flowage of the Ware River, ( Ware, MA) negotiate 4 foot drylaid stone walls, and end up in backyards.

I remember my Dad deciding that one such visitor needed to be relocated OUT of our walled in back yard. He thought to fetch a bushel basket and a broomstick, baited the turtle with the broomstick in front of its nose, until it struck........... and chomped the broomstick in half. Next Dad went for an axe-handle, which proved more sturdy. He got the snapper to bite on the axe-handle and then lifted the behemoth into the bushel basket, threw a burlap sack across the top of the basket and loaded the basket into the back of the station wagon.

THEN he realized he had his own 4 kids plus 2 more neighbor kids in his care for the afternoon, so a ride back around into the Ware River Park meant he had to put the back seat of the station wagon down and pack in all the kids ( yes, this was WAY before seat belts!!!!!).

On the memorable ride of less than half a mile to the main Park Gate, Snapper over turned the basket and was scrabbling around the back end of the station wagon with a burlap sack over its shell and head causing screams of fright from kids age 5-12 thinking thoughts of being eaten.

Dad stopped the car, grabbed the brute by the carapace, and hoisted it back into the basket.

Snapper was taken to near the river and left, basket tipped over, to make its own escape.

It is a screaming hoot ( hahahaha) to remember now, but also a fond memory of my Dad's peaceful intentions placed into action.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Breeze

[Rich]

Good God...he's huge! And old!

Thanks for sharing these shots! They're great!

[TrishandAlex]

Breeze, that story is hysterical. What a great memory that made! Glad to hear no one's ear was bit off during the car ride.

[mtruman]

Great pictures - particularly the closeups. You'd think that you were looking at shots of a dinosaur! Definitely an awesome creature.

[dixiemax]

big fella!
beautiful pix....