Today was an eventful today day as far as the garden is concerned.

The turtles of which I believe there are four, have been pretty active sunning themselves on the rocks around the ponds. When I say active, I don’t mean they are jumping about. Quite the contrary as they are just sitting in the sun but they have come out of the water and are showing themselves which is always a pleasant surprise.

The biggest of the two in this picture is probably 8-9 inches in shell size whilst the small one is about 4 inches. The small one is the same one that wandered up about a month ago when I was mulching and discovered him by the trailer. I wondered if he had hung around and it appears he has. They do move from pond to pond as both were originally sighted in the third pond and this picture is taken by the pond and stream.

As a follow-up to this blog, after I had posted it, I took a walk around the garden as I often do and came across the little turtle on one of the walkways. Guess he was on a walkabout so I picked him up and put him back in the same pond hoping that he will stay there.

Turtles in Stream and Pond

Another and much more interesting event was the discovery by Richie, my inquisitive dachshund, of a large tree snake. This may well be the same one that he had a run in with last year which I wrote about in an earlier blog. Luckily, I am beginning to recognize some of his barks and can tell the squirrel barks or the buzzard barks. This one had a note of real panic and concern which got me over to him pretty quick. Again, the tree snakes at first glance do resemble the markings of a rattlesnake. I moved the dogs indoors whilst I dealt with this intruder.

So, armed with a camera I went back and given more time, was able to determine that this snake was harmless. I took a few pictures and made sure that it left the property by slithering under the fence before letting the dogs back out. Richie was straight back to the spot he first encountered the snake and was most disappointed that it was gone. Nothing left to kick up a fuss over. By the way, this snake was all of 6 feet long.

Tree Snake in Defensive Mode

If you double click on the picture, you can see a larger version of the snake in all of his glory.