These photos are also from my trip to Michigan. I know it’s kind of a cheaty way to get photos of birds, but the feeder was so full of action! These are just a few, but you can see here a Blue Jay, both a male and female Pileated Woodpecker, a Red-breasted Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker. Personally, I was overjoyed to have finally seen Pileated Woodpeckers. After learning a little bit about them in school, I was impressed by their sheer size! I made it a personal goal to photograph one someday, and I was fortunate enough to see 2! (Thanks to my Grandma, who came upstairs at 8am to wake me up, running into my room saying “Pileated! Pileated!”. No faster way to get me out of bed.)
After a busy day of pedal boating, slacklining and ATVing, my Grandma called me to a window in the kitchen overlooking her driveway because she saw something in the road. I grabbed the binoculars to see if I could distinguish what it was. First guess at first glance: baby porcupine? No. Squirrel? Nope, maybe not. OH MY GOD, IT’S A TURTLE. I screamed to my friend in the other room, and I took off running down the driveway. I don’t know why I was in such a hurry, it’s not like the turtle was going very far. Sheer excitement, no doubt.
It was a beautifully sized snapper. And I snagged it immediately. And man, did it stink. It had probably just crawled out of the swampy land next to the driveway. I was so happy, but the turtle was not. And neither was my Grandma, because I could hear her lecturing me from the house as she made her way to where I was. “Don’t pick that thing up Stephanie, you’re going to lose your fingers. Oh gall, he is ugly, put him down. He’s going to bite you, you shouldn’t touch that thing.” Oh, how I love her. I tried to reassure her that I knew what I was doing, and I was going to school for stuff like this, so she should stop scolding me, haha.
