It looks like the rest of the turtles, mostly Western Painted variety, have come out of hibernation in the backwater adjacent to Fox Island Road. As I drove past on other business yesterday I saw a whole pack of ’em lined up along the bank, sunning themselves.

I usually have a camera with wherever I go, so I decided to try my luck with ’em. Even with a 300mm lens I couldn’t get very close before they all dashed into the water. Then they sat there, heads poking out of the water in curiosity, taunting me. As you can see, there are dozens of the little buggers over there. If you look closer, even on a photo this small, you can see some rather large fish poking around in that pond too. They’ll be in big trouble if the water gets low; I saw one dried up on the sand already.

I remember a time in the late 80’s where a whole pack of us made a late night trip out to Fox Island on the motorcycles. We were in a pretty tight bunch and going at a rather brisk pace around the fun curves of the road. When we pulled up and parked at Fox Island, one guy pointed out that one of the turtles was walking across the road as we went by. By a miracle none of us hit him. That would have been bad for turtle AND motorcyclist.