Turkey Hunting

Back in December of last year, we had to send in our spring turkey hunting application. This year, Mr. Johnson decided to choose the early second season which started on Monday of this week. Since he's retired now, he's been able to go out hunting each day, but Wednesday was the only day I had off work, so I spent the morning in the turkey blind. I heard several turkeys gobbling all around me, but apparently they weren't interested in these attractive decoys set up outside my blind.Because I've done enough turkey hunting to know that the birds don't always cooperate, I brought along a book and some knitting, so the morning definitely wasn't wasted!


The only live bird that came close to my blind was this American Robin.

Shortly before it was time to leave, I left the blind and took a little stroll. I spotted this little sparrow who really didn't want to be photographed, so I'm not sure of its identity.....maybe a Chipping Sparrow? (Thanks to Hap from New Hope who ID'd this bird as a Swamp Sparrow.)

When we were setting up the blinds last Sunday, I spent quite a bit of time sitting at the edge of this little pond (a vernal pool?) watching the turtles and listening to frogs. Because I know turtles like basking on logs in a pond, I found a big branch and dragged it into the pond for the turtles and sure enough, when I walked over there Wednesday morning, I saw 2 turtles dive off the log when they saw me approaching.

When I visited this pond on Sunday, I could see that there were at least 4 turtles in the water, so I decided to step back away from the edge of the pond to see if the turtles would show themselves again. After a few minutes, turtle heads began popping out of the water. The first one I saw with this small Painted Turtle. I think these were the turtles that had been basking on the log. They're really pretty, aren't they?

I saw this big turtle at the edge of the other side of the pond. If there are any turtle experts reading this post, can you ID this turtle? I don't have any turtle field guides at home (I think I need to get one though!) but when I googled "turtle ID" I was thinking this one looks an awful lot like a Smooth Softshell Turtle.

Here's another look. It was big! I'm guessing the turtle's shell was at least 10 inches long. I think Smooth Softshelled Turtles are kind of rare in Minnesota, so it would be really neat if that's what this is.

Here's that Painted Turtle again, thinking about crawling back up onto the log.....

And here's another big turtle head that surfaced. I never saw any parts of its shell, but got 2 different looks at its head and I'm thinking this is probably a Common Snapping Turtle.

Here's the other look at this turtle's head.

Anybody have any thoughts on this turtle ID? Is it possible to have these 3 different kinds of turtles living together in the same small pond? And once this pond dries up in the hot days of summer, where will these turtles go? There's a small river nearby, but I think turtles like ponds better, don't they?


We're turkey hunting at a new farm this year and they have beef and dairy cattle here, with the added bonus of lots of cute little calves. This guy's pretty handsome, don't you think?

"Dude, wait for me! I got really short legs!"

These 2 were sound asleep in the sun.

I managed to get a few pets across the fence before they woke up enough to run away. Their fur is soft as a puppy when they're little like this.