We have been getting an unusual amount of rain here lately, but a couple of days before we left for vacation, we got almost 12 inches in a single day! (Some areas just slightly north of us received over 15 inches that day!!) The front yard was nearly completely covered in water.
After the rain stopped we looked out of the window to see this fellow swimming by the front porch steps! (Look closely and you can see the green grass through the water.) I stripped off my shoes, grabbed a nearby aluminum container and scooped up our visitor for a closer look.
He turned out to be an alligator snapping turtle, who was not the least impressed by our observation attempts. In the photo above, we just barely touched him with the tip of a plastic sword, and wow! He was fast! After a brief nature study, we released our little neighbor... a bit further from the house than we had found him. :-)
