Reflections - Turtles and Snakes and Salamanders, Oh My

Audubon Community Nature Center Garden

Dear Julie,

I hope you’re enjoying fall, especially the mums you said your dad liked. 

Spence and I met Norma and Bob at the Audubon Community Nature Center in Jamestown, New York. In the main room, we peered into a 4X6X3 foot tank to find Oneka and Tweeg, two female eastern hellbenders. The giant salamanders were over a foot long. Their stony gray faces blended with the rocky bottom. One had crawled into a white pipe. The other lay under a rock and twitched her tail. Were they watching us? Hard to tell. 

Across from their tank, windows overlooked bird feeders. Nuthatches dined at the only one with seeds. The windows had frosted patterns for an experiment. Scientists tested which pattern—thin parallel lines, squares in regular rows and columns, and squares alternating in even and odd rows—if any, reduced birds flying into the glass.

We left the main room and dallied in the live reptile room. I glanced at the California corn snake and the yellow rat snake briefly but stared intently at turtles staring at me.  From Wells Wood encounters, I recognized the box turtle and the wood turtle. I watched the spotted turtle the longest. Its shell had tiny polka dots as if someone had measured and painted them in an exact design. A painted turtle slid off its platform into the water. All four of its legs paddled as it maneuvered and scraped against the glass. It got one leg onto the platform only to slip into the water. Repeatedly. I wanted to reach in and lift the critter to the platform. Norma warned, “No, you can’t do that.” Spence said, “The turtle wouldn’t appreciate your intentions.” I moved on.

Love,

Janet

P.S. If you want to see all ten postcard stories of our Jamestown vacation with Bob and Norma, use this link:

https://sites.google.com/site/wellswoodpa/vacations/visit-with-norma-and-bob-jamestown

View of Audubon Community Nature Center from the Marsh