We had a visitor to our backyard this week…
A turtle.
He was a surprise visitor given that we live kilometers away from the nearest waterway.
I know absolutely nothing about turtles, but managed to work out what sort of turtle he was was by searching the NSW Wildlife Atlas for reptiles in the Newcastle local government area. The results revealed only one turtle, the Eastern Snake-Necked Turtle. I checked a few images, and yep, thats him, commonly known as a ‘Stinker’ (i’m so glad we didn’t experience the reason for this common name).
We learnt heaps about these common turtles from this great radio interview.
Leaving him in our backyard wasn’t an option as he would have just wandered off and been at risk of being hit by a car. So we decided to return him to a nearby wetland. I hope he didn’t mind, but we selfishly kept him for a few days to take advantage of this opportunity to connect with nature. Little Eco named him Taxi, after the book Turtle Taxi by Guundie Kuchling. She took him to preschool and proudly showed him off to her friends.
A few days later it was time to say goodbye. Little Eco begged to keep him and told me how sad she was to see him go.
Saying goodbye.
Going…
going…
gone.
She was heart-broken. She wanted to jump in and catch him.
Turtle craft
To try and cheer her up, I think we’ll do some turtle crafting this weekend. Perhaps a recycled egg carton turtle, or a trash turtle puppet, or a paper plate turtle? I’ve also printed out a few turtle colouring sheets.
