Today’s archive has a recurring theme of U.P. Critters, some common, some not so common to catch a glimpse of. We start with a shot from Brita Haapala back in 2006. That’s her son, David, who had found this tiny painted turtle and just had to show Mom. These guys, big and small are seen this time of year crossing the roadways, so it’s always nice if you can stop and escort them safely in the direction they are going, so they don’t get run over on their journey.

The next critter isn’t your normal “pet” critter, this little fox was photographed by Janine Beveridge in 2013. It looks like the young fox spotted her at about the same time she spotted it. What a great opportunity, to be able to capture a photo of such a beautiful little animal.

Speaking of beauty, the third photo, taken in 2015, certainly is one. Not only because of the beautiful phlox growing all over this field, but because of Joy Ziemnick’s old pal, Diesel. The comment by Capt. Paul when this shot appeared three years ago, really made me chuckle: I’ve heard of tiptoeing through the tulips, but “dieseling through the phlox” is a new one!

In case you’ve never seen this part of nature before, we have a video of a Painted Turtle laying it’s eggs and covering them up. Those turtles really put in some hard work doing this, first digging the hole and then the covering the eggs up again with sand. It’s really amazing how nature takes care of things on their own like this.

Interesting set of pix and the video had my cerebral cortex aroused, right untill the END.

We watched a snapper lay eggs at a public access one
time. Don't imagine those eggs survived.

Diesel is so cute!

Great pictures today. I love the phlox growing
all over. My mom has them in her yard. They're
the pink and white ones.

The video was cool. We had a turtle lay her eggs
in our yard once. We kept watch, but never did
see when they hatched.