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We camped along Rondout Creek in the Catskills.
The weather was ideal, an unsettled combination of sun and rain.
Though I ran out of dry clothes after Sunday night’s impressive thunderstorm,
the anticipated rain cleared out the campground and left this entire paradise empty for us on Sunday and Monday.
The video features several waterfalls and a close encounter with a deer.
Outside the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan.
Linda, a turtle fan tells me:
The consensus on Turtle Rescue of Long Island message board thought it might be a red-eared slider of some sort — albeit a dirty one — because of what little bit of color you can see on the bottom of the shell under it’s neck and around the edges. The other theory was a diamondback terrapin who swam up from the south jersey coast. But most likely it is a slider. Red-eared sliders (usually abbreviated RES) are extremely common and often dumped because they get too big and people don’t know what else to do. Here’s the website of a rescue organization that gives advice for trying to rescue RES. It might not be so easy. As for whether he needs rescuing, I have no idea what to say, RES are freshwater turtles, and I have no idea what effect brackish water would have on them. And it’s definitely a male. Females don’t have those long nails. Chinatown markets sell live RES as food and sometimes they get away.
More on Linda’s blog post: Turtle Sighting in Lower Manhattan
I know there are wild parrots in Brooklyn but this might the first on the Lower East Side. It’s been squawking to itself all morning. Is it someone’s lost pet? It is very hard to see against the leafy background, I passed by it twice before I could see it. From its squawk I first thought it was a crow.
