@Sall20 We have just been swallowed up by the city. Our water bills have doubled. We were in a M.U.D. before. I have a three tiered fountain out back that you can see from the front of the house. Can't use it because the drop from each tier is over 4" but my neighbors can fill their pool anytime! Makes no sense.

That 4" drop is what got me too! We lived on a large corner lot and I tried to use the sprinklers wisely. Still had a $250 water bill one month! Before we moved, we were looking into redoing the yard and taking out as much grass as the HOA would allow, but if you have to hire it done, you're looking at a major expense. We knew we were probably moving, so just winced and paid the water bill.

The rains did bring me a visitor yesterday.

Awww....he's cute!

Bubbles said:Awww....he's cute!

Until it takes a finger off.

Is he a snappin' turtle?

Bubbles said:Is he a snappin' turtle?

Yep!

I don't think he is. Our snappers have a different shell shape. He looks like some sort of tortoise to me.

Looks like a Common Snapping Turtle, but def not an alligator snapping turtle. I know the Alligator Snapping Turtle is mainly found in the southwest, but I do think the Common's range does extend a bit into Texas.

Alligator Snapper


Common Snapper

ps.

Sorry for having this 'Yankee' show up in this here southern thread, was originally interested to see if everyone was getting through the storms ok. Hoping everything is good with all of you. Just had to add my 2 cents on the marvelous garden visitor Jay had since I knew a touch about them.

Alligator Snapping Turtles can be found in this part of Texas and Common Snapping Turtle is found throughout most of the state. This is a Common Snapping Turtle.

robertduval14 said:ps.

Sorry for having this 'Yankee' show up in this here southern thread, was originally interested to see if everyone was getting through the storms ok. Hoping everything is good with all of you. Just had to add my 2 cents on the marvelous garden visitor Jay had since I knew a touch about them.

Your always welcome in Texas, ( Forum or State).

After some rain a few years ago this one made her nest in my yard (aka former pasture). Not really a good choice for location, but she didn't ask first. She was about the size of a dinner plate. That means she was smaller than what we call a snapping turtle in these parts, but a lot bigger than what we call 'land terrapins' or the common water turtles. She was a bit more colorful than the bigger ones we call 'snapping turtles' and wasn't very aggressive when the dog was pestering her. I wasn't sure what she was. But I'm not really sure about those we do call 'snapping turtles' either. Those tend to have a 'tent' shaped shell as opposed to the 'dome' shape seen here, but nothing like the Alligator Snapping Turtles. Could this one have just been a young 'Common'?

Donald, did it have red coloring behind it's ear? My son rescued a red-ear slider from the pool yesterday, it's just a baby not bigger than 1 inch. We had raised a baby red-ear over 20 years ago, and it grew to look like your photo. We have a ditch behind our back yard and somehow it found its way to the side yard and we raised it in a plastic shoe box till it was in those big clear containers used for storage.

Red-ear slider was my first thought also. It definitely not a snapper.

I think the red-ear slider is probably the one I call the common water turtle. I think it looked right for that except I've never seen one so large and I don't see them so far away from a body of water. That wouldn't be usual for nesting, would it? Its head wasn't out far enough to show the 'red ear' pattern when I took the photo and I can't remember now. It's been too long. The nest wasn't a success. Armadillos (it looked like their damage) found it soon after, but I guess it could also have been a skunk or raccoon or maybe a possum. Too bad. It would have been fun to see them hatch out.

Red-ears can reach around a foot in length. This may or may not be a red-ear but it is almost surely one of a variety of similar looking water turtles called sliders or cooters.

Here's a pretty good Texas turtle site.
http://www.texasturtles.org/

Red-ears here come up out of the river quite a long distance to lay their eggs. I think they want them to be safe from flooding. I have seen many dinner plate sized ones. The stripey face makes me think yours is a red-ear.

I was just reading about them on wiki and it's very interesting. You would assume since they spend so much time in the water that they would lay their eggs near it. But as Porkpal said they probably want to protect the nest from flooding. Also it say that they don't enter the water until 21 days after hatching. If they enter to soon air can enter the turtle through the split left behind from the absorbed yolk sac, and kill it. Laying far from the water might help insure the young turtles don't inadvertently enter the water.

We had lots of rain since Monday night and finally stop, today is beautiful day....
News reported 5 tornadoes on Monday night and Tuesday DFW that was pretty bad, damaged houses and mobile homes,
http://www.star-telegram.com/n...
I hope this week-end is a wonderful one for everyone...