Two turtles!

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   darksideposted 16 years ago

   These aren't pets, but I'll share it anyway...
   
   I was driving my my place to a nearby town, 25 kilometres away when I saw a shell in the middle of my side of the road. I was careful not to drive over it. Because it was a turtle shell. About the size of a plate... the one under the size of the dinner plate but not as small as a tea saucer.
   
   I told my wife "there was a turtle!".
   
   She told me to go back and move him. But I said no. But we barely got 50 metres further on when I saw another. So I pulled over, turned around, went back to the first one and picked him up (I had never touched or held a turtle before) and moved him. He was a bit scared and did a big turtle wee. It was like half a can of cokes worth of liquid.
   
   It didn't smell, so that's a good thing.
   
   Then I drove up and got second Mr Turtle (they may have been having drag races) and moved him over too. He too lost control of his bladder but not nearly as much as the other.
   
   Unfortunately no photos. There was no camera with me at the time. I'm thinking I really need to get a video camera and get the wife to film me as I rescue or help the local wildlife.
   
   We've only been living here since August. A "tree change" they call it. We moved from a spot that was a stones throw from a large coastal lake and five minutes drive from the ocean. Now we're living right out in the country.
   
   In addition to the countless number of cows which surround us and also some fantastic Shire horses on the property across the road (they're a little bigger than a Clydesdale) we've rescued two orphaned crested pigeons, an adult male bat that was caught on a barbed wire fence, a premature baby bat that was motherless (he still had the umbilical cord attached), a baby Magpie (they're a raven type of bird, and the adult males are like kamekazi pilots) and... I think that's about it (if you know me over at SquidU you've all been hearing of the adventures!).
   
   The kids are always finding frogs around the place. Some no larger than a thumbnail.
   
   And we have flocks of galahs, rosellas, cockatoos and other colourful birdlife around too (for those that don't know I live in Australia) often feeding on the lawn.
   
   We haven't had any kangaroos or wallabies in our yard but across the road they get a lot of them. We went 4wding on his property yesterday and saw 8 or 9 of the roos. And they move fast too.
   
   No koalas in sight. But evidence of wombats.
   
   It's like I'm living in the middle of a zoo.

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2. 86

   Zsuzsy Beeposted 16 years ago

   I loved  your write-up. My kids always make me do "the rescue thing". The road into town splits a large pond and swamp (a bird and wildlife sanctuary) on the edges of Lake Erie.
   Turtles of every shape, size and type, snappers included have been either helped on their way or maybe set back so they had to start their trip allover again.
   As you said it's a zoo out there...
   Greetings from the other side of the world  The Great White North  Canada
   Zsuzsy

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3. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Darkside
   
   Goodonya for rescuing the turtles.  I would have made you stop for them too!
   
   I lived in the bush for a year when I first arrived in Australia (that was 20 years ago).  I took the wildlife in my stride, but only because I'd lived in Africa for 3 years.  There, we had gekkos in every room, native rats in the roof, bats in the garden and snakes in the most unexpected places.  Compared to that, Australia was a dawdle!
   
   Though I have to admit, I never got used to kamikaze magpies.

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4. 63

   darksideposted 16 years ago

   "Kamikaze" Magpies have also been the reason for a few of the orphaned birds we've found around the property.
   
   Two baby crested pigeons. And more recently (just a few days ago) two baby back and white Willy Wagtails.
   
   As a baby they look like a little penguin.
   
   The crested pigeon chicks looked like ducks.

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      Isabella Snowposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Are you sure they are orphaned? When baby birds are learning to fly, they are often on the ground for a while, and their parents still feed them down there.

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         darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         In the case of the crested pigeons the magpies had to be shooed away and the babies were on the ground and stuck in the bush. Both helpless and still too young to walk properly.
         
         They had made a few attacks on the nest prior to the last one.
         
         The Willy Wagtails had two surviving chicks. There were two others that were dead. One had an eye missing.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Aw cute!  Sounds like a Hub subject??

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      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      It certainly would be, if I didn't have a backlog of good ideas drafted as notepad documents awaiting my time and talent.
      
      So much to write about and so little time!

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   darksideposted 16 years ago

   This is far less cute.
   
   Across the road they just rescued a baby one of these.

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      positivemindedposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      He (or she?) looks kinda sad.

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         darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         I was kinda thinking "insane".

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   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Looks like a mini vulture!  I'm sure its mummy loved it in spite of its looks..

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      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      The adults are not much bigger than a pigeon, though far less plump.
      
      And they do look like vultures. I noticed that when one got caught between the green mesh and the chicken wire of a greenhouse on the property and we had to get him out (alive). The baby looks pretty much the same but with a tuft of 'hair' that sticks up on it's head like Don King.

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   Betty Jo Pettyposted 16 years ago

   Goodness, at the animals.  I thought I had a yardful, at least off-and-on.  Cardinals, Blue-Jays, way too many blackbirds.  Robins and others when springs arrives. Purple Martins, Crows. 
   Squirrels, year-around, although they hide when it's too cold.  They aren't even afraid of the cats and dogs any more.  (But watch out if they don't run away fast enough).
   Turtles, some occasionally, rabbits in the spring.  Frogs in the warmer weather, even those cute little-bitty ones.  (except some are red, I've heard red means poisonous, I'm not sure).
   Snakes.  I've seen two in the house. One was rather fat, black with a squared-off face and round eyes.  My son moved something in his bedroom one day and the snake went running. We hope he went out through an open window.
   The second somehow got caught under the leg of a bed, and same son noticed him. He didn't last long.
   
   I'm Betty Jo

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   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   Very cool. It's actually quite common for tortoises to loose their bladder when you pick them up, especially if you old them upside down for too long.
   
   Do you know what species of tortoise they were?
   
   I'd love to live in an area where I could see cool wilderness animals. I'm stuck with squirrels, chipmunks, pigeons (rock doves), maybe a hawk here and there, and other small birds common to GA. Maybe deer if you're on the highway or back roads.

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    darksideposted 16 years ago

    Here's one we rescued just before Christmas.
    
    He was on the road and had a cracked shell.
    
    We're yet to come across any snakes. There are plenty, but none have yet ventured into our backyard. I think they haven't liked the weather, it's been hot one day, raining the next. The locals say they've never seen so much rain before.
    
    I wasn't fond of snakes at the best of times, but we've got chickens now, so we'll have to be cautious.
    
    I have seen plenty of eagles. But none up close. You see them way up high riding on the air currents.

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    darksideposted 16 years ago

    Last week we rescued a kookaburra. She was in the middle of the road.
    
    It didn't flinch when I went up and wrapped my wife's cardigan around her and brought her home.
    
    We later dropped her off (it was a female) to the local wildlife rescue girl. She took it to the vet in the morning, but she had to be put to sleep the damage to the wing (which wasn't noticeable to me, but then again I've never been up that close and personal with a kookaburra before).
    
    Then later in the week we pulled over to check a fresh bit of roadkill that was an echidna. They're the cutest things! Not this one though. I knew it'd be dead but sometimes the young in the pouch of their mothers survive.
    
    Then today, just across the road, a strange looking creature. Again dead. I guess we've had such a run of good luck saving all and sundry we'd have to have a bad streak soon. And we'd guessed it was a bandicoot, and after a quick Google Image Search, it is.

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    Hope Alexanderposted 16 years ago

    Its unfortunate that areas like that don't have some sort of device along the sides of the roads that would stop animals running over it. I hear in some parts of England they have tunnels going under the road for hedgehogs to go under, which saves on Hedgehog fatalities. Sounds like your area could use something similar.

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    1. 63

       darksideposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Wombats might avail themselves the use of a tunnel, but kangaroos and wallabies most likely wouldn't.
       
       And between here and the highway is 40 kilometres, with bush both sides. It would be impractical and costly to try and implement such a scheme.
       
       Here's a premature baby bat that we rescued late last year. Not long after I started this thread.

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