Cicada

This cicada was in the road when we were taking our morning walk. I picked it up to move it - and see if it was even alive - and it BUZZED very loudly. Definitely alive. There were a fair number of them in the trees making their noisy noise. We haven't had one of the periodic emergences here this summer, but there are always a fair number of cicadas every summer.

Edit: I should add - the turtle *boxed* itself up when the dog picked it up, and still hadn't opened up when I went back to look at it. Shut up tight. That's why I have to look again tomorrow.

Meanwhile - the extra - a woodland box turtle. This one has a story - and a story that will have to be continued tomorrow:

There is a dog that belongs to one of the riders at Oakfields Farm (which is now owned by a very wealthy lady with a HUGE show horse operation), and the dog isn't always present, but when he's there he runs around like a crazy thing. He dashes over and greets us, zips into the woods, races in and out of the woods, and if he has one of his toys he engages us in a game of fetch sometimes. One morning he dashed into the woods and came out a few minutes later with one of his toys that he had evidently left in the woods earlier? Anyway. This morning he gave us a vigorous hello and zipped into the woods. We could hear him - or some other dog he might have disturbed - barking, and then suddenly he appeared with something in his mouth. I assumed it was one of his toys, and he brought it to me so that I would throw it to him. It was NOT a toy. It was a turtle! OMG. So I got it away from him. And then had to wait for him to be convinced that I had no intention of throwing it for him. Finally he went back into the woods, further down the road, so I popped into the woods myself and put the turtle down - hopefully within its territory so it can get back to its life with no further upset. But when we came back past the spot on our way home, I went and looked and the turtle was still in the same place. I picked her up again and had a look and saw no cracks or dents or evidence of visible harm (except some dog slobber). So I put it back down and we went on home. Tomorrow I'll look again. Fingers crossed it'll be gone. If not, I'll have to take it over to the Wildlife Center of Virginia to be looked at. They get a fair number of turtles that have been dog toys. The dog is a pointer of some kind - his name is Maverick. He's a handful, and good fun, but this was NOT a good thing. Still, I'm glad we were there at that moment and that he gave it to me.