When I came home yesterday (which is across the street from Barney Pond) I found this strange creature lurking:
Anyone care to guess it’s identity?
Does it answer to Audrey?
Doesn’t he post here quite a bit?
No, but you’re sort of close…
I knew a girl by the name of Magnolia, had similar coloured skin.
Bingo! It’s a seed pod from a Magnolia tree. We’ve been here 3 years and this is the first one I’ve seen on this tree. There are several there, but this is the only one that looked so animal-like.
That’s a relief. You had me worried about what our local pond was turning out, besides the very large beaver I saw cruising around in there a few weeks ago and the substantial snapping turtles. Have you seen the neighborhood foxes recently?
Here is a picture of a mud puppy. I never saw one of these things until I caught one fishing here in West Virginia.
Here is a picture off the internet to give you some idea of size. I thought this thing was a mutant salamander. When I pulled my line out of the water, that thing was squirming and I cut my line and let it go. I caught a snapping turtle the size of a hubcap too. And I was swimming in the creek. Yikes.
I saw one a month or so ago on Par Del Rio.
We’ve had several of the snappers at our end of the pond. Last spring my wife took this pic of one crossing the road:
I’ve nearly trodden on snapping turtles three times running at work in the last couple of years, including one of those hubcap-sized ones. A month or so ago, there was one sunning itself on the sidewalk. Fascinating bastards they are, and every bit as ugly in person as in the pictures. And much more menacing. There’s undergrowth where I run, so the snappers aren’t always visible from more than one step away. I just have visions of stepping right near the jaws and losing a few toes.
Snapping turtles are quite tasty, but of course if they bite you they won’t let go until sundown, even if you cut their head off. No kidding. 
Mudpuppies bark during the single day mating season in late February, but only if the night has a full moon and a gentle warm rain between 60.92 and 61.54 degrees Fahrenheit and during the hours between 6:34pm and 9:27pm. Hellbenders, another aquatic “monster,” are probably on their way out. The population seems to be crashing everywhere, doesn’t help that west virginia, not a real state, has Hellbender Burritos in Davis WV…Ok that’s just the name of the resturant, cute logo though.
