Photo by @davidalanharvey. Her name is Chelydra Serpentina Serpentina. Her pink tongue wiggles when under water to simulate a worm to attract a fish which then becomes breakfast. Her mouth opened now simply as a defense against me. An intruder in her space. She should know by now I am her friend. I'm a turtle/tortoise man since childhood. How do I know she is a she? Because this is egg laying time down here in the marshes of the outer banks. The only time you can see snappers out of the water and moving around on land is in spring for egg laying. The eggs don't have much of a chance with fox and raccoons around. Yet some make it after 90 days of incubation. If by some miracle a baby does make it to the water and survive the first few years , then there are zero natural predators. However, crossing the highway is not something these prehistoric looking creatures were hard wired to protect themselves against. So they are dependent on motorists like me who will stop the car and move them to safer ground. This full grown (probably 30 lbs) female just showed up in my front yard about sunrise as I was having morning coffee. I did not mess with her because she didn't appear to want to be messed with!! I wanted to point her in the right direction, yet she had a mind of her own and slid off into the bushes. I hope to meet her again next spring. #obx #easternsnapper
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