Early September adventures
Sep 10
During the first week of September mom stayed with Robin and I for half a week and the other half with her parent’s in Dexter. I took 5 days off, two Fridays, a Thursday and Monday. We tried to get out and enjoy the end of Summer’s weather which mostly was in the cool 70’s, by walking on the Orono campus trails of which Robin used to run on during her college years.
One day the three of us wanted to kayak so we loaded my kayak and our landlord’s tandem (two-seater) kayak on the car and drove down to Sedgeunkedunk Stream; Robin in front and mom in the back of the tandem and myself in my kayak. The weather was excellent that day with temperatures around 75 and a slight sporadic breeze. We made our way around way the first two bends in the stream that consisted mostly of thick difficult to traverse Water mill-foil; after that the water cleared up in the middle so that you could see down 4′ to the murky bottom. Robin called me over as she had spotted a young Painted Turtle basking in the sun while in the midst of algae- I was unable to capture it. Shortly after, I spotted another young Painted Turtle, but again was unsuccessful. We continued on, looking for any signs of wildlife and taking in the sun. We came across, what Robin and I had thought had passed for the year, a nice patch of Lilly Flowers. Later on, I spotted a female duck with two young offspring swimming behind her. At the half-way point, Mom spotted another turtle basking in the same manor as the previous two; I slowly paddled up to the turtle, it was a large male Painted Turtle- the second largest I have caught. Once I was next to the turtle in the water, it had submersed itself but I had reached down quickly to grab a hold of its shell. It’s carapace was in the process of shedding due to growth. I placed the turtle into my storage unit and we continued on our journey. Nearing the end of the stream a Great Blue Heron had swooped up in front of the tandem out of the cattail bushes and landed 15′ to the other side where I was able to snap a photo of it. We turned around shortly after; nearing our the last stretch, where I spotted a very young Painted Turtle, it must have been a year old- it was so light that it was sitting on top of a thick growth of algae which made it very easy for me to capture. We headed onwards where the same Heron was spotted earlier had relocated in hunt for fish. I was able to get a few shots of of the Heron up close and in the unsuccessful pursuit of fish. Once on land we stopped at a near by vacant house and took photos of the turtles to compare their size.





