Winter Snap

Yesterday morning, Sylvan Water, the largest of Green-Wood’s ponds, was frozen over. Fantastic thrumming and booming came from the ice, sounding as if submarines, dolphins, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers were down under there. Sound does amazing things through ice.

A few weeks earlier, when there was somewhat less ice on the pond, I saw one of the actual beasts inhabiting its not-so-depths. Typically, turtles power down for winter, subside into the muck, and more or less breath through their butts underwater for the duration. But this huge specimen of a Snapping Turtle was sucking up air the old fashioned way, through the nose.