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… As he crawled out of sight

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry A painted turtle taken to the Hatch Run Conservation and Demonstration Area in North Warren after being found in my yard, of all places.

I don’t see many turtles at my house.

This weekend, when my wife called out that she saw a turtle in the yard, I was curious and surprised.

I walked over and there it was. All I saw was a shell about four inches long and not quite that wide. The turtle had pulled itself inside and sat leaning against my neighbor’s greenery.

We sent my daughter to check with the neighbors. They came out to look and assured us they hadn’t had any pet turtles go missing.

We all agreed that a small turtle was not going to make it to the nearest natural body of water, several hundred yards away across a couple of roads and numerous dog- and cat-occupied territories that experience regular lawn-mowing.

Since I had already denied my children’s requests to keep the thing, I volunteered to take it… somewhere. Even if I took it to the wrong place, I figured a turtle would have a better shot at life almost anywhere but my neighbor’s yard.

I thought about it while looking around for something to carry the reptile in. I found a shallow, plastic bowl. Later, I realized there was a plastic bucket about 15 feet from where I had been standing when I started looking for something.

The walk around the yard gave me time to figure that the Jamestown Audubon Society was close enough and had the right kinds of habitats available.

We had posted a photo to social media. A contact who I would not have pegged as a herpetologist confirmed my guess that it was a painted turtle. My turtle lore includes the names painted and box. This one had some red stripes on its underside and legs, and yellow stripes on its head. Painted.

As my daughter and I got in the car with the turtle in the bowl, I asked my wife to contact to someone who might be able to give us better information about where the creature might like to live other than my non-aquatic neighborhood.

She reached out to our friendly neighborhood watershed specialist and said she would call the Audubon Society.

We were near Warren Mall when I received new information.

The helpful folks at the Audubon said that I didn’t have to bring it all the way to them.

In fact, the woman was not all that surprised that a small painted turtle had wandered so far from a body of water.

When they are looking to lay eggs, she explained, they can range quite far from their normal territory.

She suggested we release the turtle — who was named Jenny now that we had determined her to be female — in some tall grass not far from water.

The Conewango was flowing swiftly past the mall and the parking lot wasn’t exactly full of tall grass.

Then I remembered the HRCDA — Hatch Run Conservation and Demonstration Area. I had been there several times for work and for walking and it’s only about a mile from the mall. It’s a beautiful spot, the kind of place I think a turtle would like, and close was good because Jenny was actively crawling around the bowl trying to get out. We got back in the car and headed east.

It didn’t take us long to find what looked like a good spot.

It was shady, but some sun was getting through, maybe 15 feet from the quiet brook, and the greenery looked almost identical to my neighbor’s. There was a marshy pond not far downstream.

My daughter put Jenny down carefully and we said goodbye as she crawled out of sight.

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