Monday, May 21, 2012

On Saturday, May 20th, 2012, turtles walked over every Michigan roadway. Not all survived.

On Captiva Island, the residents are nutty about their sea turtles. The islanders keep outdoor lights to a minimum so turtles find way to the moonlit sea. In Michigan, we make political fodder about a turtle fence installed along US-31, eastern side, to keep those turtles from the Muskegon River flats from dying, flattened by a car any an one of three lanes. It's a bad game of frogger to allow a turtle on a roadway. By odd chance, I carried a painted turtle from west of Grand Haven Road to its east side, and the turtle peed in fear. My daughter on the east side of the state carried a turtle off her subdivision road and into a swamp. Where I hope the turtle stayed. I learned that the turtle gushed urine too. Hope she didn't allow urine to touch her hand.

Sunday, I saw the turtle smear, what was left of a painted turtle, pretty much where Saturday's turtle tried to cross. I wonder if it were that turtle returning to the western side. Or was it a turtle of similar size and age making the same crossing, finding an ugly fate?

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