Where's Waldo [the Turtle] ?

There is a pond in the center of town with a wooden boardwalk on one side of it. This section of the pond is pretty shallow, with a lot of pond lilies and sumac roots, but it's also filled with turtles. Some days you can see 40-50 of them sunning themselves and swimming. In this recent photo there are five turtles, though only 4 are fairly obvious. Some days I stand here and just watch them slide in and out of the water, onto the roots and onto the grassy shore, coming up from the bottom or just swimming around the pond. I believe they're all the same species, a type of box turtle, and measure no more than 6-8 inches in length. Click on the image to see if you can find all five!

Meanwhile, Back in the Jungle:

This snapping turtle is a bit more than 2 feet long from head-to-tail! Last year I shot this photo as this creature was moving from one small pond to another along my road. Once in a while it's in the same pond as the small turtles above, swimming around like Jaws, lol. When I shot this photo, I didn't realize it was a snapping turtle. I thought it was someone's pet tortoise, lol. I petted it and was close enough to it for it to have taken my arm off! I think it was just as surprised by me as I was by him!

Requiem for a Robin?

T H O U G H T S — While taking photographs late this morning, I noticed this robin under my small granite bird bath in my newest shaded garden space. At first I hoped s/he was "resting" but after a few hours, I suppose she's actually quite sick. 

It has been an interesting afternoon. I can see this part of the yard from where I sit at my computers. A few other robins have flown down around her/him, and then backed away slowly, not flying until they were at least fifteen feet away. It was like a solemn processional. Even the young deer that has been seen here recently came out of the woods and stood for a few minutes about twenty feet away from the bird. The squirrels that love the tree right nearby haven't been seen either, a strangely quiet afternoon. 

While I profess to know absolutely nothing about our souls or our own place in the univers, I feel equally that we can't know anything about other creatures souls either. And by soul I mean the conscience, that which can acknowledge existence. It really seems like other creatures are paying homage to this bird, and I can only feel honored that s/he picked my newest 'tranquil space' to have her last visitors.

If that's what's going on. I could be totally off-base, and projecting, lol. 

Young female deer that has been seen here frequently.