Nature Walk with Dogs

When I take the dogs out for their (almost) daily walk I usually find a few things that interest me enough to photograph.

Spring calligraphy in nature...

Trillium flowers in a woods normally almost barren of flowers.

But the dogs...that's something different. They always find something of interest. Only they don't get the concept of hunting with a camera. They just understand 'HUNT'. So first they found a nice woodchuck hole that must have been recently used because Lucy (the one with her whole head in the hole) didn't want to leave. She wanted to dig it out. I had to drag her away kicking and screaming.

Then in a different area they found this thing they had NEVER seen before and were totally fascinated with...a painted turtle. Lucy actually lost interest in it pretty quickly because she's a herder. Her prey is supposed to want to be chased. Strider on the other hand was determined to make it move. I tried to use it as a training opportunity with him, telling him to sit and stay. But every time the little turtle moved a bit and showed a leg or a bit of his head Strider would lunge at it and try to get it. Training was only moderately successful! ...as usual with him....

But when he did stay still I got a couple of photos. Here is just a hint of his head, watching but very cautious, and rightly so.

When I backed Strider up a foot or so to just watch the turtle decided it was safe enough to try to just hide in the mud. Then we left and I'm sure it was much happier. This is the first time I've ever seen a turtle out along these paths. The path is very wet right now, but there are no ponds nearby.
As for the dogs, because of their hunting instincts and the only fair training skills of their owner (oh, that would be me!) I always walk them on leash. I do use the long 25 ft retractable leash which gives them lots of room to explore when it's safe, but I don't let them off leash for lots of reasons. The local wildlife thanks me!