Yes, we have a turtle problem.
The Falconer’s wife here with a quick update.
We’ve mentioned before that Slider Turtles are in abundant supply in our lake. Kennon believes they are discouraging the osprey from diving on fish. Orville sits on his perch and hunts, bobbing his head from side to side, but he hesitates to dive these days.
This is the routine: Orville perches next to the lake, Kennon tosses out fish food, and the bream and catfish come to eat as expected. But so do legions of turtles, which vary in size from four inches to a foot in diameter. They snatch up fish pellets and crowd the water like obnoxious, slow-motion shoppers at Walmart on Black Friday.
Even hunting Orville from the opposite shore doesn’t work–as Kennon makes his way around the lake, the turtles only follow him.
Kennon once netted thirty of these freeloaders, placed the writhing horde in metal tubs, and drove them down the highway to the river. For a while, that seemed to help.
Judging from the mob that arrives at feeding time, however, they have recouped their population. Or maybe they called in reinforcements from nearby lakes.
Perhaps a larger purge would do the trick? Or another lake altogether.