This morning I wanted to try something different. I know there are at least 20 young Eastern Painted turts in that pond, but they are very shy, so I thought I'd bring a bag of pellets out and see if I could lure them out for some pictures.
Checklist:
One banana (Stinky)
One bag of pellets (Eastern Painteds)
One coffee (me)
So I throw a handful of pellets out, and guess who shows up? Everybody say, "Hi, Stinky!"
But he swam right past the pellets, looking for his half of the banana.
All of a sudden, Stinky had company! Three more turts popped up.
And then four more! In all I had eight snappers cruising under my feet.
Here's three youngsters:
I think they were a little bewildered by these strange, tiny morsels. If they were golf ball-sized they may have been a little more excited.
They would casually sniff at them, then just sort of inhale them...
Here's one with a severely damaged shell. The water was a little murky this morning, so it was hard to tell, but it looked like it healed over, and although his leg looked a little crooked, he seemed to have full use of it.
Anyhow, the main reason I brought the pellets out was to try to get the Painteds to show themselves. See the little black spots in the water? Those are little Eastern Painted turtle heads. They just stood there, staring at me.
Except for this one. He's a male, about 5".
He would slowly move closer and closer to the pellets, never taking his eyes off of me....
However, once he got a taste of the pellets.......
.....there was no stopping him! He lost all fear of me and the Snappers.
He also has a small defect on the right side of his shell.
But it didn't slow him down. He was paddling like mad, trying to grab as many pellets as he could!
Now here's where it gets interesting. He moves into where the snappers are congregating.....
Quickly swimming from pellet to pellet.
Face to face with one of the "Big Boys"!
In this shot, he literally climbed over the top of a HUGE female!
This pic really doesn't do her justice, but that female is the largest I've ever seen! Her SCL is at least 15-16"!
Instead of pausing to stare at me, he should be looking over his shoulder....
Not to worry, he just got slapped in the puss as that snapper swam by.....
Here he is getting real close to that big female again....
In this shot he swam right under her chin! She could have easily bit him in half!
Then he tries to hitch a ride on her back!
Another handful of pellets, and he is on it.....
He must be thinking he's one of the "Big Boys". After I took this shot, he disappeared for what seemed like a very long time. I began to to worry about him......Maybe his luck had finally run out.
When all of a sudden, right under my feet, up from the bottom rose that giant female, with that crazy little Painted riding on her back! Unbelievable!
I got to come up with a name for this plucky little guy....any suggestions????
I don't think I've ever seen that many turtles in one place before, especially that many snappers. 
That place is a great little retreat. Wish I could find something like that around here too. 
