Stinkpot turtle

The highlight of my day today was finding a stinkpot turtle. Stinkpots are a relatively rare species in Ontario, and are rarely seen due to their secretive and nocturnal habits. I've always suspected that we had some in the lake, seems to me we found "mud turtles" years ago when I was a kid, but couldn't say for sure if they were all just snapping turtles. Today I have confirmed their presence. It was a beautiful sunny day, light northerly breezes, Dad and I were working on various things. I've been fighting a horrendous cold all week so have been plodding about. This afternoon after having finished most work I took something over to my cabin, and dawdled about looking at flowers, then wandered down to my dock watching the fish in the calm water. Something moving on the bottom of the lake caught my attention, a small turtle was crawling over to the rocks at the base of my dock, and stopped and half hid when it saw me moving closer for a look. By the shape of the shell I realized right away that it wasn't a painted turtle, and hoped it were a stinkpot. I ran and got my fishing net, knelt on the dock and carefully scooped up the turtle. To my delight it was indeed a stinkpot, and I carried my prize up to the house to show it off to Dad. I grabbed camera and measuring tape, took some photos of the indignant creature, then took him promptly back to the lake and set him gently in the water, where he quickly headed for the bottom and immediately dove into the weeds and mud. I say "he", the cloaca was near the end of the tail.