[Dr Wogga]

.....I remember fishing a private lake in NJ with my late brother. We had fished this lake extensively and never saw anything more 'wild' than a few geese and swans, when one day, a beaver started circling our boat. He was eyeing us up and down and, just about on every cast either of us made, he would whack his tail on the surface and dive underwater. Come up a few feet from the boat and repeat again! What we didn't realize was that behind the boat and out of our sight, was mommy beaver and a bunch of her kits following along. Turns out the old man was just trying to draw our attention away from the rest of the family. Very, very cool.

Sad local news yesterday in Trenton NJ (in fact it made the front page of our local newspaper), was that 13 turtles were found dead in a local lake supposedly in a "protected area" as designated by the local county Parks Commission and by the DEP. Apparently, the theory going around is that a turtle trapper left his traps completely submerged (vs. partially submerged to allow the turtles an opportuity to breathe).