John and Marilyn Hendricks are country people. They lived in the country before Marilyn took a city job in southern Wisconsin and now they’re back surrounded by the beauty of the north woods.
They’re also frequent visitors at the Crex Meadows Wildlife area habitat that’s located at the junction of County Road D and F in Grantsburg, off of State Highway 70. Even though it’s a long way from where they live, this retired couple enjoys spending time with their camera taking shots of egrets, geese, otters, Sandhill cranes, Blue Herons, ducks and groups of migrating birds in this habitat that covers more than 12,000 acres of sedge marshes in Burnett County with over 6,000 acres of open water.
The Wildlife Area is open from March through November and the Hendricks have lots more to see with two hundred and seventy species of birds that use the property including a number of endangered and threatened species amongst the osprey, eagles, trumpeter swans, Karner blue butterflies and red-necked grebes.
There’s even a wolf pack that uses the property on a regular basis and has been officially named the Crex Pack.
During the fall it’s possible to spot bird groups; as many as fifty bald eagles, 7,000 Sandhill cranes, 12,000 Canada and Snow geese, along with thousands of ducks taking a break before their long flights to their winter homes.
In all the photos the Hendricks have taken, they have never taken a photo of a turtle, even though the habitat is home to the Blanding turtles, which are on the endangered list.
That is until a week ago. John was driving the truck when Marilyn spotted a Blanding that had an unusually large neck. John pulled over as Marilyn took a shot through the truck window. After checking the photo they realized they had to take another one to make sure they saw what they thought they saw.
Marilyn climbed into the bed of the truck to get a better shot from a higher vantage point, zoomed the lenz, leaned against the cab to steady the camera, and clicked off another few photos.
Sure enough, what they thought looked like a turtle with a very thick neck turned out to be two-headed turtle; one turtle, two heads.
Last Update: Oct 17, 2016 1:06 pm CDT
