I found and rescued an Eastern painted turtle off the two-lane strip of asphalt that runs past the entrance road to the Vermont Air National Guard's station next to Burlington International Airport. It's called River Cove Road; some of its asphalt, some is dirt-and-gravel.

I harbor no great feeling of heroism that my saving one turtle from being killed by a motor vehicle is going to make a huge difference in sustaining the overall population of Chrysemys picta. Sadly, on the same day I rescued one, dozens of turtles elsewhere, including Pennsylvania, became roadkill victims.

The painted turtle is widespread, inhabiting freshwater impoundments (known to conservationists as "fake lakes") as well as natural lakes and ponds. In my two decades of living in Pennsylvania, I found turtles of this species in small and large waterways across the southern third of Luzerne County, often basking in the sun.

"This attractive turtle has a smooth black shell with yellow lines and spots on the head," explains a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fact sheet.

I wish I knew more about the travels of the turtle I helped; where was it coming from and what habitat was it trying to get to.

My second noteworthy wildlife encounter came after dark that same day. Going out the front door for my nightly walk, I found an adult American toad sitting proudly and happily on the walkway. It hopped off into the neighboring garden bed when it spotted me tromping toward it.

Bufo americanus is the lone native toad species in the Northeast, with many more species of frogs to be found in similar habitat.

The toad is brown with a warty skin and a white belly with black specks.

They are found in moist woodlands. American toads breed on the edges of shallow ponds during March and April and then move about in search of food. Listen for their high-pitched trill of 30 seconds or more in the spring and early summer. You can hear and watch one at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIhx5pIcK0A.

Then, just a day after a naturalist friend in Pennsylvania told me of finding a dead American crow, I too found one. I had gone to Williston Town Hall to pay my property tax bill (I was only the fourth resident to pay in person,) when I found the Corvus brachyrhynchos specimen lying on its back beneath a tree.

The discovery reminded me of the afternoon in which I found a dead fish crow (a cousin species) under a tree on Langley Air Force Base, Hampton, Va. On both of these occasions, at least a dozen other crows were present, ostensibly watching over and mourning their dead.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: "American crows are very social, sometimes forming flocks in the millions.

Inquisitive and sometimes mischievous, crows are good learners and problem-solvers, often raiding garbage cans and picking over discarded food containers. They're also aggressive and often chase away larger birds including hawks, owls and herons."

And a Web page of the PBS series "Nature" turned this up: "A group of crows is called a "murder." There are several different explanations for the origin of this term, mostly based on old folk tales and superstitions.

"For instance, there is a folktale that crows will gather and decide the capital fate of another crow."

The Cornell Lab again: "In some areas, the American crow has a double life. It maintains a territory year round in which the entire extended family lives and forages together. But during much of the year, individual crows leave the home territory to join large flocks at dumps and agricultural fields, and to sleep in large roosts in winter. Family members go together to the flocks, but do not stay together in the crowd.


ï·"Despite its tendency to eat roadkill, the American crow is not specialized to be a scavenger, and carrion is only a very small part of its diet. Though their bills are large, crows can't break through the skin of even a gray squirrel. They must wait for something else to open a carcass or for the carcass to decompose and become tender enough to eat.

"Crows are crafty foragers that sometimes follow adult birds to find where their nests are hidden. They sometimes steal food from other animals. A group of crows was seen distracting a river otter to steal its fish, and another group followed common mergansers to catch minnows the ducks were chasing into the shallows. They also sometimes follow songbirds as they arrive from a long migration flight and capture the exhausted birds.

Crows also catch fish, eat from outdoor dog dishes, and take fruit from trees."

A good walk yields many observations of Wild Nature at work. And it's an up-close way for people to learn about the web of life.