On October 20th the Blue Turtle award known as “Turtle Grupo Tortuguero” made a special trip to Asheville, North Carolina. While there it witnessed some street buskers playing their didgeridoo (yidaki) for good and positive change. The turtle then was present at a concert by “multi-instrumentalist, world class surfer, animal rights activist and nature conservationist” Xavier Rudd. The next day the turtle journeyed to the top of a remote granitic dome in the middle of the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, NC for a look at the fall scenery and a special didgeridoo performance by Earthshine Nature Programs Naturalist Steve O’Neil. View the video of highlights from the adventure below.
My challenge for you reading this: PLEASE do something good today for your family, friends, community, animals and Nature. Pass the positive energy along and keep it moving. Let’s create a wave of good and positive, lasting change that will make your communities and the world a better place for all creatures.
Musicians in order of appearance: Steve O’Neil, Chance Feimster, John Vorus and Xavier Rudd.
A few posts back I told you about the Turtle of Change award that was presented to me by my friend Alan Cameron aka: “The Salamander Whisperer.” It was a great honor to have the Turtle of Change for a short time and then to pass it on to John Rucker–another person who is working to make a difference in wildlife and nature conservation. During the short time that I held the turtle it followed me in my daily duties as a naturalist and outdoor educator and along the way visited some amazing places, people and creatures. Read the full blog post here on the Blue Turtle website. If you missed my first posting about the Turtle of Change you can read it here.
One of the stops the turtle and I made was at a remote rock outcrop with large rock shelter underneath located on the top of a distant mountain near Brevard, NC. The top of the rock and rock shelter was undoubtedly used by ancient Native Americans as a sacred site as evidenced by the petroglyphs present on the rocks. I met my friend and Didgeridoo master John Vorus at the site for a special musical tribute to the Turtle of Change. We stood on top of the rock, took in the grand view of the surrounding mountains and felt the ancient energy of the rocks and the Earth. Then we made our way down under the rocks into the large rock shelter beneath. There we played our yidaki (aka: didgeridoo) into the turtle giving it a positive vibration and energy in a way that only the yidaki can do.
It was a very powerful and special experience.
Watch the video for the details.
Special thanks to John Vorus for sharing his talent with the Turtle of Change project.
Recently Earthshine Nature Programs Executive Director Steve O’Neil was awarded a very special award known as the “Turtle of Change”
This award is a small bronze statue of a sea turtle.
It is special because it is the only one in the USA and it is traveling all over the world visiting people who are working to make a good and lasting change in the community or the planet.
The turtle called “Turtle Grupo Tortugero” was presented to Steve by the previous recipient of the turtle Alan Cameron. Alan is also known as “The Salamander Whisperer” because of his ability to find endangered Green Salamanders where no one else can find them. Alan has been volunteering with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission for many years and has helped them find thousands of Green Salamander sites all over WNC.
Alan presents Steve with the Turtle of Change.
Steve wrote the following in the Blue Turtle blog:
After receiving Turtle Grupo Tortugero (TSN004) first I took it to meet the education and turtles at Earthshine Mountain Lodge and Nature Center (see last photo). I found four of the turtles who were interested in meeting the turtle–the other seven did not want to have their photo placed on the internet 🙂
Three of the Earthshine turtles are Eastern Box Turtles and one is a Redfoot Tortoise. All of our turtles have either lost their homes due to development, are ex-pets or were badly injured due to unfortunate meetings with vehicles, lawn mowers or dogs. Tripod–on the bottom left–is our mascot. She lost her right rear leg after she was hit by a car in 2007. The turtle to Tripod’s left is Lucky. She was also hit by a car and suffered severe trauma to her left rear leg and shell but she has recovered nicely. The turtle to Lucky’s left is Crash. She was hit by a car and had such severe injuries that I did not think she would survive. After a visit to our veterinarian Dr. Coleman, I patched her up with epoxy, gave her some antibiotic injections and fed her loads of box turtle favorites and she has made a full recovery! The final turtle is Charlie. I found her at a reptile show and felt sorry for her so I gave her a great home at our nature center. Sadly, all of the turtles at Earthshine Lodge and Nature Center cannot be released due to their circumstances. They are however wonderful education animals that help teach people about the wonder and beauty of nature and why animals like the Eastern box turtle need understanding and protection.
After visiting with the turtles at Earthshine Lodge the Turtle of Change traveled with me to a local Veterinary Clinic–Sweeten Creek Animal and Bird Hospital–where I met up with Dr. Lee Bolt and Dr. Ron Davis to assist with the radio transmitter implantation surgery on a Timber Rattlesnake. Take a look at the photo of the turtle on the operating table with the rattlesnake, Dr. Davis (in yellow) and Dr. Bolt. The surgery went flawlessly and the snake has recovered and has been released back into the wild. Dr. Davis will track the snakes movements over the next few years in order to learn as much as possible about the life of the Timber Rattlesnake. The knowledge he gains will be imparted to his students who will become future wildlife biologists, conservationists and naturalists.
The next stop for the turtle was at a remote rock outcrop known as the “Secret Place” on the side of a mountain near Brevard, NC. USA. This rock shelter was used by the Native Americans as evidenced by the petroglyphs on top of the rock. I teamed up with my friend (and didgeridoo virtuoso) John Vorus to play didgeridoo (yidaki) over the turtle in this amazing power place. We first played our yidaki to the turtle on top of the rock then moved down under to the rock shelter and recorded a video. Take a look at the photo on top of the rock and video of our time at “The Secret Place.” View the short video of our concert for the turtle of change here.
The final stop for the turtle (so far) was when it followed me to the office of Dr. Coleman DVM. Dr. Coleman is a wonderful veterinarian and lover of all wildlife and my wildlife vet. I snapped the photograph of Dr. Coleman and the brass turtle while he was treating a wild box turtle. Thank you Dr. Coleman for all that you to for wildlife and for Earthshine Nature Programs!
THANK YOU Alan Cameron for presenting me with this great honor.
A bunch of great photos from the Summer of 2012 with Earthshine Nature Programs and Earthshine Mountain Lodge. Thank you all for staying with us, please come back next year and tell all your friends about Earthshine and Earthshine Nature.
A couple of days ago I hiked to a remote waterfall in the middle of Zoe the Timber rattlesnake’s habitat for a unique photo shoot.
My goal was to get a photo of me playing my didgeridoo under the waterfall. Accompanying me was my friend Steve Atkins. Steve is an outstanding nature photographer and he was able to take several amazing photos of me sitting in the cool waterfall playing my didgeridoo. The water felt great and it was really hard to hold the didge up in the current and breathe under the column of pounding water–but it was sooo worth it. It was a wonderful experience and now I want to play my didge in as many waterfalls as possible. But that is another story for a different day.
The reason I wanted to get the photo is because I wanted to enter a unique photo in an online photo competition to win a $1500 didgeridoo from Didgeridoo Breath in Perth Australia.
Below is a sampling of Steve’s great photos.
As you can see Steve took many great photos but below is the photo I chose as my entry in the contest.
Now, I would like to ask you to please help me win the contest. It will only take a few minuets of your time and it is totally free. If you are on Facebook simply go to this page , click on my photo, then click the “like” button. If I receive the most likes by September 14, I will win the didgeridoo! It is that simple.
If you are not on Facebook but would still like to help me win the didgeridoo then please email this information to any of your friends that are on Facebook and ask them to like my photo.
Every little bit helps.
If you would like to help me receive even more likes after you like my photo please feel free to post it on your own wall and/or pass the competition link and this description on to all your friends and colleagues and ask them to like the photo as well.
I greatly appreciate the likes on my personal page but please be sure to click on the pic and “like” the photo on the competition page–that is where it counts toward me winning the didge.
If for some reason the links do not work then do a search on Facebook for the “Didgeridoo Breath” page and you can find the “2012 Didgeridoo Breath Tshirt Photo Competition” link on their wall and get to it from there.
If you help me win this didge I will use it in future nature/music/cultural/wildlife education and conservation programs at Earthshine Nature Programs, Earthshine Mountain Lodge, schools, camps, librarys and beyond!
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Take a look at this short video of our photo shoot at the waterfall. It is really very hard to play a didgeridoo while under a waterfall:-)
Earthshine Nature 