It's a familiar story: You got up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport to catch an important flight to a critical meeting (or that cruise ship that's sailing at 4:30 sharp.) And now that flight is delayed.

By mechanical failures? Crew scheduling? Birds? Weather?

Try: turtles.

The Associated Press reported that dozens of flights at New York's Kennedy Airport today were delayed by an average of 30 minutes after about 150 turtles crawled onto, and across, the tarmac.

JetBlue also tweeted the news, adding #cantmakethisup.

Why did the turtle cross the road? According to the AP report, this migration happens every year. The airport is built near New York's Jamaica Bay, and in late June or early July the diamondback terrapins leave the bay and crawl, slow-and-steady-like, toward a beach to lay their eggs.

As for 3 p.m. delays at JFK were still down to 15 minutes or less.