Monday, June 1, 2015

Turtletime 2015

It's that time of year again when many of the female turtles come out to find a dry place to lay their eggs.  I'm always surprised by how far from water some of them will go.  I understand why: there are many critters out there who would love to enjoy an egg or baby turtle snack.  This probably explains why she lays so many eggs.

I suspect that this big girl is the same little lady that we found laying her eggs here last year.  What was interesting is she dug the first hole about 10 inches to her left, laid her clutch, buried them, then proceeded to dig another hole, filling it in with only dirt.  She made several of these decoy nests.  I suspect if someone came looking for turtle snacks, he would dig into the soft ground expecting to find a treat only to come up empty.  What's the point of trying again if there isn't anything to be found?
Please drive carefully.  Turtles can live a very long time provided that people don't injure them.

To read more, see My Happy Acres previous year's posting, Turtle time.

2 comments:

Kat Scribner said...

My goodness, you musta scared her to death with your camera.

My Happy Acres said...

I took the picture from behind and a good distance from her. my little digital camera has a remarkably good zoom feature. she seemed most concerned about DH mowing the field nearby.