Oh My!


This morning I saw something strange in the grass, dark, helmet shaped.  It took me a few seconds to realize that it was a turtle that had come out of my pond to lay eggs.  I had seen her once before, years ago in the garden, and then again, signs of her the next year in the same location mysteriously dug up again leaving a small unsettled presence that something had come and gone.  Seems she knows to come out, cross over the driveway, and go to the same place each time.  Only once did I find a tiny little hatchling turtle crawling in the grass, in 20 years of living here.  But, now I'm going to watch for them to emerge.  Does anyone know how what the gestation period is for turtles?

Comments

Tracey Broome said…
about ten weeks (or two months) I think, may depend on the species, watch out for snakes they love to eat the eggs! Beautiful cup!
Jenny Mendes said…
Do you have any ideas how best to protect the nest? I have a dog, a cat, and all sorts of nature around here......
Tracey Broome said…
Well, I suppose it would be best to just let nature take it's course. If you weren't there the eggs still would be, it's a hard call to let something get eaten, but that's the food chain we live in sort of....
However, I had a nest of baby birds in my studio and I was having to scare a certain black snake away until they could fly off! I wonder if you could get some sort of mesh netting like you put over vegetables, but does the mom need to get to them?

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