SNAPPING TURTLE

June is turtle month up here. This is the month they are up on land finding a suitable place to lay eggs. Because we have sandy soil around the house we often see turtles up here using our property as their own personal delivery room.

This girl was busy yesterday morning digging a hole for her eggs. They usually deposit 30 eggs before covering the nest and letting the sun do the incubating.

It's not an easy trip from the pond up to our house but we obviously have some determined girls living in the pond who make the trip every year.

Too often the egg nest is discovered by raccoons and egg shells are all that's left when we get up in the morning.

Mary covered this nest with chicken wire hoping it will keep the raccoons from having another feast while we sleep.

If all goes well the eggs should hatch about the end of September and if we are lucky we may even see some little turtles emerge and make their way to the pond. 

Stay tuned for an update in the fall.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.