Turtle Time

Every year around this time, we get turtles laying eggs in the garden or driveway or soft dirt in the yard.  We have two small lakes on our property, and so they come out of the water and lay their eggs, and then go away and leave them and never come back to them.  The poor turtle hatch-lings have to make it back to the water on their own before they get eaten by predators.  And we have lots of predators, that's for sure!  Large birds, raccoons, skunks, foxes, snakes, fishers, and even our cats can make life hard for the small turtles.
     I have never seen the baby turtles hatch.  One year I carefully marked the spot where a turtle laid her eggs, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.......never saw anything.  Quite often the turtles lay eggs in a seed bed in the garden.  One year a snapping turtle destroyed my carrot patch laying eggs there!   We have small painted turtles and large snapping turtles that lay eggs.   The large snapping turtles are not to be messed with!   When they feel threatened, they can bite hard and mangle human fingers, or break bones on small animals. 
     Here is a photo of a small painted turtle that laid eggs at the edge of the garden this evening.   At least she was a good girl and didn't destroy a seed bed or a row of vegetables!  She got a little nervous when I got close to take her picture, but I tried to reassure her that "she was just going to be a blog article".  Ha!  Wonder if she cared???

A painted(box) turtle laying eggs at the edge of the garden.

A few years ago my cat Tippy got curious with a large snapping turtle.   I worried that she would get hurt messing around with these kinds of turtles, which can be quite aggressive when threatened.   This one was almost as big as her.  But she wisely walked away and didn't pester the turtle.