Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Are you turtle-y enough?

This evening Paul and I walked up to check on our newly planted garden. As we were getting ready to walk back down to the house, we noticed a rather large snapping turtle in the grass. Paul was concerned about it raiding the garden, so he attempted to roll it back down the hill toward the pond with a pair of post hole diggers. I was surprised to see it such a ways from the water and stepped forward to see what it was doing.


Turns out it was a lady turtle, and she had climbed out of the pond to lay her eggs. She had laid quite a few of them down into a tight little hole. It was very interesting to see, and something I had never seen before. The eggs are quite small, a little smaller than ping-pong balls which they resembled. We took one egg from the nest to check it out. The shell isn't hard like a chicken's egg shell, but is kind of leathery. She seemed to be making her way back towards the nest when we left her alone. I felt bad for disturbing her on her nest, but then again, we really don't need a whole new slew of snappers heading into the pond. She was quite a biggie herself--close to a foot and a half across her back and a big strong jaw. They have a lightning quick bite, but don't really move terribly fast as long as you are out of range of their immediate bite area.


4 comments:

ittybittyandpretty May 28, 2009 at 4:48 AM  

wowzer you have some very interesting visitors! i am getting a tad bit worried that your pay it forward hasnt arrived yet. i sent it AGES ago. i do hope they havent confisgated it just because it had lavender in it.
%*_*% rosey

Anonymous May 28, 2009 at 9:34 AM  

Wow they lay alot of eggs.Im amazed.How interesting though.I hope they are kept safe from harm.Have a great day!

Janet May 29, 2009 at 8:48 AM  

Can I have one when they hatch? On second thought - lightning quick bite - maybe I'd better not!

Julia June 9, 2009 at 11:49 PM  

That is fabulous!! I am so jealous you have turtles nesting on your property. How cool is that. Seriously great wildlife. I only wish I could keep a turtle. And a native one at that.

About This Blogger

I am a thirty-something mother of two girls and a boy ranging from preschool to middle school. My husband and I keep working and reworking on our goal of raising our family healthier. Our house is a constant work under construction--adding on and remodeling. We're happy to have bought our property a few years ago, but as any homeowners know, owning a home just adds to your list of projects and chores because there's always improvements to be made and maintenance to be done. On our burgeoning homestead, we have chickens, guineas, a few goats, and our most recent additions-rabbits.
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I picked the name Petalz and Finz a couple years ago when I decided to try Etsy out. I wanted to custom make some baby related items and have things for girls and boys. I felt the name incorporated both my kids (at the time) into it--petalz for Ivy and finz for Finn.

I haven't had time to do much of anything with my Etsy for a while, but it's still my in my long term goals. In the mean time, I'm having fun with this blog thing. I've found some creative inspiration through my own posting, but also through many other wonderful blogs out there.
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