Dinner and a Turtle!

Some people go to dinner and a movie. We go to dinner and a garden. Last night, we were sitting in the screen house watching Monster roam around. I saw him start to cautiously circle something near the edge of one of the flower beds. A turtle!

Of course I didn't want him to eat it (gross!), so I kept him back and we just watched. She was digging to lay eggs! She could stretch her back legs really far.

This went on until it got too dark to see.

And Monster never got tired of watching. I was hoping to see the actual egg- laying but it got too dark and I didn't want to disturb her with a flashlight. A couple of hours later we looked to see if she was still there.

She wasn't, nor was any evidence that she'd ever been there. She camouflaged the spot really well with rocks and grass clippings. This is how it looks now.

Of course I had to know: Incubation lasts 72–80 days in the wild and for a similar period in artificial conditions. In August and September, the young turtle breaks out from its egg, using a special projection of its jaw called the egg tooth. Not all offspring leave the nest immediately, though. Hatchlings north of a line from Nebraska to northern Illinois to New Jersey typically arrange themselves symmetrically in the nest and overwinter to emerge the following spring.

^{Guess I won't be planting anything in that spot for a while!}