23rd
2007
A few photos of our friendly neighborhood snapping turtle.
Snapping Turtle: At 3:50 pm yesterday, our next door neighbor, Dennis, came to our front door carrying a large shovel, and on the shovel was a female snapping turtle that he had found wandering in his yard. Knowing that Drew and I are kinda sorta into nature, he thought the turtle would be more at home on our property. And, indeed she was. Dennis placed the turtle onto our driveway and her search for a nest site began immediately. It took the turtle 1.5 hours, and about 10 test holes, before finding a suitable nest hole site. She began digging her final nest hole at 5:30 pm, and completed the hole at 6:30 pm whereupon she began laying eggs. I was fortunate to see the last 2 eggs drop into the hole at 7:15 pm (she lifted her body way up on the last egg drop). She then filled in the nest hole and was ready to head for the pond at 7:35 pm. She moved very slowly, and we waited until she had almost reached the end of the driveway before Drew picked her up and transported her to the safety of the pond side of the road. Then, it was just a short walk to the pond. We did not bother to create an entirely new video because the process was the same as last year ( and the same for the last 100 million years). Hence, the video below (from 2006) shows the entire process that occurred in our yard yesterday. By the way, the baby turtles should hatch out somewhere between Sept. 20th-Oct. 20th.
