Yesterday, when I was mowing the lawn, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Over the fence, in the pasture, was this turtle. Her shell was about 8 inches long and I know it was a “her” because just behind her, in a hole in the ground, was an egg. I watched her for a while then went into the pasture and took her picture, but the donkeys and sheep were following me and didn’t want them bothering her or her egg, so I left her alone. A few minutes later she was gone. This morning I looked for her egg, I was hoping for a baby turtle, but there was an empty hole in the ground where the egg used to be. I don’t know if it hatched (I didn’t see a broken shell nearby) or if someone ate it.
We have foxes who dig up the turtle eggs and eat every last one of them. Usually there are about 8 different holes. But then again, the pond stays full of turtles so some must be surviving!
We had a young girl and her Mom stop by the Dog Pound and she asked if she could dig up the turtle eggs that were laid this morning in our field. She explained that she and her dad would go out early in the morning and see where the turtles would lay their eggs. Then she would go out with her mom, dig them up and keep them in a bucket until they hatched. She measured how deep they were so she could keep them the same dept and put a mark on the eggs to make sure she keeps them just as they were sitting. She told me she has released about 160 turtles over the few years she has been doing this. She knows the babies can get eaten but she feels she is giving them a better chance. I thought it was great for a young kid to have such compasion
And it must have been so much fun to watch those baby turtles hatch then release them back into the wild.