No Baby Turtles- A Mystery- Maybe Next Year

I watched in awe as she dug her nest in the sand. She was laying eggs. I know she was, but it turns out the nest was empty. I was disappointed. I waited a few days beyond the due-date to give them a chance to hatch. I scratched the surface very gently, hoping to find some signs of life. I kept going deeper and deeper. Nothing.

So she went to all that trouble and didn’t lay eggs? She dug hard, backed her butt into the hole, and stayed there for several minutes. Maybe she didn’t intend to lay eggs at all, but what was she doing then? Was it a diversion to throw predators off the track? Was it a sly deception to protect the real nest? I had kept watch over the nest for 70 days. I protected it. It’s a mystery.

Nature is a mystery. I don’t live in the wilderness, but I have a lot of wildlife around me. They survive, they reproduce, they get by. They don’t need us, but I feel like I need them. I mourned the absence of baby turtles. I don’t think the mother did. I guess we’re more dependent on them than they are on us. That’s why we go out of our way to care for them, even though it isn’t necessary most of the time.