The Turtles are Coming! The Turtles are Coming!

On June 7th, a large female snapping turtle (over 18 inches across) came out of the wetland by the side yard and laid her eggs on the leach field! I could hardly believe what I was seeing! I checked a web site on New England turtles and found out the eggs have a gestation period of 70 days.

So Sunday, August 16th, is the big day! I’ll have my camera out and keep watch to catch the little critters when they emerge from the sand. I hope they do. I hope they’ll know which way to go. Three directions are away from water. It will be interesting to see if they know which direction to go without being told.

We also have a pair of Marsh Hawks living in the same area. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them too. I’m sure they’d love baby turtles.

If they do live to hatch, and dig themselves out of the sand, and evade the hawks, and make it to the water, it will be quite a testimony to the determination of nature to live and propagate. It seems ironic that the most intelligent creatures, we humans, need so many un-natural support systems to survive- houses, cars, phones, TVs, PCs, processed foods, health insurance, lawn mowers, Facebook and Oprah, while the rest of the animal kingdom survives without any of it, and in spite of it.