Painted Turtle Nesting Time!

Two turtle encounters today! This was the second. Turtle number 1 was an impressive female, determined to find somewhere on our lawn to lay her eggs. She put up with me photographing her (she had to), but as soon as I left she stomped off purposefully across the grass, identified her spot (perhaps she couldn't wait!) and dug her hole. I watched, on and off, from a discreet distance. The process took about an hour and by the time we left for swimming (about 6) she was all done. The nest spot is like a square with rounded corners and it's visibly damp with turtle urine - this is how they moisten the earth to make digging easier. Apparently (i.e. Wikipedia says) it will take 72-80 days for the baby turtles to make an appearance, but it's also quite possible that they will remain underground until next spring. I've marked the spot anyway.

Turtle number 2 (this one) was found wandering on a cart path on the golf course as I took a shortcut down to the lake to watch the sun set. She was probably also looking for somewhere to lay her eggs, or perhaps she was traveling back to her home pond after digging her nest, hopefully not on a green (heh heh!).