Off the Clock

  This big girl showed up on June 10.  She is quite large, with her shell being easily over a foot long.  I watched her move around the back of the meadow where she must have come up from the river.  She finally settled in one spot and on closer inspection I realized she was laying eggs!  In the above pic she has one leg digging in the dirt to bury the eggs as she laid them.   The next day one of her relatives showed up and this time I had the idea to get out a yardstick.  These are big turtles!  If this second one laid a nest I didn't see it happen. After doing some Google research it looks like the eggs should be hatching by late August or early September.  I've marked the site so that we don't run it over with the lawn tractor and pack the dirt down any more than it already is.  Some folks will make a cage to cover and protect a turtle nest but my concern was if they hatch and I'm not around to set them free, would they cook under the sun?  So I am just letting natur

Once again a long time has gone by since my last post.  My life has been very busy, but in a nutshell I've sold my house, moved in with my mother while my new house was being built and have now moved into the new house.  During all of this the covid 19 pandemic hit, which added layers of challenges to be able to do all that needed to be done.  It has been a double edged sword though as being confined to the house has given me time to get organized.  I've never been as far along that road so quickly after a move. Anyway I am going to try and document much of the wildlife I encounter at my new home, both flora and fauna.  If nothing else it may help me remember the names and nature of things that I look up along the way.  I will start with the deer. It took a long time before I actually saw any deer.  I constantly ran across their tracks across the building site but even though I was living next door I never actually saw any until living in the house.   Yesterday I watched a momm