Turtle Tales

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I have decided to find out just how many turtles I have on my property. I see them quite often, and assumed there were lots of them. After Anita and Sherry came over and tracked, Anita found a big turtle and took pictures of him. She said that they were in decline.
It was then I got thinking whether the ones I see are the same, just at different times.
So I took my magic marker and put a letter on their shells. In one day I found 4.
This is the fourth, 'D', and she is a girl. With no camera (of course!), we came upon her laying eggs in a hole! When we first saw her, we could see the eggs (we only could see 2), so I raced home and got the camera, and when I got back she was burying them. We put rocks around the area to keep from 4-wheeling over it.
The whole time we stood near and watched, she never went in her shell!

The next morning, while running the dogs, I checked where she had laid the eggs, and its a good thing we surrounded the nest with rocks, because I never would have found it! She did a remarkable job of covering in the hole, and even put the grass clump she had dug under back on top!

While 4-wheeling alongthe trail I spotted this unfortunate turtle, or rather just his shell...so I righted it..Just looks better that way..

Now I have to do some research on box turtles to find out how long they live, what they eat ( I know they eat mushrooms) and what eats them!

Turtle obsession is on!
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