TURTLES REVISITED
A couple issues previously in June Mrs.T related the egg laying by one of our turtles. This month we have the followup. Mother Nature can be exciting but can also be cruel – at least from the human viewpoint. R explains all below in this edition of life at the Summer Estate.
Living in the middle of the woods means one will see a lot of animals, insects, and mystery plants. Several of you (I am thinking of you SR.) are real herpetophobes and we have a couple of pictures of some our residents. One snake we saw – the picture is quite blurry – was a pencil-lead-thin ring-necked snake, smaller than an earthworm, that was caught in a spider web. We were able to free him and send him on his way. There are virtually no venomous snakes around here and even the larger black snakes run away from people. This month there are also some pictures of mystery bugs and beautiful mushrooms. (Maybe JT-L can enlighten us.)
On to this R's story:
Two turtles, Myrtle and Yertle lived in our pond. When I fed the fish they came up and ate some of the fish food. And also one small turtle whom I seldom saw and shall remain nameless. One day Yertle (How did Mrs.T know Yertle was not Myrtle? -dt) decided to lay some eggs. There was really no good place around to lay them. The sunny side of the pond was concrete and rocks. The shady side of the pond was very steep. It had a lot of rocks too. Yertle found the place she liked best and dug out a nest. She had to move some rocks but she was a determined turtle. Yertle laid twenty-two eggs. (See below –dt) It took her a long time. I came and rather rudely took Yertle's picture. Yertle did not care. She was busy. After Yertle laid all of her eggs and covered them up with a lot of dirt sand and rocks. Yertle, after laying 22 eggs was not feeling much of anything, and I did not blame her it was a lot of work. Then Yertle left. (Left the pond –dt)
I went home and looked for information about Yertle and her eggs on the internet. I knew Yertle was a map turtle. There are different kinds of map turtles but I never got close enough to decide which kind she was and I really did not care much. In fact I did not know Yertle was a she until she started laying eggs. Research told me that although not considered rare or endangered, map turtles were becoming less common because of habitat destruction and other reasons. I went to the extension office to see if someone wanted to take some of the eggs to other places. No one did. However I did meet the wife of one of our art colleagues who really wanted a turtle for their pond. The internet site said the eggs should hatch in 60 to 75 days. I watched the next anxiously for about 65 days and nothing had occurred.
I carefully uncovered the eggs and counted them. (Bad idea –dt) There were 22. I packed 5 eggs in a bucket of sand and gave them to our new friends so that if they hatched they could go right to their pond. We waited and waited. Every day I checked the nest to see if anyone had emerged. I was also worried that some animal would find the nest and eat the eggs. After another two weeks when nothing had occurred I dug up the nest again. (Bad idea again –dt) One egg was cracked and when I picked it up to look at it out came a little turtle. He was tiny! He was crawling around so I put him in a plastic butter tub with some water and a small rock. When I put in some fish food he ate it. I was so happy. Alas, he died the next day before our friends could come and get him. It was at this point that Dan began handing out the blame. (Explanations. –dt) It was my fault the turtle died because I uncovered the nest. It was Yertle's fault for laying her eggs where they did not get enough sun. As Dan is good at assigning blame and I am good at feeling guilty (Mrs.T takes everything personally –dt), we work well together in such situations. I wondered if the heavy rains and cold weather we had had damaged the eggs. I was in despair. It had been longer than the computer site said it should take the eggs to hatch.
But two days later another little turtle emerged from the re-covered nest with no help from me. Alas, shortly thereafter he also expired; evidently emerging from the egg did him in. Will none of them survive, I wondered sadly?
But the next day yet another turtle emerged. He inched determinedly toward the pond. At one point he fell and turned over on his back. After righting himself he stopped to rest. Dan and I were taking pictures. I was fervently urging him on. It was only about ten feet (Maybe turtle distance but much less directly –dt) from the nest to the pond but it seemed to take forever. Another time he crawled right up to a rock about four times as tall as he was. Evidently backing is not a skill at which newly hatched turtles excel. But inch by weary inch he moved downward. Not surprisingly the turtle was dazed by the whole new world he was seeing for the first time. He would pause periodically and turn his long neck from one side to the other. What must he be thinking? Do turtles know instinctively about the world they hatch to? Maybe or maybe not. When the turtle came to the edge of the water he stopped as if in shock. I had expected he would jump in, but no he wanted to think about it. Finally he crawled in. Then he stopped again considering. Finally he took the plunge so to speak and immediately began swimming around. As he investigated his new home he ran into he ran into one of my water plants. He took a cautious nibble. Hey this stuff is good! After a few more bites he resumed his tour of the pond with much more enthusiasm. The turtle was home! (Our friends returned their eggs and retrieved some tadpoles. –dt)
The next day I saw tracks in the sand and found two empty shells in the nest. I could only hope that two more turtles had made it to the pond. Always I feared that predators such as raccoons, coyotes, or snakes would find the nest. I took away the empty shells to prevent this. So far we had been lucky. Then I found a little guy halfway down the hill toward the pond. I picked him up and put him in a plastic bowl with water and a rock. As we drove him to his new home in our friends' pond, he continually tried to climb out. He was quite lively. When we put him down beside the pond he jumped right in and began swimming around. My friend put a small stone in the pond so that he could bask. We put him on it but he jumped in and swam around some more investigating his new home.
The next day disaster struck. When I went to check on the nest is was completely uncovered with broken eggshells everywhere. A raccoon had found the nest. I counted the egg fragments and the best I could tell they amounted to about 6 eggs. I searched carefully and could not find any more eggs. So we had 4 live turtles 10 dead turtles - this included 2 who died, 2 undeveloped eggs I discarded earlier, plus 6 raccoon victims - and 8 remained unaccounted for.
I removed the cleaned out the shells and recovered the nest in case there were still some eggs I had overlooked. Had more turtles made the trip down to the pond and escaped my notice? I just do not know. I walked around the edge of the pond searching pensively. With all my water plants who knows what is in there. But I know for certain at least one little turtle made it. I think I will call him Shelly. (Since writing this, R thinks one more turtle hatched. –dt)
Here are some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157635444504652/
You will also note some of our art projects. R in particular has been whacking away at some wood and making something; I cannot wait to see what it will be. Rebecca reported that a hummingbird came into the garage one day to see what she was doing.
Many of you have asked about our departure to the Winter Residence and as usual it will be towards the end of October. We have already had a few cold nights here but only a few leaves have fallen. There is still time for you to visit us here.
Hope all of you have had a good summer.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
