It was so cool the other day to see this eastern Box Turtle laying her eggs in the sand on the side of our house. We saw her when she was almost finished so we got to see her cover up the nest with sand and then hide it. She did an amazing job. You could never tell where she had been. (Click on blog link to see other photos.)
Good thing I marked it with sticks as it rained so hard that night it would have been hard to find. In order of photos: 1. Laying her eggs. 2. Filling the hole where the eggs were laid with sand. 3. Covering the entire area so it looks untouched. 4. Walking away from the nest into the woods, never to see them again. 5. Wire cage to protect the eggs and hatchlings.
It takes 70-90 days for the turtles to hatch, so it should be at the end of August to the middle of September. Because we don’t want any predators to get the eggs, Phil made a wire cage to protect them. So exciting! I can’t wait to see the little ones when they hatch. Two years ago we had 6 Eastern Box Turtle hatchlings in our yard. It was so cool and they were so tiny!
It’s that time of the year when you can see the horseshoe crabs scurrying around in the water and occasionally when they mate. There was so much commotion in the water at Hemenway Landing that I decided to go investigate. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
You can see all of the horseshoe crabs along the shore moving about. I took a few photographs where you can see the ripples in the water as they propel forward. I had never noticed their eyes before… another first this season for me!
Have you ever noticed the horseshoe crab’s eyes?
As we were taking photographs on the Beech Forest Trail, we noticed something swimming in the pond. Hmm… what could that be? There were two of them, swimming all over the place, diving under, looking like they were eating the lily pads. (Click on blog link for other photos.)
At first we thought they were Mink, but they were really big, maybe about 3′ long, as you can see in the 2nd photograph. They were pretty fast, so it was difficult to get a good photograph. When we got home I looked on the internet and realized that were Otters. Otters on Cape Cod?
Yes, there are many otters that swim in the kettle ponds, lakes and streams. Who knew? Another first for me!
Yesterday morning about 6:00 am Phil yelled to me, “What is that way up in the tree? It looks like a bear!” I thought… a bear on Cape Cod? Doubtful! But this thing was pretty big! (Click on blog link for other photos.)
I got my camera and clicked away… it was a huge raccoon. It kept climbing and climbing up and up and up! He would climb out on the branches and then keep going up. I bet he was looking for bird’s nests with eggs in them. I don’t think he found any.
You can see just how high he is in the 3rd photograph, about 3/4s of the way up the tree in the center of the photo (see arrow). And then he came down… head first! That was a first for me! I thought he would come down backwards… like a bear.
Pretty cool, don’t you think? Sure was an exciting early morning!!
