Yesterday Phil was out blowing the leaves off of our road when he came across this beautiful Box Turtle in a pile of leaves right in the middle of the road. He didn’t even see it until the leaves were just about blown to the side. And there he was. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
Thank goodness Phil was there at “just the right time”as a car might have driven right over it. This little guy was definitely saved by the leaf-blower. He was such a beautiful Box Turtle who blended right in with the leaves.
We were so surprised to see so many seals swimming right off-shore at Coast Guard Beach. It seemed like they would pick someone and swim with them down to the spit. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
Our neighbor has several Diamondback Terrapin nests in her yard so it has been fun watching and waiting for them to hatch. Yesterday one of the terrapin nests was quite active with 11 little hatchlings emerging. They were just precious! (Click on blog link for other photos.)
You can see where the little turtles as they scurry about where their nest was. Our local “turtle expert,” Bill Allan had put a cage over it while they incubated so that any predator could not get to them.
He put the terrapins in a little plastic box and gave them some water as we went over to release them by the salt marsh. I didn’t know that these terrapin will spend 4 years outside of the water, just in the woods or undergrowth, as they grow. How fascinating!
We watched this Box Turtle walk around our yard for quite a while until she found the perfect spot to lay her eggs. Then we watched her dig her hole which took hours. It was dark by the time she laid her eggs. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
We put a cage on it as soon as we could as we don’t want any animals digging up her eggs. And I put 60 days on my calendar, so the little ones should start hatching at the end of August.
Nature is so amazing and sometimes I’m just in awe watching everything that happens in our own yard.
Cape Cod daily articles on the wonderful Cape Cod places to hike, experience and photograph. A Cape Cod Outdoor Adventure Series.
