Spotted Turtle Nest Question

[Dave Santos]

Back on June 17th, a Spotted Turtle was seen nesting in a friends back yard (sloping lawn area). We put out a wire cage protector over it to keep away predators. Still no action as we approach Day 80. And the nest site is overgrown with crab grass, etc. Wondering if, in another week, we should investigate if she actually laid eggs or if the eggs are viable. Would it even be feasible that they would over winter? Two photos:

 

[Markw84]

Spotted turtles do lay in areas that get covered in vegetation. Even in my large pond area here in Central Calif, I often miss nesting so the eggs remain in the ground and will often have babies emerging in mid spring the next year despite pretty hot summer weather. In Mass, i would imagine overwintering would be quite common for them. If the nest was covered and concealed by the mother when laying, it is almost always a sign eggs were laid. The picture looks like she was done and already covering.

Keep in mind baby spotteds are very small. Hard to tell from the picture with little reference, but from the size of the clover flower - that looks like 1" hardware cloth? A baby spotted could get through that. Also, very hard to secure the bottom along the ground and they are good a finding ways out!

 

[Dave Santos]

The cage is spiked very tightly to the ground with end rods and one more in the middle on each side of it. The only known varmint to check it out was a groundhog that looked at it like "huh?", then wandered away. Mom was first observed digging around 7PM and was still at it at 1045PM when I left! One curious development was some scat on top of the cage almost dead center this week. Thanks for your input.

 

[Turtle girl 98]

The cage is spiked very tightly to the ground with end rods and one more in the middle on each side of it. The only known varmint to check it out was a groundhog that looked at it like "huh?", then wandered away. Mom was first observed digging around 7PM and was still at it at 1045PM when I left! One curious development was some scat on top of the cage almost dead center this week. Thanks for your input.

I have box turtle eggs that o rescued from a nest laid on the 14 th of June and have begun hatching yesterday. Hopefully you can see the babies [emoji846]

 

[Dave Santos]

Great news! We found one hatch-ling this morning! My friend cut his lawn yesterday and removed the wire cage. We had just about given up on them, but checked this morning to find this little beauty. Whether others hatched out between yesterday and this morning is unknown. The wire cage was reinstalled just in case. The yoke sac was totally missing. Walked it down as close to the swamp as I could get. Good luck little fella! 102 days! My friend's photo:

 

[Turtle girl 98]

Great news! We found one hatch-ling this morning! My friend cut his lawn yesterday and removed the wire cage. We had just about given up on them, but checked this morning to find this little beauty. Whether others hatched out between yesterday and this morning is unknown. The wire cage was reinstalled just in case. The yoke sac was totally missing. Walked it down as close to the swamp as I could get. Good luck little fella! 102 days! My friend's photo:

That is so cool! So glad you got to see the babies [emoji3526]

 

[Dave Santos]

She only laid two eggs. One hatched (the one on the right). I am pretty sure the one on the left was non-viable. Note the soft material in the one second from the top. Also, that shell had a bluish color and not as big as the other one. I could be wrong - maybe that's the yoke sac left behind. Doubt it though since it consumed right after hatching.