Baby Box Turtle

This little bundle of joy emerged from our lawn two days ago. We'd found an Eastern Box Turtle wondering our yard earlier in the spring. As it turns out, females leave from the forest each spring to locate open fields to lay their egg(s). And as it again turns out, the eggs don't hatch until late summer, early autumn.

Isn't it cute? (still too early to tell if it's a boy or girl.)

Found a Box Turtle

Found an Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina, out in the yard last week. We don't have the best fences in the world and there's a small ditch I dug for drainage, so there are a few spots where she could have easily crawled on in. It is a girl, or so my mom tells me. Mom's always loved box turtles and she's determined to keep it. We built a turtle habitat and everything for it out under the pine tree. So I get to design a turtle garden.

An issue though is I understand female box turtles leave the forest around now to lay their eggs out in fields. The resulting babies live underground for the first few years feeding on god knows what.