Speedy Gonzales

You realize that stereotypes are not useful when a speeding turtle blurs your photography.  I should have put this on 'sports' mode!  Yes, those are watermelon chunks which he/she is ignoring.

 

CPR But Not Mouth to Mouth...Eeewww!

We found this little fellow in the crab trap the other day.  Crab traps are supposed to have turtle excluders, and ours does, but this diamond-back terrapin got caught somehow.  We estimate he was held under water for perhaps 5 hours.  This looked like a dead terrapin, but hubby is stubborn and watched and saw a tiny movement....

Here is hubby giving CPR after clearing the water inside his lungs by holding him head down for a little bit.  Hubby would gently press on the back carapace and then wait about 30 seconds or so.  (We could have checked on the Internet for proper procedures, but time was of the essence.)

After about ten minutes of this process the turtle lifted his head and sucked in air. (I think he was also smiling.)  While he remained very lethargic, although degrees of lethargy are hard to determine in turtles/terrapins, he continued to lift his head and breathe in air every once in a while while hubby continued the CPR.

Once we determined he was definitely alive but still weak, we kept him in a cooler on the deck overnight with a little fresh water and some fish food. He was definitely too weak for release that evening.  By sunset he had pooped!  Those of us who have raised children know this is a good sign.

When we checked on him the following morning, he responded as all terrapins and turtles should respond, with total introversion of every appendage.  (Go Away!)

We released him into the grassy edge of the river and he was extremely happy.  He tucked under a stick and would pull his head above the water's surface every once in a while.  We went to check out crab traps and upon our return just a minute later he had disappeared into the river.  Hubby saves another life!

The Nursery

Each new season I spend in my woods, I am charmed by the local residents. Last spring a turtle laid her nest of eggs just below a basil plant in my herb bed. I placed a protective fence around the nest, but the little ones never hatched. Too much rain?...too hot?...life with Mother Nature is sometimes  unforgiving.  We are now entering the season of the box turtles.

Yesterday after a long and violent rain I opened the front door in the early morning with coffee in hand and saw this gal making her way toward my hosta bed across my new paver sidewalk.

She was a stunner in colorful beauty. One of the most striking box turtles I have ever seen, a newcomer. 

She has all her parts, which is sometimes not the case for these gentle creatures.

I went back inside and finished some housecleaning and then decided to walk around the house to see if the storm had created any damage. There had been some pretty high winds along with the downpour.   I rounded the corner to my newly created liriope grass bed that lines the side of the garage.  This new bed was part of the work from the changes to the driveway and retaining wall made this spring and gives some grace to what was a grass-less pathway to the water along the garage wall.

I was a little shocked as was this gal when we happened upon each other.  She was a different turtle, more faded in color and a little larger.

I soon realized that she was working on a nest (click on photo below for better view.)  Once again my home has been blessed by its selection as a box turtle nursery. I hope these little ones do better than those from last year.

When I returned an hour later you could not tell that anyone had disturbed the earth. It was perfect!

Slow Food

By early June the strawberries are done. We have picked our 'bushel' or so and made our jams and syrups and frozen bags for later recipes.  We are satiated on strawberry smoothies and sliced berries on top of vanilla ice cream.  We are more than willing to let the last strawberries remain on the vines.  It is nice to know that the slow food set helps with the clean-up of the those we missed.  He/she need not look so guilty as we are now working on the raspberries and blueberries.

Just Pretend I Am Not Here

You can be busy going about your life while an unexpected miracle is taking place in the mud at your very feet. This was one of those miracles that has been happening for centuries before you were born and which make you feel insignificant in the grand scheme of earth's plan. I went out in the early morning to pick some herbs for a sauce I would be making later in the afternoon. My husband's basil in the vegetable garden is rich and full, but my basil in the small herb bed near the front door is stunted and struggling. As I went to check its growth, I found that it will struggle more as one of our box turtles was excavating just at the base of one set of rather crowded basil plants.

The turtle had moved the mulch to the sides and was using the back clawed feet to scoop balls of earth through the narrow neck of the excavation. She alternated her legs and her little rear end would sashay as if she was doing a dance. The excavation might have resembled the inside of an underground jar with a narrow neck.

I watched for a while as it continued to dig in the clay that I had tried to amend for an herb garden. The turtle would tuck her head if I moved too suddenly and was well-aware aware that I was standing only a few feet away. Realizing that I should give her some privacy, I decided to water my container plants instead.

I left her to her devices and returned two hours later to find her already covering the hole. I had almost missed the whole show. I was able to photograph one last egg (the blurry white orb seen in the photo above) just before it disappeared beneath the mulch that she carefully pulled over the top. When she left her make-shift nursery it was almost impossible to tell that the earth had been disturbed.

The basil will be at the end of its growth season at the 75 to 90 days time frame that the turtle eggs need to hatch. I have marked my calendar, but if land turtles are like sea turtles, the hatching can take place in the dark of night and I will only be left with shells.