my partner and i were sitting outside this afternoon and suddenly he said, "look, a baby turtle!" sure enough, this tiny little guy was trying to cross the driveway. it's blistering hot outside and i thought most babies hatch at night but i was pretty certain this was a newborn. i scooped him up and hustled him down to the lake where he instantly crawled into the water and disappeared. i thought it was so odd seeing him like that.
a few minutes later, john said, "look, more turtles!" omg, there were five or six trying to skittle across the drive. we have a tar and chip driveway and the chips are pieces of granite so it's a little rough. i grabbed the bucket again and put them all in and then started walking around the lawn. i don't know how i even saw it but i spotted a hole about the size of a half dollar and there were two turtles trying to get out at the same time! we marked the hole and over the course of an hour we were able to turn eleven babies loose at the water's edge.
what is really weird is that area is destined to be trenched in the morning to put in a new water line. i guess they figured they'd better beat feet! lol i'm going to carefully shovel up that area tomorrow just in case there are any more hatchlings that haven't quite gotten out of the eggs yet.
if john hadn't said, "get the camera", i wouldn't even have any pictures. here is the last one coming out, about the size of a quarter.
