The big news on the beach this week was the turtle. A turtle had dug itself into the sand and set about laying its eggs. Kids at a neighboring cabin, Ethan and Regina, were the first to spot it. They actually saw it bury itself in the sand. They said that the turtle was about 8” by 10”. They checked it on the Internet and thought that it was a Wood turtle, but also admitted that it could be a Snapping turtle. Both kinds are fairly plentiful up here. I only became aware of it after it had almost completely covered itself, leaving only its snout out, as pictured above. This was on Saturday morning.

We all kept checking on it throughout the day and frankly, I was surprised to find it still buried on Sunday, but it appeared to have begun digging itself out, and then it was gone. After extricating itself from the sand, it didn’t even try to cover up the hole that it had made, but I guess it knew what it was doing. Turtles like this one has been laying its eggs for millions of years, even though they only enjoy a success rate of about 1%. It will take the eggs two to three months to hatch, so, we will all probably be gone by then. Still, it was an exciting bit of nature to see happen.