Turtles Hatching Today!

[touchofsky]

Hi all,
We have a waterlily pond in front of our house and this morning, tiny painted turtles emerged from our gravel path.  Every year, mama turtle lays her eggs in our gravel path.  She then lounges in the lily pond for a bit of a break, then after a couple of days, she goes back to her home in the little creek and marsh behind our house.  In the spring, the baby turtles emerge and spend a fews weeks or even a month or so in the lily pond, before they, too, answer the call of the wild and go down to the natural marsh on our property.  Sometimes one or two will spend the whole summer in the pond, and if they do, we carry them down to the marsh to overwinter.

Here are a few pictures.  There were five baby turtles emerge this morning, and their shells are about the size of a quarter.

In the fourth picture, you can see clumps of newt eggs.  I will post pictures later of the eggs as they mature.  We have a colony of newts that live in the pond year round.

I have also included a picture of mama taken last summer lounging on the edge of the pond.

[Peekay]

Valerie, that is so cool!   

[touchofsky]

Yes, we were lucky to see them emerge this year.  We haven't ever seen that before.  We would find them already in the pond, but this year, we were able to watch four of them come out of the gravel

[Fishnut]

WOW!!  What a treat!  Thanks so much for sharing.

[Nyx]

This is fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing the pics. : )

[Hookup]

[touchofsky]

LOL ... too funny!
The baby turtles are now buried in the mud since it has turned so cold. 

[daworldisblack]

AWESOME ! Woah Valarie, thanks for the treat!

[freshfishies]

That's really awesome Valerie! What a great thing to see right in your own backyard! Makes me miss the country life even more. I love that you will help them out and move them later in the year Very nice!
Can't wait to see the newts' progress next

[touchofsky]

Thanks   When we were dividing the waterlilies, we found an adult newt.  I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think of it.  I will take a few more pictures of the eggs as they mature.  It is neat to see the newts getting bigger within the eggs.

[Laura]

Fantastic pics - you've got a great pond there.
I'm amazed by the amount of newt eggs - those are huge clumps!