Between working on things around here today, I noticed 3 turtles trotting around the beach, trying to decide where to lay their eggs. At one point I noticed one headed for the road, and went down to discourage her. She headed back for the beach, but one had already dug the hole and laid the eggs in the road. I went back up to the house to get the camera, by the time I got back she had covered up the eggs and was doing her little tapdance to tamp the sand and gravel down. I got a couple shots of her, and then waited for her to finish. Once she headed back towards the water, I picked her up and gave her a lift down to the water's edge. The location she had chosen was about the worst available, literally in the road. Cars would drive over the nest and when the summer rains wash the gravel down the hill we use a tractor with a blade to grade it back up, so there was about a 100% chance of this nest being squashed. Normally I wouldn't disturb a nest once laid, but in this case there was a definite danger of it being destroyed. I got a garden trowel and shallow pan with sand, and carefully dug up the eggs and set them on the sand in the same position in which they had been laid. I then dug a hole at the top of the beach where they were least likely to be disturbed, at the same depth as the original nest, and carefully set the 8 eggs in the hole, and gently covered them up. Dad watched the procedure, when he saw the 8 eggs he asked "WHERE does she keep all that in her body?" I've often wondered that myself. In hindsight I should have grabbed a couple pics of the eggs, but I was more concerned with relocating the nest as quickly and safely as possible.
Earlier I had been working out in the garage, and heard something buzzing in the window. There was an ichneumon wasp trying to find its way out. I got out my bug catcher and captured her, and put her into the aquarium and kept her in a cool place until I had time to photograph her. After the turtle episode I got her back into the bug catcher, grabbed the tripod and camera and took her out to a fallen log. I set up the camera and then coaxed her out of the bug catcher and onto the log, she stopped to preen herself for about two minutes before taking off to the treetops. I managed to get a few shots before she left.
Other notes from the past couple of days:
There's been a nighthawk flying around for most evenings the past couple of weeks. We've had them here years before, but this is the first one I've seen in about a decade. You hear that "neep.....neeep......braaaaaaaawwwww..." There's a couple of whipporwills calling, one was singing away in the woods across the bay last night. Another night caller here lately is the great horned owl, I've called back a couple times, when it hears a "rival" it's call gets shorter and more "terse". The bullfrog chorus has begun, with its accompaniment of green frogs' banjo plucks in between. The treefrogs are one big shrill trill in the woods around the pond. It seems like there's more crickets this year, calling earlier. One thing there's definitely more of is chipmunks, seems they're EVERYWHERE underfoot. Every time I drive out the gravel roads these days I have to slam the brakes at least 3 times before I get to the highway, trying to avoid some kamikaze chipmunk running across the road.
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