Thursday, June 13, 2013

Missouri Red-Eared Slider Turtle

This morning when I went outside
to water my flower garden,
(Yes, this is my entire flower garden,
I haven't killed it yet!)

I noticed something odd. 
 
 We had a visitor..........
one of my favorite woodland critters.
This is called a red-eared slider, a semi-aquatic 
Missouri turtle.  They are common around 
our creeks and rivers.
Notice the distinctive red mark.
They love to sun bathe on logs near
the water's edge, and quickly slide away
 when disturbed.  Hence the name.
Average size is about 8 inches, this one was
 a whopper, a good 11inches in length.  They can
 live up to 30 years.
She was very busy.............
laying her eggs.
The red-slider can lay up to 22 eggs in a clutch.
They hatch in about 65 days.
These eggs are the size of a small hen egg or golf ball.
She carefully covered them up
& merrily went on her way.
Nary a sign she'd been there.
She must have thought this the perfect place 
to lay her babies!
Cappy knows to leave turtles alone & she's not a
digger, but to be on the safe side, we covered
them up with chicken wire.
Have a great weekend!

6 comments:

  1. It is a wonder that you saw this. You can keep a watch out for the eggs to hatch. It did look like a great place to lay eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a treat! When we lived on post at Fort Leonard Wood, MO., we had to endure "turtle mating season" in which it seemed like thousands of this kind of turtle were crossing the road to ? find mates? Dunno, but you couldn't avoid them, there were so many. It was so sad. I guess that's why they have to lay 22 eggs at a time. Yours will be much safer, once they climb out from under that wire. ;~)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! What an amazing thing to see! How lucky. I hope you get to see them hatch!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Smiles on the chicken wire; not surprising that you would do this. I hope we get to hear (and see) the rest of the story.

    ReplyDelete
  5. She certainly picked the right place, right next to the bathing turtle bath! Too cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks ladies, I sure hope to see the hatched. I've marked it one the calendar so I can remove the wire and hopefully see them hatch.

    ReplyDelete

Leave me a message. I would love to hear from you.