Little did I know when I moved into our house on the pond that our gravel driveway was a turtle breeding ground! Each day the edge of our driveway gets visited by multiple female turtles who dig up the stone dust and gravel to lay eggs and then head back to the pond. Eastern Painted turtles, snapping turtles, they all seem to like generally the same area. I’ve had to put up orange safety cones and check all around the car before I back up. Turtle eggs take 80 to 90 days to hatch and then the quarter sizes infants will have to make a life or death sprint to the safety of the pond before a raccoon or crow gets them.
A female snapping turtle heads back to the pond after laying eggs in my driveway.
Chrysemys picta – The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters.
The common snapping turtle is a large freshwater turtle of the family Chelydridae.
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