Turtle Eggs

A few weeks ago, Steve found some small eggs down by the river that looked like they had been dug up or never buried. We guessed they were either turtle eggs or snake eggs, but weren't sure. Brooke was fascinated with them and wanted to bring them in the house. Steve looked at them up close with a flashlight and thought they were dead so Brooke added them to her collection of nature treasures. For a few days she carried them around the house in a little plastic box. Then she accidentally dropped one and it cracked. We decided to open it up for fun and see what was inside. Much to our surprise there was a living baby turtle in there! We carefully peeled off the shell and opened up the sack and there it was, moving about.

We were so giddy with excitement. We did not expect to find anything alive! The little turtle survived for a few hours, but was dead by the end of the day. We buried the remaining two eggs in a bucket of dirt. About a week later, Brooke noticed some movement in the bucket and saw that one of the other eggs was hatching.

It took about 24 hours for the entire process and when it was all done, there was cute and healthy little turtle born into this big world.

We took the baby down to the river and set it on some rocks and waited for it to make its move. Finally it jumped into the water and was off on its own.

Such a cool thing to watch the start of new life, and even cooler to get to see it through the eyes of my kids.