Crop circle.....or turtle nests?????

Anyone know anything about turtles???

We've had turtles in our pond since we moved here - two to start with, then three, then it just looked like one...but you can never really be sure how many there are. We love watching them sunning themselves but they are quite shy and tend to go back into the water if you go close to the pond.

Well yesterday as I was at my computer, I looked out of the window and there was a turtle on the lawn! Ah. How sweet. Going for a little walk on a warm Sunday morning. I went out and took his photo from a distance, so as not to disturb him and decided I'd keep my eye on him from my desk.


So I carried on with my computer stuff, occasionally seeing him in the same spot. Then one time I looked up and he was no where to be found. I went outside and walked quite a large area - but no turtle. He'd obviously moved fast!

Later - about 2 hours later - I was telling my parents about the turtle (they are staying with us at the moment, visiting from England)....and the turtle was back at the very same spot where I had taken his photo! Like he'd never moved - just disappeared for a short while. We went up closer to him and he didn't do anything.....

As we left shortly afterwards, we saw him making his way up into the vineyard....

So I got thinking..what was he doing on land? We'd never seen the turtles on land before....so I now have this theory that he - or to be precise - "she" had come out of the pond to lay her eggs!!!

Yippee! Baby turtles at Birdland! So today my husband and I have been searching for a turtle nest. It's tricky when you don't know what a turtle nest looks like. Yes, when we lived in Sanibel we recognised sea turtle nests on the beach - but we don't have a beach.

Our wanting to know where the nest is, is more than just curiosity too. As there is a vineyard involved, any day soon, a big tractor will come along and cut the vegetation between the rows and....... :-(

So I rummaged through what turned out to be a mole hole - freshly dug, could have been a turtle nest......and we followed flatten tracks in the grass - and it reminded me of crop circles.... This photo shows one such track - about the size of a turtle, all the grass is flattened....but we can't see eggs......(doesn't show as well in the photo I'm afraid! You had to be here!!!).

So does anyone know about pond turtle nests? Do they bury the eggs? Do they come on land for other reasons? I can't seem to find much info on it......

And then this other funny thing happened today. In my bathroom I have a long string of beads - all different. On my 40th birthday, instead of presents, I asked my nearest and dearest family and friend to each choose a bead for me - something that meant something to them or me. One of the beads I got was a turtle. Well, this morning, the turtle bead is no longer on the end of the string - but he is sat by my sink! Today of all days, he decides to take a walk, jumps off the string and makes me notice him. Hmmm.......