Yesterday, near the Laramie Pond in Etna, NH, I discovered a snapping turtle completing its egg laying session. She had already dug a hole and deposited all or most of her eggs.
In the second-to-last photo of this sequence you see her rear right leg pushing gravel onto the area where the eggs were placed.
I hope raccoons, skunks, minks, or foxes don’t find the eggs — something that happens all too often. I know there are at least four fox kits in the area. And I have previously photographed a mink within a half mile of this spot.
About an hour before I posted this blog, I read one by Mary Holland about snapping turtles. She gave much more detail about how temperature during incubation determines the sex of the offspring. And her photo shows an egg being laid.
Quite a few years ago I was fortunate to photograph snapping turtles mating, less than 3 miles from this spot.
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