Turtles in the mists

Every year in June the female turtles come out of the lagoon at night and dig a nest and lay their eggs, mostly on wet misty nights. Sometimes I find their nest, but most of the time, I only find their nest after a raccoon has dug it up and eaten all the eggs, and has left the eggs shells  scattered around. In years past upon finding an  unmolested nest I have covered the nest with screen wire, but nothing has ever hatched, this has happened three times. So this year I was going to remove the eggs and put them somewhere safe. I managed to find one egg in good shape from a dug up nest, and eventually found two more viable eggs, in the front yard of all places. I put them in a cardboard box and covered them with soil, and watered them every other day or so. Yesterday I went to water the eggs and there was this little guy, A Georgia Pond Slider.

 The other two eggs are still covered in soil, and this little guy spends most of her time tucked away in the dirt. It remains to be decided if I will keep her at all, if she begins to eat I may wait until she much larger to release,  giving her a much better chance to survive, if she doesn't start to eat after a month or so, I will release her into the lagoon.