The Painted Turtle

Our camping spot for February is at Camp Baldwin on Wolf Bay, part of an estuary leading to the Gulf of Mexico.  It's beautiful here; we're camped close to the shore of a tiny lake, under the loblolly pine trees. These trees are tall and skinny with needles about 8" long.

a small replica of a mill with water wheel

We went exploring today with another couple. First, we walked on a beach with white sand. "I don't need to pick up any more shells," I thought, but then couldn't resist the ones with little holes "drilled" on top, ready for stringing on a necklace. 

Most of the houses on this beach were high up on stilts

This picture doesn't do justice to the pure white sand and crashing waves. The highlight of the day, however, was what we saw at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.  Right by the trail was a Painted Turtle, busy at work.  She had dug a hole in the sand, oblivious to us crouching down and watching her labour.  All of a sudden I saw a long, soft-looking egg slide out into the hole! There were already other eggs deep in the hole, and the turtle used her hind legs and tail to cover up each egg with a layer of sand.  When we inspected the site on the way back, we could hardly tell where the hole had been, so well did she cover up her traces. 

What a sight!  A drama I never expected to see.