Game On!

I hope this is not a little premature, but turtle 1 is exhibiting nesting behavior and is most likely getting ready to lay eggs sometime soon. Kathy and I located her this evening above ground and in an upright tilted position with her posterior end down in a scrape. In the vicinity there were three other scrapes within a 3 meter radius, most likely made by her in the last 36 hours. Hearing the news, Kat came up and is on watch as I write this. Returning to her site later in the survey, we found that she had moved off of the scrape on which we found her, but was in the immediate vicinity as indicated by a visual. Unfortunately, she has picked the most human unfriendly spot on the Range, with poison oak, thicket, rock jumbles, Italian thistle and mosquitoes o' plenty.

Turt 1 in position

Turt 1 from a distance (she is in the center of the photo on the edge of the veg)

One of the false scrapes

As for the other turts, it seems that they all got the urge to move around on us just to make our job a little more complex. Perhaps it was the heat and humidity? Turtle 2 is back in the reservoir after a brief stint burrowed under a fallen gray pine. Turtle 3 is also back in the res having been terrestrial for several days as well. They join turtle 4 who has eggs, but has yet to venture out on land (as far as we know). Turtle 5 has moved about 7 meters from her previous locale and is now even closer to the barracks. Turtle 7 has also moved within a short distance (~10 meters) from last burrow. She is now hunkered down on a rock ledge and completely covered with duff.

Turtle seven's new spread (location is in the center of the photo on the ledge)

Kathy near Turtle 5