Turt 2, wtf? and a possible nester.

Well, the dark horse surprise of the wee hours of the morning was turtle 2. She has been comfortably hunkered down underneath a downed grey pine with a cozy little burrow. Until now. Now she is back in the reservoir, hanging out with turt4. Kim and I scratched our heads over that one for awhile.

Turts 3 and 5 were in the same burrows they have been in, and turt 1 is still out in between the two. Turt 1 is in this odd spot with part of her carapace exposed. She is partially buried, with her head and butt covered, yet she is in a vertical position up against a rock. Her bee dot was visible (and looked great), but the positioning of her body was very odd.




The other surprise was turt7, who moved again since RGO last located her. She is now hunkered down on the east side of the Res under a patch of ceanothus. She also appeared to be 'wiggling' in her little scrape, suggesting she was moving dirt with her back legs. Possible nesting behavior? I blue flagged the locale, so even if she moves we can probe the spot. She has been doing an awful lot of moving recently and her current spot did not look like clear 'burrowing' behavior (ie she made no attempt to really cover herself, despite ample duff to move into). I will likely run back up this afternoon to have another look at her and see what is the what.



screechies and great horneds were heard repeatedly. As well as a small pack of coyotes hunting nearby. Oh, and Kim got to see her first bobcat - trotting down the road as we cruised toward the barracks. Here kitty, kitty.