Interesting question. I observed a female ornate digging face-first into a sandy area I constructed for egg-laying. She dug herself completely under - about 3-4 inches deep. This was just before sundown. I dug her up to see what was happening, and found nothing except her - no eggs.

Two nights later, she was digging down into the sand face-first for about an hour, then abruptly stopped and moved away for the night.

The next night, she nested in the exact same area as the first two "test-runs" and dug the normal way. I think the first two face-first digging episodes were testing the ground to see if it was suitable for nesting.

I have never seen this done before, so I found your similar observation interesting.

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