As I had suspected, Gaya was indeed close to laying. I had hoped for four eggs, but suspected 3, which is what came. She watched curiously as I dug them up (after she lays she becomes the most inquisitive hunter, I'm sure she's just hoping for food, but it's quite adorable). Anyway, so far she was my only female turtle (out of ten) that I knew was gravid (all others have nothing to fell when papped). Hopefully it's just early enough or the weather has been cool and rainy enough that the season is merely delayed rather than stunted, but hey, I'll happily take what I can get.



I do have a clutch of eastern painteds SOMEWHERE in one of my pens. She was doing the traffic game and would not be deterred right by our house so we detained her overnight while she laid in the pen, then turned her loose late in the evening far on the other side of the road (and true to form she took of in the direction she had been heading).

link to album with gaya's clutch photo, feel free to look around

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