Category Archives: Cape Cod Blog

Box Turtle Lays Her Eggs In Our Yard On Cape Cod!

Yesterday was an unbelievable day as we watched this Box Turtle sauntering around our yard for quite a while early in the morning. We watched it from time to time.  Then she stopped and began burying herself in the wood chips. Hmmmm. (Click on blog link to see additional photos.)

Little did we know that she was going to dig a nest right next to my Zinnias and lay her eggs. What a treat! I’ve never seen this ritual before. Amazing… We first saw her about 7:30 am and she finished up covering her nest about 3:30 pm. Wow! She must be exhausted!

The sequence of photographs is: 1. Looking for that perfect spot in our yard (They like their nests in the sun.) 2. She’s digging her nest with her back legs. You can see the dirt in the back. 3. She’s laying her eggs. 4. She’s covering up her nest with her back legs. 5. The nest all covered up. You wouldn’t even know it was there. Wow!

Box turtles usually lay an average of 5 eggs and lays several clutches. Eggs hatch 70-120 days later, so I will have to put that on my calendar! What an experience!

Immature Male Orchard Oriole At Our Feeder On Cape Cod!

I saw this yellow bird with a black throat and mask at our feeder the other day and said, “What kind of bird is that?” It was beautiful and one that I had never seen before. In doing some research, it is an immature male Orchard Oriole.

Have you ever seen an immature male Baltimore Oriole? Very cool… it even has a bit of jelly in its beak.

Pretty White Mouse-Ear Chickweed On Cape Cod.

Mouse-ear Chickweed is a wildflower with tiny, white 1/2″ flowers.   These flowers have 5 deeply notched petals and 5 prominent sepals. The 6-12″ plants grow  from May through September so you should be able to see them this summer. I saw many of them along the trails at Fort Hill.

It is often called the “common weed of gardens, roadsides and lawns.”

Have you ever seen a Mouse-ear Chickweed? Pretty, don’t you think?