Back Off!

Along with 6 others, I have been attending a Master Naturalist course taught by Mark LaSalle, director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center. (I will be chronicling progress at becomingamasternaturalist.com.) After today's lesson about climate and weather, we headed out to Ward Bayou, near Vancleave, MS, for plant identification lessons. Much to our surprise, a rather large female slider turtle was just finishing up laying her eggs near where we were to enter the trail head. She eyed us suspiciously as we stood, snapping her and the yet-to-hatch eggs' photos. Whether she was finished with the process or not, I do not know, but she worked diligently to cover them with dirt. We moved on, so as not to disturb her any more than we had. She held her ground next to her precious unborn babies with a look that clearly said, "Back off, people!" We headed onto the trail to complete our original mission. When we returned to the trail's entrance, she was gone. One would wonder if she moved to a quieter area to finish laying, or if she moved off into the shade for a well deserved rest after having given birth to Ward Bayou's next generation of little slider turtles.