Hi everyone,

Here I am with a painted turtle. At this time of year it is a great time for turtle nesting because of the high humidity in the air. Today we got a nice rainfall so turtles will be coming up to nest because the rainfall makes the ground more easier to dig.

 

Turtles will dig up a hole (essentially) and lay their eggs into their nest and cover it back up. From there the mother will go back into the water and her babies will emerge in the fall where they will live their lives.

Turtle moms don't care for their young, all they do is to lay their eggs (into the ground) and than their job is over.

Related: Painted turtles...Is it a boy or a girl

Sometimes, painted turtles will have more than one clutch (the number of eggs in a nest) in a season so that's more than one nest. When a (female) turtle lays a nest at the beginning of summer (kind of like right now) that nest will emerge in the fall.

 

Sometimes, the female turtle will lay another nest later in the season and those eggs will actually hatch underground and they'll stay underground over the winter and emerge in the spring time.

 

Sometimes you will see young turtles (hatchlings) in the spring time emerging (from the nest in the ground). Those were turtles that were in the ground all winter.