Junebug (dog, not beetle) and I walked to Piney Point early this morning and found a box turtle laying eggs in the sand on the side of the trail.
Turtle, viewed from turtle-height. Note the brown eye (females are brown-eyed, males are red-eyed.)
She has dug a shallow pit in the dry, sandy soil. No eggs were visible yet. If this clutch is successful, the young will hatch out in two to three months.
Trail to Piney Point, Sewanee, TN
Looking across Shakerag Hollow from Piney Point
Ripening wild blueberries growing in cracks in the sandstone at Piney Point
David George Haskell 