Backyard Zoology · 3 November 2023
2023-11-03T19:09:36+11:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/videos/6824002207683887/

Well we had an unexpected treat today, and I'm not talking about the box of baked goodies we took to snack on or the horde of ducks, geese, swamp hens and coots that descended on us the second we sat down with said snacks at the Wollongong Botanic Garden. The snacks were expected. I mean, we set aside actual time out of our day to grab them on the way in. We know how to see in the weekend in style.

But after a lazy meander around the gardens, trying to beat the impending drizzle, we decided to call it a day and started to head out. Luckily for us, a gorgeous big eastern water dragon decided to make a song and dance about our heavy footsteps and launched himself down near the duckpond. And that's when Matt spotted it, an Eastern Long-Necked Turtle very obviously laying a clutch of eggs.

And when I say obviously, she was half in a small hole she had painstakingly dug out with her webbed, clawed feet. But that wasn't the give away. She looked, how do I put it, preoccupied. If you've had a baby, you'll know the look, that unfocused stare into the distance and there was a fair amount of using her back legs to brace against the side of the nest. She was clearly in the middle of some very hard work. But if digging the nest and laying the eggs (she'll lay anywhere from 4-20 eggs) wasn't enough, she then needed to cover the nest back up.

Now I try to never get involved in nature. I mean, it's the circle of life after all. But after watching a channel-billed cuckoo snatch the egg from our much loved tawny nest and drop it onto the road, I wasn't going to just stand by when a raven landed right next to this very vulnerable turtle. I admit I shook the foliage I was hiding behind and growled, and I even let out my inner Alf Stewart yelling, "Get out of here you flaming mongrel!"

The noisy miners took over, dive bombing the bird and a masked lapwing even stood in-between the turtle and the raven screeching its 'ka-ka-ka' call. It took a while but the raven relented and the turtle stretched her back legs out to scoop up the dirt and mulch before patting down the earth, rendering the nest invisible before very slowly turning and making her way to the water.

I wish I could say, after all that hard work, that her reentry was graceful. But after almost falling over the slight dip to the pond's border she plunged into the water with an undignified plop, and ended up on her back. After a few seconds she righted herself and was on her way. 

We had watched her for around an hour and I suspect she must have been there for at least half an hour prior. Here's hoping the nest is successful and there are hatchlings in the coming months.

Eastern Long-Necked Turtle
Wollongong Botanic Garden

#wollongongbotanicgardens #wollongong #turtle #layingeggs