Snapping Turtle Hatchlings and False Alarm

Sort of false alarm...This morning, we spied the nest hole opening to the turtle nest and expected to see an exodus of baby snapping turtles during the day. This seemed to be right on schedule at 95 days from being laid. Strangely enough, that did not happen. Drew saw three tinier than usual turtles that had emerged, but when he came back to check a little later, they had disappeared. All I can think is that those three were able to crawl under the fencing and escape. Since then, the fencing has been secured and there has been no activity.

So, Drew put an endoscope into the nest cavity (about 3.5" under the surface) to see what was going on down there. Not much as you can see. There were at least 30 eggs laid, and you can see some of them poking up through the sand, with the rest still completely covered.

Check out the rounded bumps of the eggs under the sand. Cool! I expect lots of activity by the weekend and into next week, but never have I seen just a few hatchlings and then nothing...