#newly hatched

BLACK SEA TURTLE Chelonia mydas agassizi ©Laura Quick

Black sea turtles tend to be smaller than green turtles, but can still weigh up to 300 pounds and reach 4 feet in length! Also, black sea turtles are the only sea turtle known to nest in the Galapagos Islands – most of their nesting occurs in Central America, Mexico and the Galapagos.

The black turtle has a similar diet to that of the green sea turtle. As grazers, both types of sea turtle eat algae, sea grasses and mangrove shoots. Additionally, they will both occasionally eat small fish, jellyfish and other invertebrates.

Look Baby Chicks!

I ran a Facebook Egg Game in June where people adopted eggs and if they hatched the person got to name the chick. There was a lot that went wrong, and only 7 or 76 eggs hatched, and of the 7 only 5 survived. TOTAL Disaster! I polled the participants and we decided to do one more round. This was a chance for me to make sure the eggs were fertilized properly and the incubator was working and to remove some of the problems from the first go-around.

This time I put 5 eggs under a one hen and 40 eggs into an incubator.

When I came home tonight, though it’s only Day 19 of 21, one of the eggs had hatched. I scooped up the chick and placed it under the hen so I could work on removing the eggs from the ambulating device. The chicks can get crushed by it.  When I returned to grab the chick for a quick photo, the chick I ended up with wasn’t the same chick I’d put under the hen, another had hatched as well!

June 12th - Here’s something to gladden the heart.

It was sad to lose one of the Watermead swan brood, but a lady who’s been nesting for an awful long time in a Walsall Wood canalside garden has finally hatched a pair of chicks.

As I returned from work, mom and day were proudly taking to the water with their two cygnets - one for a while tucked protectively under mum’s wing.

Watching it emerge and swim excitedly with it’s sibling was a real joy.

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