I sat as still as the humid air around me, on soft yellow sand lightly punctuated by pebbles and twigs. With my eyes, I followed an advancing motion that was shaking the lowest branch of one of the bushes that surrounded my little island of sand. Slowly and deliberately the motion progressed forward until, upon reaching the threshold where the protection of the leaves ended, it stopped. A minute or so later, an elaborately patterned green head emerged from the leaves and two intense black eyes focused on my surroundings and me. I thought I could not remain still any longer, but from the shadow surrounding the pair of dark eyes, a diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) finally took shape and proceeded to gradually make her way over the sand and pebbles, occasionally stopping to prod into the sand with her nose, dig a small hole, and move on to another spot, where she repeated her pre-nesting procedure. What was she looking for? After four test holes, this mother-to-be chose a spot to her liking in a sandy plot near a small bush and committed her clutch of eggs to the sand and microhabitat. Here they would incubate from seventy to one-hundred days. Yet why did she make her nest in this particular spot, near this particular bush? Read More

• Biology
• Ecology