Bona Dea turtle, traffic accident, Update

Bona Dea was wet in the late afternoon as a rain shower came over the park with a little over an inch of rain. It was really nice to be out there after the rain. This is an update regarding the traffic accident that occurred at a parking area off dike road by the park. Photos of the aftermath is on the June 17th. blog post. The local newspaper shows that an elderly gentleman was reaching for this cell phone and in the process swerved into oncoming traffic. He looked up and over corrected to the right and was going to fast to stop and ran through the traffic guards and ended up sideways by the water below. So we all need to be careful using cell phone while driving. I fed the fish and catfish and musk turtles at the spillway and noticed that Prairie Creek and the water ponds were refreshed by the rain. The Northern Cardinals were really expressing their appreciation for the rain by singing away. A really strange thing happened. I had walked down the steep dike after parking and went onto the trail. There was no turtle there when I went down. However when I came back about an hour later, a Red-eared Slider turtle had already dug her nest and was in the process of laying her eggs right where I had walked before. That was really fast work. These photos shows her on the nest and then a closeup showing the hole where she was laying her eggs. The ground was soft and muddy there due to the rain which probably prompted her to start laying.