Box Turtle in the Mulch

The recent Sunday morning visits by the Eastern Box Turtle were not the first visits this summer. At 8:00 PM on June 22nd, I noticed this box turtle dug into the mulch. I can only assume that the purpose was to lay eggs. The turtle made no movements with its head, neck, or legs while I was there taking these close up photos.

I returned a little after 10:00 PM and took this photo with flash (third photo) of the turtle now completely dug in.

At 1 PM the next afternoon, all that remained were these two 'indentations' - the turtle was long gone. At the time, I did not distribute the mulch.

A week later, the Habitat received 3 inches of rain during a 2 hour period. At that time, I had to dig up the mulch in the area where the turtle had been in order to relieve serious flooding around the house.