It felt as though I was walking on egg shells - turtle egg shells.

On an early evening hike yesterday at the North Fork Timber Swamp Brook area in Howell, New Jersey I saw the remnants of some very recent turtle hatchings.

I counted five separate nests on my ~2-hour hike.

The funny thing was that several of these holes were either right on, or right next to the trail.

The trails are very sandy, seeing as how this is Central New Jersey we're talking about, so maybe that helps explain the choice of location.

I wish I knew what kind of turtles they were? Could be snapping turtles, I suppose, as there is plenty of water nearby. Maybe one of our resident @steemit herpetologists will chime in with an opinion!

I've also included a number of other images I captured along the way.

And for a look at the pink mountain laurel that I found on this hike see my @steemit post from earlier today entitled Fractal Flowers.

Follow me @cognoscere

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We've had such a ridiculous amount of rain lately, parts of the terrain are starting to look more and more like rice paddies.

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These two ducks were apparently enjoying a swim in this flooded area, and I scared them into flight when I got too close to them.

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Here's a hole smack in the middle of the trail. And this trail is used by hikers, horses, and even dirt bikes and 4-wheelers.

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A property boundary marker.

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Up on a rise, looking back at some of the very muddy trail that I just navigated.

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It's not easy to see, but this mushroom is holding quite a bit of water.

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The milkweed is just starting to flower. From Wikipedia:
_{American milkweeds are an important nectar source for native bees, wasps, and other nectar-seeking insects, though non-native honey bees commonly get trapped in the stigmatic slits and die, and a larval food source for monarch butterflies and their relatives, as well as a variety of other herbivorous insects (including numerous beetles, moths, and true bugs) specialized to feed on the plants despite their chemical defenses.}

All images (except as noted) @cognoscere and taken on Monday (Memorial Day) 05/29/2017 at the North Fork Timber Swamp Brook in Howell, New Jersey (Sony RX100 V)

• First image source