Turtlesinger, Inc.


is a Federal 501(c)3 Public Charity - New Jersey Charities Registration # CH2998200
Mission Statement: To educate and entertain the public about turtles with original songs and/or live turtles.



May 1, 2025



The First 13 Nesting Terrapins!



Here you will see 13 of our diamondback terrapins in order of nesting. We named them all, and they each have their own story and reason for their name: Lucky was lucky to be helped across Stone Harbor Boulevard, Wallflower dropped down from our neighbor’s wall, Mercy got across the road because merciful traffic stopped in both directions, Xena faced off against some huge trucks on the road in both directions like a warrior princess, Lynn was named after our neighbor who told us about this turtle laying eggs on our sand pile, Connie was named after a relative we were on the phone with when we saw a stranger place the turtle on our property, Lady was named after “Lady and the Ramp” (minus the T) because she made her way right down our ramp after laying, Mary was discovered in front of our Maryland neighbor’s house, Anna was named after “Anna Nimity” for the anonymous mom and family who were afraid to pick her up after stopping for her, Shelly initially kept trying to lay her eggs in our driveway of shells, Barnacle Billie had a large barnacle on her shell, Driveway Determination Debbie started her 1st of 4 nesting attempts in our driveway, but never gave up and finally laid her eggs in our sand pile, and Oreo chose her nest to be the filling right between 2 other nests (one nest still to be covered was represented by the orange bucket)!


For the rest of our 2024 nesting terrapins, SCROLL DOWN...



May 1, 2025



The Rest of the Nesting Terrapins!



Here are the rest of our diamondback terrapins in order of nesting. Coquina was named after a type of clam shell and the only turtle we saw finish laying eggs in our clamshell driveway (watch closely and you’ll see her eggs dropping into the hole!), Andrea was named after the owner of a neighbor’s place where she refused to lay, Sheryl was named after the owner of another neighbor’s place where she crossed the road, Ann was named after a next-door neighbor whose place was under construction, so we gave this turtle a chance to lay on our sand pile instead, Michaela was named after Ann’s husband, Mike, and this turtle was also found on the construction site of their property, Jane: more about Jane later in this blog, Summer laid her eggs on the first day of summer, Luna laid her eggs by the light of the just waning Strawberry Full Moon, June laid her eggs on the last day of June, Ella means “beautiful surprise” and was discovered by accident on our surveillance camera, Julie laid her eggs on the first day of July, Cora is a name associated with journeys, and she traveled around our yard before nesting on our sand pile, Dolly means “Gift from God” and was a gift from a stranger who put her in our yard, Claire means “quickly” and her entire nesting process only took 20 minutes--which is quite fast, and finally Octavia means 8 and she laid her eggs on the 8th of July!


For the predators visiting our 2024 nesting terrapin sanctuary, SCROLL DOWN...



May 1, 2025



Predators on Camera!



Check out the bulk of our nests during the day and then being checked out by predators at night! We’ve provided text throughout the video about the predators you will see.

No turtles or eggs were harmed during these videos.


Now, to see hatchlings that emerged from these nests, SCROLL DOWN...



May 1, 2025



2024 Terrapin Hatchlings!



Our diamondback terrapins started hatching on August 18, 2024.


We’ve presented them in the order of hatching. The nests did not hatch in sequence in fact, the order of nest hatching was: 5, 1, 8, 4, 18, 20, 11, 7, 6, 17, 9, 16, 15, 12, 23, 10, 13, 27, 24, 28, and 22! We’ve listed throughout the video how long it took for the terrapins you’ll see to hatch.


Often you will see the white “egg tooth” on each hatchling’s beak. This helps the terrapin cut its way out of the egg and later it will lose the tooth altogether.


By the end of our 2024 nesting season we had released 168 hatchlings!

For the continuation of our 2024 nesting season, including terrapins who overwintered in their nest and hatched in the spring of 2025, SCROLL DOWN...



May 1, 2025



2024 Nesting Season Extended into 2025!



Our nesting season continued with our remaining turtle nests covered in snow on January 6, 2025. Our fox came back, and we lost 9 turtles to it from a nest we had not known about previously. This season there have been 5 mystery nests…so far!


In this video, you will get to see the turtle that laid the eggs in the snow-covered nest at the beginning: followed by her hatchlings! You’ll see the hatchlings climbing the wall of the nest exclosure, which is another reason besides keeping predators out that the exclosure has a lid: to keep the hatchlings in until we can safely release them.


You’ll hear us talking about these overwintered hatchlings, which I (Karen) take out of the nest quickly because it was only 58 degrees and quite windy (as you will hear) and I wanted to get them out of the wind.


Surprise! We were all ready to wrap up this blog when another nest hatched on April 29th! This year our total diamondback terrapin hatchlings released is 180! 4 nests remain and a raccoon ambled by last week, so anything can still happen—we’ll let you know! Thanks for reading about our 2024-2025 nesting and hatching season, and a new season starts in about a month!





Contact Us:



turtlesinger@hotmail.com | Phone: (609) 205-9248