How to identify turtle nests

Bruce Peninsula National Park

Turtle nests are hard to see, so the most reliable way to find a nest is to witness the turtle digging and laying eggs. The nesting season peaks in June, and most turtles nest at dawn or dusk. When looking for turtle nests to protect, observe suitable nesting habitats between 7 am to 10 am and between 6 pm to 9 pm from late May until early July. If you see a turtle digging or nesting, give her lots of space! Turtles may abandon their nests if they are disturbed.

A snapping turtle on the side of a road.
Nesting habitat

Turtles spend most of their lives in wetlands but will leave the water to nest on dry land. Turtles in and around Bruce Peninsula National Park usually make their nests gravel, which they often find on road shoulders.

Turtles make their nests hidden underground, but they leave some clues that help us find them.

  • Look for disturbed soil along the roadside
  • Nests can be found by following turtle tracks and signs (e.g. claw marks, slight indents, soil disturbance and abrupt changes in the direction of the tracks).
  • Raccoons searching for insects and turtle eggs usually leave numerous small depressions about a “snout width” in size and these markings can appear quite messy.
  • If egg fragments are visible, the nest has been predated.
  • Snapping Turtles often create distinct disturbances in the soil.
  • Painted Turtles create more tidy nests that can be difficult to spot.
Snapping turtle nests

Snapping turtles may nest at dusk, but more commonly in the early morning. They generally make a little “cavern” with hard walls, which they deposit between 20 to 50 eggs into before covering, leaving one soft opening. The eggs are usually about 20cm deep under the soil. A completed snapping turtle nest is usually quite evident, with two distinct mounds and a tail mark between them. Mounds may occasionally merge. There may be test pits nearby.

Examples of snapping turtle nests:

First example of a snapping turtle next, a disturbed dirt hole surrounded by plants
Second example of a painted turtle next, a disturbed pile of dirt in the gravel
Painted turtle nests

Painted turtles usually prefer to nest at dusk. They lay between 3 and 14 eggs about 10cm deep in the soil. Their nests are very inconspicuous and difficult to find, but they will leave a small, patted down area in gravel or soil, which they often moisten with bladder water.

Examples of painted turtle nests:

First example of a painted turtle next, a disturbed pile of dirt in the sand
Second example of a painted turtle next, a disturbed pile of dirt surrounded by plants

Other tips

Turtles also dig test pits, which are holes that are dug up by turtles seeking a location to lay their eggs. If the location does not suit the turtle’s needs or she is disturbed, she will abandon the hole and move on to another location. A real nest can be beside/very close to the test pits. If eggs are not laid, the turtle will leave the pit uncovered. There is no need to protect or dig into the test pits. When the eggs are laid, the hole is patted down and will be very inconspicuous.

You may also encounter egg fragments, which indicate that a nest has been predated, meaning that eggs were dug up and consumed. This is a natural process; however, with human induced changes in many landscapes, some natural predator numbers are much higher than they have been historically. This leads to increased nest predation by predators such as raccoons, moles, and crows/ravens which can reduce turtle populations over time.

Never dig a potential nest to look for turtle eggs!

When you find a turtle nest, protect it!

Loose dirt piled up on the side of a road.

A test nest dug by a turtle

A hole in the ground is surrounded by white shells.

A predated turtle nest

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