The Young Ones

Several weeks ago Sharon was working in the garden and dug up a couple of small eggs. As she had already disturbed them, she decided to collect them and try to incubate them inside. We thought they were snake eggs as we had seen several snakes in that area and had see some young snakes in the area. She put them in an old tupperware with a lot of leaf litter and a moist paper towel in the bottom. This was shortly before she headed off to Africa for work, so we hoped they would hatch quickly. But for several days, nothing happened. While Sharon was gone, I checked on them occasionally and added a spritz of water from time to time. But still nothing. Then a few weeks ago, I was out birding with our local club and chatted with a snake expert. He said at the park he works at the snake eggs usually hatch in about 10-14 days. They also put them under heat lamps. We had left our outside in the sun room where it was warm but probably not as hot as under a lamp. So it seemed like our eggs were not going to hatch. Sharon returned from her trip and we just left the tupperware and stopped checking on it.

Then today happened. We had had some friends over for lunch and after they left, Sharon headed back outside to finish cleaning up. As she walked past the table that had the tupperware full of leaf litter she saw something move. And then something else moved. She called to me to come quick. On the edge of the table was a small skink. The second one had dropped down onto the floor. Since our sunroom, while a nice place for us to hang out, wouldn't be a good nursery for baby skinks, we had to get them outside. I took the table outside and Sharon went and got a box out of the recycling bin and convinced the one on the floor to climb in so it could get a ride outside.

We killed a couple of mosquitoes in hopes that they would make good food. Sharon also found a small insect in the mulch of the one of the potted plants and offered that too. The offerings were accepted and devoured.

Skink #1 next to her home.

Hiding under the empty rice box

Looking at lunch

Look what I caught

All gone

It took a while for the one in the box to get settled again and climb out. But once again, this was the more adventurous one.  It heading over to the edge of the table and dropping down onto the deck. After about 15 minutes, lots of photos, and a few snacks, we recaptured them into the tupperware and released them into the garden from whence they came. Hopefully we will see them again and again in the coming years.

Ready for my new home

Afterwards, we looked in our guidebook and identified them as ground skinks (Scincella lateralis). It was about six weeks since Sharon uncovered them. And how lucky for us to be here when they emerged. What a wonderful day.