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Q: This bird’s nest is located about 6 inches deep inside of a 4-by-4 wood post in our yard. I never see a bird coming or going. Any ideas what bird made this nest?

It’s probably a chickadee’s nest. In northern Missouri, seeing a black-capped chickadee is more likely; in southern Missouri, Carolina chickadees predominate. Where the two species come in contact, they occasionally hybridize. Hybrids can sing the songs of either species or something intermediate. 

Chickadees are cavity nesters, and their eggs are white with brown spots, often concentrated at one end. 

“The bedding of the nest looks like a chickadee — fine grass, moss, and feathers,” said Missouri State Ornithologist Kristen Heath-Acre. “A wren’s nest would have sticks.”

Q: A large western alligator snapping turtle visited my front lawn yesterday. They can be dangerous, can’t they?

The turtle in your photo is the more common North American snapping turtle, although we can appreciate why you might think, at first glance, this is a western alligator snapping turtle. 

To tell them apart, look for the following features: North American snapping turtles have low ridges that follow the contours of their shells and smooth out as they grow older. Western alligator snapping turtles have rows of spiky raised keels. North American snapping turtles have smaller heads and smaller beaks; western alligator snapping turtles have larger heads and more-prominent hooked beaks. On their tails, North American snapping turtles have raised, saw-toothed bumps; in contrast, western alligator snapping turtles have smoother round bumps. Also, western alligator snapping turtles live in the southern portions of the state, especially the Bootheel’s big rivers, deep sloughs, and oxbow lakes. North American snapping turtles make their homes statewide in a variety of wetlands, such as farm ponds, rivers, streams, and lakes.

You are right to be cautious around snapping turtles. They have strong jaws and sharp beaks. They can “snap,” hence the name, so the best way to avoid getting bitten is to keep a safe distance.

But she won’t be in your yard very long. Snapping turtles are mainly aquatic but venture on land to lay eggs or move among water bodies. 

This mother turtle will dig into loose, sandy soil nearby. You won’t see a “nest,” but might see a patch of freshly disturbed soil. Sometimes people will bend a wire basket over the area to protect the eggs from predators, like skunks, raccoons, and opossums, which can smell the freshly laid eggs for a few days. The holes around the bottom of the wire protective basket must be large enough for the small, hatched turtles to crawl past. 

The incubation period isn’t a set number of days. Instead, temperature and humidity play a role in the duration it will take for these turtles to develop, which is typically between 75 to 95 days.

Once the small turtles hatch, they will return to a nearby pond, stream, lake, or marsh. Anglers occasionally catch them on hook and line.