high hopes

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High Hopes

"Just what makes that little old ant

Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant

Anyone knows an ant, can’t

Move a rubber tree plant

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes

He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes”

Sang Frank Sinatra in the 1959 movie A Hole in the Head

It seemed to me that the above box turtle had high hopes as he looked at the obstacle in front of him on Maryville Highway. Was there a female on the other side?  

May and June are when you are apt to see turtles trying to cross the road. It is breeding season and the females are looking for safe out-of-the-way places to dig a hole and bury their eggs. And the males are gallivanting for females. 

The Eastern box turtle is the only land-based turtle in my area. Simply put: they cannot swim. All the other species of East Tennessee turtles (Eastern musk, Eastern painted, common snapping, spiny softshell, river cooter, red-eared slider and Northern map) are aquatic but the females still have to leave the water to also find a safe place to dig a hole and lay their eggs. The ground incubates the clutches and the next three months are the hottest of the year. Young turtles tend to hatch September into October. 

Box turtles can live up to 150 years. Most of that time hidden away on their home woodland territory of perhaps only a few acres. But during mating season they may leave home and even get into harm's way to find a mate.  

The above box turtle was headed west-to-east but somehow he took a left-hand turn and went north for awhile onto a railroad overpass. He then became trapped between a pair of three feet high sold concrete walls on each side of the two-lane road. 

Seeing his predicament. I pulled over and moved him to safety where he maintained his high hopes, I would assume. 

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