Summer days, at last. Last week, I described how a snapping turtle had ventured into a friend’s yard in Long Eddy to deposit eggs in an underground chamber. The egg laying was delayed by weeks of wet, cool weather, which means the young “snappers” will hatch toward the end of August, when the ground may be rock hard.

Upon hatching, the first hurdle for these and other hatchling turtles will be to escape from their underground nurseries. Another will be to find suitable habitat, which for the Long Eddy snappers will be the nearby Delaware River.

In many cases, especially if the summer is dry, freshly hatched turtles will not be able to dig through a crust of packed surface soil. Their solution will be to wait for a rainstorm to make the soil pliable. “Tell your friend her little snappers will come out on a rainy day,” advised Kathy Michell, who rehabilitates injured snakes, turtles and amphibians at her home in Narrowsburg.

Freed from their underground chambers, turtle hatchlings must ward off a gauntlet of birds and other predators until they find suitable cover. “Some birds will pick ’em off as fast as they appear,” according to Michell. “But young snappers are pretty fast, and most will get to the river.”

First monarch butterflies. Alison Smith, who lives in northern Damascus Township, sighted a tattered, bleached monarch in her garden on June 26, and a “fresher” looking one two days later.

Milkweed plants have begun to flower in our garden, which has drawn a host of orange/black longhorn beetles to feed on flowers and flower buds.