It's a good thing you took the time to do some research. That critter would NOT have appreciated being dropped into a pond!
By the way, I don't think the tortoise dug holes in your lawn. They usually only dig one den hole, and it's a whopper! Probably an armadillo dug those holes.

Alys,

It is great isn't it? I can sit on my front porch and see just about every bird you can imagine. There is a radio tower about 1/10th of a mile in front of our home and it is a roosting site for two gorgeous bald eagles. Having them squaking up there every day is just too cool. When they're not there, the osprey roost there.

It is even better this time of year as we get all those tourist from up north, the bird kind, who migrate south and frequently make stops. Baltimore Orioles and others. We have a small hawk that frequents our neighborhood that I haven't identified yet. We probably have at least 3 of those gopher tortoises. They're all over the place.

Really surprised you didn't have blue jays and cardinals Toronto. As a child growing up in New England we always had feeders in the winter and had cardinals, jays, nuthatch, titmouse, sparrows to many to name and doves.

You probably even have the beautiful scrub jays too if you're near Orlando. Oh, you'll have more holes too. When they lay eggs they will dig a new burrow. I think I counted 9 holes in our yard one time. Just be careful around those holes tho, all kinds of critters share those holes, including snakes.

Hope you have even more visitors today.

Darren

Yes, the wild life is pretty amazing here. We sit on our lanai in this cooler weather and have breakfast and watch the hummingbirds go after the blooming Confederate rose.

>They usually only dig one den hole, and it's a whopper!

Yep, if you want to get an idea of just how large they can get and how big their holes are, stop at Koreshan State Park in Estero sometime. The Koreshans appreciated them and planned around their burrows, and there are a couple of real monsters there. (It's a really interesting place aside from the tortoises, incidentally.)

Found a pic of one of the Koreshan torties disappearing into its burrow. Note the tree stump on the left to give a sense of scale, and this is a relatively small burrow. But that's the only digging they do--make themselves a nice cool home.

We are so lucky here in Florida to have the abundance of wildlife so close to us. Here are two of the regular feathered visitors to my garden.

nice post....love to see the wildlife, what would the garden be without it.....blooms are cool, but things flying, running, eating the bugs as we water, no matter where they came from, too late to change it now. part of my garden.

I just want to expand on something Brute said. Gopher Tortoises will build more than one burrow, though they will be separated by some distance. Gopher Tortoises have a very wide diet and they always seem to know just what their body is in need of. So while a Gopher Tortoise might have one burrow near a group of food sources, it could have another burrow elsewhere near another group of food sources. This is why they should never be fenced in or otherwise have their movement impaired/restricted. It also means that if you happen to end up with a Gopher Tortoise den in your yard, it could be vacant as long as 6 months to a year and seem deserted only to have its owner return one day in search of some food item that is in your area.

I happen to have a Gopher Tortoise burrow in the lot between my house and my neighbor's and it seems to be a part-time residence for a 6-7 yr old female. She only appears in the spring and early summer, but then moves elsewhere for late summer/fall. I have always been a avid fan of turtle-kin, but I have started educating myself more and more about this endangered species and I have started putting in plants like Gopher Apple and Indian Blanket that they tend to snack upon.

One final tip: If you see a turtle/tortoise crossing a road, always move the critter to the side of the road that they are heading toward. There is something over there that they want to get to and if you simply put them back where they came from, they will try crossing the road again.

>Gopher Tortoises will build more than one burrow, though they will be separated by some distance.

Right, but they aren't making mysterious holes in your lawn. They mostly build where there's some kind of support for their roof, like among tree roots, for example. You'd never see a GT burrow in the middle of your lawn (unless it was there first, and you can be sure the developer probably got one of those horrid smothering permits and filled it in, tortoise and all, if it had been.)

read an interesting article, i think in NWF magazine about how many other critters and reptiles use the dens even when the owner is present. when one den is destroyed, it has a trickle down effect on alot of other creatures. nice post!