Eastern Box Turtle

Common and scientific names added :)

Sounds great! You mostly will have to worry about mammals coming and digging up the eggs, lizards will too but I'm not aware of any lizards in TN that really target eggs. Hope it all works out :)

That's awesome! Well I hope the eggs make it and your daughter gets the chance to see the little babies!

It takes a few months for them to hatch, but it is common for the baby turtles to stay in the nest through winter (they can survive on yolk inside the eggs for many months). Here is a great article I found that takes you through the process of box turtle nests: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/11/1073198/-Backyard-Science-Eastern-Box-Turtle-Eggs-and-Hatchling-Turtles As far as protecting the area, maybe just putting a wire box cage over it to keep anything from digging up the eggs should be sufficient, just make sure the wire is big enough for the baby turtles to get through when they do come out of the nest. Before you go through all this trouble, you might want to gently remove dirt away from the area until you see eggs just to make sure there are actually eggs there, but be very careful not to move them or this will kill the babies, then cover them back up with dirt. It is common for turtles to dig "test nests" to look for ideal conditions for the real nest, but they normally don't cover the nest nests back up but do cover up the real nest, so that is another way to tell. Then in a few months you can find little baby turtles and take lots of pictures for an adorable spotting :)

Looks to be digging a nest for her eggs! Also, turtles are reptiles and should be in that category instead of amphibians :)