Top Photo: Pipe vine flower. Spring keeps rolling along in typical fashion, flora and fauna reacting and adjusting to our hemisphere’s slow tilt towards the sun. The days are getting longer, the temperatures warmer. Here, in no particular order, are things I’ve come across in my walks around campus. The painted lady in the photo is a worn individual with scale damage and fraying on the wings. Blue-gray gnatcatchers are small but noisy birds. They arrive in our area earlyRead more
Posts tagged: #musk turtle
More Stuff You Might See
Top Photo: On a cool fall morning, Eno, one of our red wolves on display, yawns deeply before resting his weary head. Bald cypress, carpenter bees, musk turtles, ground hogs and others headline Nature Watch this week. Bald cypress has put out an impressive amount of cones this year. Carpenter bee activity is far greater in the spring when over-wintering adults emerge and vie for territories and nest sites. However, they’re still active now. The bees drill nice, neat 3/8”Read more
A Tiny Turtle
Top Photo: Head tucked in, hatchling common musk turtle pauses to take shelter while making it’s way across pavement to the wetlands, a long dangerous journey. About 2.5 to 3 months ago, a female common musk turtle mucked her way through the mud of the wetlands and up and across the pavement of the walkway searching for a quiet place to dig a nest. Finding a safe location off the beaten path and in soft soil, she dug a smallRead more
What You May Have Missed
Above, a large snapper basks on a warm rock in the bright early May sunshine. As you stroll along through the outdoor exhibits here at the museum there are many interesting sights for you to enjoy. Turtles are out basking, birds are exploiting the wetland’s lesser wild life, new blooms occur almost daily, and closer to the ground, you may witness an arthropod or two going about their daily routines. But you have to look, keep your eyes open toRead more
Herps
With the warmer than usual weather, flowers are blooming early, butterflies are fluttering, and reptiles and amphibs are making premature appearances. I saw the first of the season northern water snake on February 25 (early by a few weeks) and several brown snakes crossing the path at different locations. With the increased herpetological activity, our resident red-shouldered hawks have been on the hunt. Red shoulders eat frogs and snakes. February 25 brought with it many basking yellow-bellied sliders. MoreRead more
All Is As It Should Be
It is now May. Insects that we haven’t seen for months are back among us. Reptiles and amphibians are active as if winter had never happened. Many birds that have been far away in Central and South America have returned to the Museum grounds to make nests and raise families. It’s as if they never left. Keep your eyes and ears open for these creatures as you walk the paths and trails here at the Museum. I’ve gathered more thanRead more
Turtles Seeking Sunlight
Top Photo: Sliders catching some rays. As soon as the sun returned after a couple of weeks of overcast skies, and 12 solid days of rain, our Wetlands turtles returned to their favorite perches to bask in the golden, and long awaited, sunshine. The turtles were crowded onto logs, boulders, and tree limbs. Where there was sun, there were turtles. There’s proof in the Wetlands’ water that at least one turtle that had come ashore to nest this past summerRead more
Chasing Turtles
I’ve been watching turtles here at the Museum since my arrival some 6 years ago. We have about five species in our Wetlands: Yellow-bellied Slider, Red-eared Slider, Eastern Painted, Eastern Musk, and Common Snapping Turtles. You might be thinking, “Hey, what’s he talking about, you either have five species or you don’t,” and you’d be right. The reason I say about five species is because the red-eared is not native. I haven’t seen any adults that I can definitely call red-eared,Read more
Something’s wrong here…
You know, how when you walk into your living room, kitchen, or sit down at your desk and you notice that something’s changed, out of place, or missing, or maybe that there’s something there that wasn’t there before? Perhaps it’s just the obssessive-compulsive in me, but as I walked down the path leading from Catch the Wind to Explore the Wild I noticed something different about one of the boulders that line the path there. I pass these boulders manyRead more