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
Month: April 2022
Nest Box Update 4.26.22
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We have four nest boxes full of nestlings. With the rapidly growing nestlings its becoming difficult to tell just how many there are in each nest, they look like a big pile of feathers. Additionally, there has been one hostile takeover. The nest at the Cow Pasture is full of nestlings ready to fledge. It looks as though there are four nestlings in the nest. The Explore the Wild nest box is still on theRead more
A Garter and a Thrasher
Top Photo: Eastern garter snake enjoys sun on chilly spring morning. A garter snake was seen for four (probably still there) consecutive days sunning under a wax myrtle just a few feet from the path in Explore the Wild. The snake may be the same female which was spotted in February sunning among the sandstone slab steps at Water’s Edge some fifty yards or so to the west. Garter snakes bear live young from June through September, depending upon when theyRead more
Nest Box Update 4.19.22
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. In our seventh week of nest box inspections we have about 20 nestlings, 15 of which belong to bluebirds and 5 with chickadee parents. There are 4 chickadee eggs being incubated. The Cow Pasture nest box looks to have a full house of 5 nestlings. What appears to be a big ball of feathers and flesh is a handful of individual nestlings. If you look closely you can pick out several beaks, some feet andRead more
Two Herps, Two Leps, Two Swallows, and Two Crows
Top Photo: Rat snake crossing path near Bird Viewing Exhibit. Rat snakes are common in our area so it’s not unusual to see one crossing the path at the museum, especially during spring when so much of the local wildlife is engaged in activities which make them vulnerable to predation. Birds are busy with nesting activities, frogs and toads are perhaps a little less cautious when in breeding mode, and if you have a chicken coop, you may have noticedRead more
Nest Box Update 4.12.22
Top Photo: Eastern bluebird eggs. We currently have 17 eggs, 10 bluebird and 7 chickadee. At least 5 bluebird nestlings have hatched. There is one inactive nest. It’s difficult to determine from the photo below, but it appears as though at least 5 of the 6 bluebird eggs in the nest at Cow Pasture have hatched. One note, I heard a house wren singing in the background as I viewed the nest. House wrens are known to commandeer the nestRead more
Masons, a Cob, an Anole, Tadpoles, and a Red Bat
Top Photo: Mason bee hangs at entrance to its nest in mud wall. There are simply too many things happening outdoors to sit idle. Everything and everybody is waking up, becoming more active, stirring, building nests, blooming, fruiting, whatever it is they do in spring, and I don’t want to miss any of it. If you’ve ever been to the museum and visited Into the Mist in Catch the Wind you’ve probably noticed a little hut in the back ofRead more
Spring Happenings and Aquatic Turtle Update
Top Photo: Upper surface of American snout. Things happen very quickly in spring, flowers bloom and fade, plants shoot out new leaves, insects emerge, birds who’ve been absent half a year, reappear. Here’s some of those things and more of what has occurred over the past week. Daffodils are early season flowers that last but briefly. Bees emerge with little on their agenda but food and reproduction. It’s time to get a new nest started. Northern, or Dekay’s brown snakes,Read more
Nest Box Update 4.5.22
Top Photo: Bluebird eggs. Every nest box on our six box trail has a nest within. Four are eastern bluebird nests and two belong to Carolina chickadees. We have a total of 21 eggs spread out among the occupied nests, 16 bluebird eggs, and 5 chickadee eggs. All but one nest with eggs had an adult incubating at the time of the inspection. We saw no activity at the nest at the Cow pasture, which contains 6 bluebird eggs. WeRead more