Top Photo: Common snapping turtles during spring mating. A disturbance just below the water’s surface caught my attention. Something was breaking the water’s surface about 100 feet or more out in the open water of the wetlands. Then it was gone. Was it a duck? No, all our winter resident diving ducks had already departed for the north, or wherever else they feel a need to be at this time of year. Was it an otter? Otters can stay belowRead more
Posts filed in: Herps
More Spring Sightings and a Red Wolf Observation
Top Photo: Male common whitetail. Common whitetails are everywhere. Ponds, lakes, even slow moving rivers and streams are home to this ubiquitous skimmer. The standout white/blue abdomen and dark marks on the wings lend to the easy recognizability of the male. The female too, is easily recognized by the three dark markings on each of her four wings. They both tend to perch low to, or directly on, the ground. Another early season dragonfly making an appearance is the blueRead more
Spring Appearances
Top Photo: Fatsia japonica or Japanese Fatsia, fruit. Not native but planted on the Dinosaur Trail to enhance the sense of a long ago tropical realm, fatsia is in fruit, but going fast. The plant’s name is derived from the fact that fatsia, in an old Japanese language, means eight, presumably referring to the number of lobes on the plant’s large palmate leaves. This, even though the leaves never have an even number of lobes, or points. I’ve consistently countedRead more
Magenta Trees and Green Lizards
Top Photo: Redbud in bloom. Redbud is in full bloom here at the Museum of Life and Science. Don’t miss it! While looking around the campus at the trees, I noticed a noise in the leaf liter below. Two adult male green anoles were squaring off against one another. A brief, violent, territorial struggle ensued before they broke off, one scurrying into the brush, settling the dispute. As quickly as it started, it was over. Stay tuned for more.Read more
Toad Time
Top Photo: American toad calling from wetlands. American toads have begun their annual breeding frenzy. The large toads’ loud trill can be heard across the wetlands as they vie for mates. Once coupled, the toads move along in the water trailing behind strings of thousands of eggs, fertilized by the male as they emerge from the female. The eggs should hatch in about a week, the tadpoles becoming miniature toads in about two months, that is, if the pond inRead more
Springtime 2
Top Photo: Female mallard pauses to look me over while preening. Mallards stop into our wetlands often. They’ve nested here off and on over the years, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Mallards are one of the most recognizable duck species in the world occurring to some extent on every continent except Antartica. Blue violets are in bloom. Yellow-bellied sliders are out taking advantage of the sunlight, basking on every available surface to warm and perhaps help rid themselves of parasites. Buckeye,Read more
Springtime
Top Photo: Following mating these two red-shouldered hawks spend several minutes preening and looking about before splitting off to hunt for frogs and brown snakes. It’s spring and the local fauna and flora are responding to the mild temperatures and extended periods of daylight each new day brings. Here’s some resident species and how the season affects them. A pair of red-shouldered hawks respond to the season by courting and hunting for emerging pickerel and other early season frogs andRead more
Awakenings
Top Photo: Adeyha and Oak (front) sticking close. It’s February and the season for procreation begins. Red wolf Oak is in estrus, Canada geese have arrived, hawks are soaring above screaming out their intentions, and songbirds are ramping up their melodious twitterings. Oak and Adeyha have been much more attached to one another over the past week, estrus has arrived. As of yet, I’ve not witnessed a tie, which is required for the female to become pregnant. Each year inRead more
Wormsnake Ahead
Top Photo: Eastern wormsnake (Carphophis amoenus) making its way slowly across path. While walking past the Lemur Exhibit in Explore the Wild, someone ahead exclaimed, “Is that a snake?” I rushed over to where a small group of people had gathered to see if it was indeed a snake. It was, without a doubt, a snake. There on the path was an adult wormsnake wriggling slowly towards the far side of the path, its brown and pink scales glistening inRead more