It’s a risky business, this coming down to the water to breed. It pays to be discrete. There are many things that can eat you, if you’re a frog. Most frogs in our area don’t necessarily spend all their time in water. Many species can be found some distance from water when not breeding. Pickerel frogs are one of those species. They are, however, breeding at this time of year and therefore in our Wetlands in numbers attemptingRead more
Posts filed in: Herps
Frogs!
Although spring peepers and upland chorus frogs, and the occasional low croaking call of a pickerel frog, have been calling off and on for several weeks now, they are in full force at this time. Today, I was able to get a handful of photos of pickerel frogs and one shot of a bullfrog. The other two species, the tiny peepers and chorus frogs, proved elusive. Here they are. Come on out a see how many frogsRead more
A Fine Day…Week
The last several days have been quite pleasant. The local fauna have been responding to the uncharacteristically mild nature of our current meteorological situation. In other words, it’s been real nice outside lately and some of our resident wildlife are taking advantage of that niceness. Come on out and enjoy some of this fine weather yourself, you never know when it’s going to rain, snow, sleet, or worse, so get it while you can. See youRead more
A warm winter day
After several rainy days at the beginning of the week, the past few days have been warm and sunny, days conducive to rest and relaxation. While over at the Red Wolf Exhibit… There’s nothing like a warm winter day to stretch out and soak up some sun. Read more
A nice day to be out in the Wetlands
With daytime air temps reaching fifty-nine degrees on Wednesday (12/17), at least one of our resident turtles made it out for a little sunbathing. A male yellow-bellied slider was awakened by the intense sunshine of the day. The sun’s warm penetrating rays apparently reaching and warming the bottom of the pond sufficiently to stimulate the turtle into crawling out on a log and bask away the afternoon. It’s in no way unusual to see a turtle outRead more
Opportunist
The Animal Keepers cleaned the bear pool this week. The pools of water at the base of the Main Black Bear Overlook need to be cleaned every six months. The ponds collect much debris and algae and need cleaning. The cleaning often exposes all sorts of creatures, from crayfish to frogs. This exposition sometimes attracts opportunistic predators. It’s well known here at the Museum that red-shouldered hawks wait silently on perches along the edges of the Wetlands or in the swampRead more
A Tale of Two Tails
As I walked towards the Butterfly House on my way to my office, I noticed a small group of young children looking down at the ground and laughing, there must be something interesting over there. I approached. Lying on ground in the center of a circle of four or five squatting children, was a small U-shaped object. The object moved, wiggled. It was the tail of a skink. A few feet away was the skink itself, the lower third ofRead more
Other September Sights
Top Photo: Magnolia warbler gleans insects from black willow tree. As many of you know, birds are on the move. The other day I ran into a group of neotropical migrants out on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. In attendance were common yellowthroat, American redstart, Blackburnian, magnolia, northern parula, and prairie warblers, and red-eyed and white-eyed vireos to name just a handful. I’m sure I missed seeing many of the birds that were around that day, but there’sRead more
Some Serendipitous Sightings
Top Photo: Monarch butterfly caterpillar on butterflyweed. While searching for harvester caterpillars on alder in the Wetlands I came across an assassin bug on one of the leaves. The bug was just about 3/4 inches (the body) and mostly green with brown on the back. Assassin bugs typically station themselves at a location which is busy with insects to wait and pounce on prey. They poke the prey with their long proboscis and suck them dry. An alder with aphidsRead more