My first time holding a snapping turtle. It was a cool experience! It wasn't ornery at all; it just wanted to get back to the water!
Through the information superhighway, I met a wonderful person with a wonderful collection of snakes. Originally she helped me with all sorts of questions about boas, back when I was considering getting a boa constrictor. And yes, I did get one, then two, then 3 (and that last one from her!).
Since then we have visited in person a few times, and during one of these visits, I felt my first Olive python. The best way to describe it was soft suede mixed with heaven. I was now hooked, wishing I could own such a magnificent creature. But she didn't have any available. At the time, her bigger female was most likely about to lay eggs soon. And she did! I have been following the progress with anticipation. However, we visited the other day and had a wonderful time seeing the Olives and other snakes. We also picked up a sweet adult female ball python that my youngest daughter got to hold at the recent reptile show. A ball python will be a great addition to the educational lineup. But oh, those Olives ... nothing feels quite like them. Here is a gallery of our good times. First the Olives, then my son fell in love with a Madagascar Tree Boa, a beautiful Rhino ratsnake, and the pile of Olive eggs. My youngest daughter found this little bitty turtle by my car in the driveway. She thought it was a pretty rock at first! The concrete part of the driveway is nowhere near our pond, and though it isn't terribly far, it's really far for a little turtle! It still had an egg tooth.
We named it Zoom-Zoom because it was next to my Mazda. We released him to one of our ponds with the other painteds. I found a little gray tree frog while I was clearing brush. We've been hearing them call for a few days now. I love how they generally stay still and let you photograph them, unlike the peepers that hop away so fast. Plus, they are just gorgeous frogs!
It was a beautiful day, and I just knew we'd find some hognose if we looked in the field. I was sure of it! We looked for awhile and didn't find anything, though, so I figured maybe it was still too soon to see them. I decided to walk down to the pond, now officially named Turtle Pond, and see who was on the log. I made it halfway down the trail, took this picture of 11 turtles, and heard my son yell ... MOM! HOGNOSE! I ran back to the field and found Aaron with his prize, the first hognose of the year! We spent a little more time looking, and then I went back to Turtle Pond to take pictures of turtles. My son came with me, and as we walked I told him to walk slowly and quietly so we didn't disturb the turtles. As I looked down, I spotted this: I had been on this very trail 10 minutes before with no sign of this bigger hognose, and here we are headed back to the turtles, not even looking for hognose, and we nearly step on him! He saw me a second after I saw him and flattened his neck out. That's when I took this picture. The other kids came over to see and after he had been properly admired on the trail, my son went to pick him up. He immediately went into a death roll and "died." We kept the hognose for a little while and then released him in the same area. Before he left, I took a few more photos. Total herp species found in 2015: 10. Found on property: 9. And it's not even May! After we released him, we went to the pond to do what I intended, which was sit on a close by log and just be still and watch the turtles. It was the perfect ending to a great day, watching the turtles come back to the log (we'd previously scared them by walking on the trail). I love spring!
My third child, 2nd daughter, found this cutie on the driveway as she was biking. She was proud that she'd spotted it so she or someone else didn't run it over!
Second snake species! Total herp species is now 9 (8 on the property). We put the snake under an area where red bellies have been known to congregate. Blue spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale)
I had taken a few of the kids to the back of the property to see what the electric company was doing. There was a lot of heavy machinery back there, so we decided to flip some logs. My son found the salamander, and we decided to take him to a different location because of all of the work going on by the power lines. I would have to imagine a lot of sallies are getting smashed and their homes uprooted by the work back there, but what can you do? Hopefully we can get a few more from that location and move them to safer areas. 8 species so far (7 on property). I allowed my son to get a clump of eggs from the pond so we could watch their development. Today most of them are out of their eggs, swimming around, and eating algae! They are SO tiny, maybe only a 1/4" at most. You can see their gills, developing arms and legs, and of course their tails. My son is pretty sure these are wood frogs.
Also, for your listening enjoyment: A chorus frog solo with accompanying wood frogs, with eggs for the finale. |