Into the Swamp

I cannot believe it has taken a solid week to get the rest of the photos from our paddle posted. Our internet connection has been quite sketchy and unpredictable this past week, leading to some massive frustrations. It seems to be cooperating a little better this morning...

Beyond the upper end of the millpond lies the swamp. It is one of our favorite places to paddle, water levels permitting. I always like to have a full day to explore -- I hate to feel rushed when I enter the swamp.

As we entered, blue pickerel weed and bright red cardinal flower greeted us. It is past peak bloom time for these flowers, so it was a treat to see them.

At the base of a beaver lodge we spied a shed snake skin. It still had the tail section attached, enabling us to determine that it was from a venomous snake. Venomous snakes have an undivided anal plate (the scute that covers the opening to the cloaca) and undivided subcaudals (tail scutes). In non-venomous snakes, the anal plate and tail scutes are paired.

A view of the channel that runs through the swamp. You have to be careful that you follow the main channel -- there are plenty of false ones to trip you up.

There is something everywhere you look in the swamp. From birds in the trees to insects and spiders in the herbaceous vegetation. We found one spot that was full of fishing spiders, some guarding egg cases.

In other spots they were just hanging out on trees or cypress knees. Pretty cool.

We spent as much time in the swamp as we could, but eventually we had to turn around and head back out onto the pond. Not long after we re-entered the upper pond we were greeted by our second gator of the day. It was stretched out amidst some lily pads, soaking in the last sunrays of the day. It seemed quite unconcerned as we glided past. It was busy thinking gator thoughts, I guess.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll make it out to some interesting places during my vacation in October. Speaking of vacation, our son left on his early this morning. He is headed to Beijing for nine days. And yes, I do mean China...

Now, Back to the Spiders

My apologies for the delay in getting back to explain the handful of spiders pic. Let me just say that work has been quite hectic lately and I was simply too tired to post. Seems I am not the energizer bunny of cyberspace ;)

Now, for the spiders' tale of woe...

On Sunday Treebeard accompanied me to work. He is a park volunteer now and quite handy to have around. Not only is he very knowledgeable about all things natural, he really enjoys sharing his knowledge with others -- a valuable asset! He is also extremely observant. Just before closing time he noticed the spiders floating on the canal and called me over. We fished them out and I immediately suspected we had found the contents of a mud dauber's (or dirt dauber, if you prefer) nest.

If you are not familiar with daubers, let me give you a brief rundown...A dauber is a spider wasp, she builds a nest of mud that consists of a series of individual chambers. The wasp hunts spiders, stings them and crams several into a chamber, laying an egg on the last one before sealing the chamber. The spiders are not dead -- dead ones would decay and that would be a bad thing. When the egg hatches, the young grub begins to munch on the bounty left by its mom. After it eats what has been provided and grows sufficiently, it pupates and then emerges as an adult the next spring. Pretty cool, eh?

If you look at the pictures below you will notice an egg on a spider's leg in the first photo and in the second you will see a grub munching away on a spider's abdomen.

 

 

How the contents of a dauber's nest ended up floating in the canal is a mystery. Some critter looking for a snack may have broken open the nest or perhaps the wake of a passing boat saturated a nest that had been built under the dock, causing it to dissolve. It's anyone's guess.

**************************************************************************************
Addendum:

Jason tells me that the terms dirt dauber and mud dauber refer to two very different types of wasps. Dirt daubers use dry dirt and regurgitated water to construct their nests while the mud daubers use actual mud. Jason was afraid I would be offended by his contridiction of my use of the terms -- silly Jason.
My post deals with mud daubers by this definition, so if you preferred to call them dirt daubers, don't. ;)

Check out Jason's most excellent photos on his web page: http://www.xenogere.com
He also has some very nice cats...

A Handful of Spiders

 

Yep, they're alive but they have been effectively paralyzed by the stings of a mud dauber. A couple of them waved a leg or two at me, but only weakly. (Still, I bet SIL and FC will both be having kittens if they happen to stop by - hehe)

I'll be back tomorrow to explain how they came to be in my hand...

Spidey Sense

Treebeard and I went for a walk today as I had the day off. We went down a trail that hasn't had much use in a while and as a result it was criss-crossed with numerous spider webs. We did a lot of bobbing and weaving and sometimes outright crawling to avoid destroying the webs. Despite the fact that I am having camera focusing issues at the moment, I did try to snag a few shots of some of the more interesting arachnids to share with you. Sorry they're a little fuzzy...

A spined micrathena (Micrathena gracilis) munching on a yellow fly that got caught in its web. Man, I love it when that happens!! Just in case you are blissfully ignorant of the nature of yellow flies, those suckers BITE. Go spidey!

A personal favorite, the spiny-backed orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis). It is gracious enough to decorate its web with little fluffs of silk making it much easier to see and thereby avoid walking into.

Tucked away in the top of a shrub rather than stretched across the trail, was this labyrinth orbweaver (Metepeira labyrinthea). It has a complex little web, usually with a dead leaf in the center for shelter.

Coolest spider of the day is in the picture below.
Take a look and see if you can spot it before you scroll down to the caption...

Did you see her?
It's a northern black widow (Lactrodectus variolus). Her cobweb was just above the leaf litter beside the trail. We probably wouldn't have noticed her....

...if she hadn't had a web full of little ones!

Clueless

Never have I learned the fine art of keying out daddy longlegs (AKA harvestman). Sure, I know they belong to the order Opiliones, but beyond that I'm clueless as to genus and species.
Still, that doesn't stop me from appreciating the little beasties and their habits.
And NO! They are not venomous and yes, they can bite if they want to -- which they usually do not.

The Sometimes Underappreciated

As I have indicated in the past, I love the little things. Even if those things are ones that some might find less than lovable.

Snails fascinate me, but I am lousy at trying to ID them. Anyone know of a book or a website that might help quell my ignorance?
I can tell you that the little girl/guy was on a pawpaw leaf...

And then there are the spiders. I do love 'em. Great big hairy ones or little bitty shiny ones...it doesn't matter 'cause they are all cool. This is one of two wolf spiders that popped out of the mulch that another ranger and I were spreading in the butterfly garden. We had to take a moment to examine it -- my colleague is as crazy as I am!

This was another of our finds, a very dark American toad. He was the same color as the soil of the area and fabulously warty. The other ranger, we'll call him Scranton from now on, spotted him just off the boardwalk and jumped down to scoop him up.

And speaking of the boardwalk...I was out this morning listening to birds and frogs and such when I got a very pleasant surprize. Seems I was sharing the walkway with a nice big ole' bobcat. I don't know who was more startled, me or the cat! He jumped off the boardwalk before I could get my camera up and that's a shame. He was quite close.

Under Composting Corrugated Cardboard

When we are out and about in the yard we can't resist the urge to look under things. One never knows what lurks beneath objects lying flat on the ground. Looking under a sheet of corrugated cardboard peacefully composting in the side yard proved to be quite productive. Below are just a few of the things making themselves at home in this dark, moist habitat.

An interesting looking species of ant...what big heads some of the individuals had! Guards, perhaps? E. O. Wilson would know ;)

A nice, BIG wolf spider. Probably a Carolina wolf.

Three Eastern narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne carolinensis) were hanging out under here. This one was the most handsome one. Narrow-mouthed toads are such interesting little amphibians -- hard to get hold of though.

All the creatures were probably relieved when we put the cardboard back down.
It is only right to replace after you flip...after all, it's home to something.

Soggy Spider

A couple of days ago Treebeard found this wolf spider trapped in a container full of water. He reached in and plucked her out.
Such a good man, my Treebeard.
As you can see, the spider had her egg case firmly in tow.
Looks sort of like a little blue world, doesn't it?

October Hike

No, obscure is not a descriptive term here, it is a common name. The hopper in the photo appears to be Schistocerca obscura, aka Obscure Bird Grasshopper. It's kind of hard to tell for sure while it's all soft and pale but given its size and where it was, the ID is probably correct. It's Treebeard's ID and I trust him ;)

 

We saw a load of green treefrogs on the spider hike this afternoon...but I will restrain myself and not post any of them. Although, they were the cutest things...

Since it was a spider hike, I feel I must post at least one picture of a spider. In deference to my sister-in-law and FC, both of whom have an aversion to my eight-legged friends, I will limit myself to one spider photo.

 

A green lynx spider enjoying an afternoon snack while guarding her egg case. Somehow I don't think the wasp is enjoying being the snack.

We saw all sorts of interesting things on this afternoon's hike, including a slender glass lizard. Unfortunately it moved too quickly for me to get a photograph. I do wish I could have recorded the sound it made as it slid through the dry leaves. Sounded like a zipper being zipped! Treebeard did his usual outstanding job of interpretation and education, dropping a bit of interesting info about nearly all the varied species we found. If you ever have an opportunity to take a walk with him, either before or after he retires, I highly recommend it.

Kinda Crabby

Crab Spider, Family Thomisidae

Not enough sleep last night so I'm feeling a little crabby this morning...
Both my camera batteries are dead. Not a good thing, particularly since I am going on a bird hike this morning -- Treebeard's last official bird hike as a ranger. Just watch, he'll find something spectacular out there and I won't be able to share it with you.
Like I said -- a little crabby this morning.
Oh well, hope you're feeling a bit more perky. Have a great Saturday!

Cool Morning Finds

It was downright cool outside first thing this morning. While poking about the yard we found a variety of critters tucked away, waiting for the sun to warm them up a bit. Never ceases to amaze me -- all the life around us and all we need to do is look.

Top to bottom: a nice fat marbled orb-weaver in her maple leaf hide-away, a sawfly larva slowly munching on a blackberry leaf, a green treefrog in a yellow bucket, and some sort of green caterpillar (cutworm, maybe?) working on a cocklebur.