Bees Gettin' Busy

Sexy bees

For the past week or more I have noticed some sort of ground bees going for the gusto, so to speak. The females excavate little burrows and then wait for one of the circling males to come calling. The males fly around frantically, an inch or less above the ground, until they get lucky. Sex in the swamp? You bet!

Just Waiting for a Beetle

Heartleaf's blooming!

These flowers are found under the leaf litter. They are pollinated by beetles.

Oh No -- Please Don't Make Me

Okay, I promised myself when I started this blog that it would only be about my observations of the natural world around me, no personal stuff. But I have to have someone with whom to share this inner pain -- I have to go clothes shopping today! Holy horrors, say it ain't so. I've tried everything I can think of to get out of going, but there is no other recourse. All of my clothes are either too "outdoors", too funeral/wedding, or too worn-out (those from my teaching days) to be appropriate for the luncheon I am attending tomorrow. It's "dressy casual," whatever the hell that means. To make matters worse, a prospective employer will be there and this is a job I REALLY want so I need to at least appear to be well put together. Guess I will just suck it up and head for the mall - it's 40 miles away so I will have plenty of time to try to figure out that "dressy casual" thing...

Oh, and one note to SquirrleyMojo - It really surprised the person I was working with yesterday when I all of a sudden yelled, "Squirrely's gotta see this!" We were out in the middle of the woods clearing and raking fire lines and came upon a 'possum skeleton. So, if you aren't squeamy about seeing a skull (with just a little meat still stuck to it) then scroll down and check out the ghastly grin.

Cricket frog

These little critters were everywhere today. They are tiny little frogs -- 16 to 35 mm (0.5 to 1.5 in). We have two species of cricket frogs in our area -- but to tell them apart you have to invade their privacy and look for the presence subanal tubercles (yikes!) and a dark stripe on the thigh, as well as note the degree of webbing between their toes. I didn't have the time or inclination to do that today.

Another cricket frog

This one has a more prominent Y-shape on its back.

Gray treefrog

If this frog could've talked, he would probably have cussed us out. We uncovered him while we were raking fire lines. But in our defense, we immediately relocated him to a spot right next to the raked line (outside the burn unit) and covered him with a nice thick layer of leaf litter. I feel certain that he is all comfy in his new digs.

Pickerel frog

Here's another beastie we found roaming around today. These frogs will be mating in a few more weeks. A single female can deposit 2,500 eggs.

Redback salamander

Love is in the air for these small salamanders. They mate from October to April. Guess that's not such a bad way to spend the winter. The odds must be pretty good that any individual will get lucky -- we found about 15 of these little amphibians today all within a fairly small area. They live under leaf litter and rotten logs. And yes, we did find new accomodations for the ones that were under logs that had to be moved off the fire line.

A ghastly grin...

When you spend as much time outside as we do, you find a lot of things that have reached the ends of their lives. This opossum is an example. To some it may seem a gross or disgusting thing to take a picture of, but we don't see it that way. We see it as a chance to remind ourselves of the natural order of things. This 'possum filled a certain niche while it was alive. During that life it consumed pretty much whatever it could - opossums are scavenging omnivores. Now that it is dead, all those nutrients and chemicals that were bound up in its tissues have begun to return to the system where they'll be taken up by some other plant or animal. Seems perfectly right to us. Oh, and if you aren't all that accoustomed to looking at skulls then you might want to know that this one is upside down.

Beaver munchies 

Beaver getting ready to send us a message... 

Get off my pond! 

That little brown blob in the center is an otter, I promise 

Reflections 

Looking at you 

Blue Skies and Blackwater...

...well, the skies were blue but the water isn't so black this time of year. More of a sort of dull blah. No matter the color of the water, yesterday was absolutely beautiful with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s. We loaded up the canoe and headed out just before lunch time. The pond covers a little less than 800 acres and offers lots of nooks and crannies to explore. We had no real destination or purpose other than to piddle (paddle?) and do a little casual birding. By the end of the day we had paddled the pond and a good bit of the swamp above it.

Our birding yielded 46 species, not great but not bad either. Two pairs of red-shouldered hawks were disputing territory on the lower pond and they put on a fine aerial display. One of the pairs took time out to do a little mating in a tupelo gum and then rejoined the fray -- hawk sex doesn't take long. Other notable sightings included an immature and an adult bald eagle flying over one after the other, a couple of very cute little brown creepers, and about 200 ring-necked ducks coming off the upper pond.

But birds weren't our only company during our paddle. We got to see an otter playing with a fish he had caught. The otter was having a fine time, the fish wasn't. A total of four otters let themselves be seen. They tend to be very curious and came in fairly close to get a look at us. Not close enough to get a decent picture, but close enough for us to get a good look. Beaver also entertained us as we paddled along. Two got a little upset and swam around slapping their tails against the water. The best beaver moment, however, was when we paddled up to a lodge and heard the beaver inside. They make a sort of mewling, grunting sound. In late March and early April you can hear the babies inside the lodges.

We came off the pond about 6 p.m. -- a day well spent. I hope you have a place that you love as much as we love this place.

Yes, I am patient and true...now, how 'bout that walk? 

A Step Ahead

Pushing toward spring

The groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter. While that is probably true, I did catch a little glimpse of the season to come when I took my dog for a walk today. An elderberry shrub has braved the elements to push out its first leaves of the season.

Day Trip

Wind-churned seafoam

Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary and we decided to celebrate with a day of birding at the coast. We never go to the Outer Banks during the tourist season -- it's too depressing with all those people and the horrible traffic. Instead, we head to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge during the most desolate time of the year. The refuge is the last remnant of what the Banks used to be like. It is beautiful -- no houses, no restaurants, no putt-putt, no souvenir shops -- just sand and water and wildlife.

The Atlantic in winter