What do you know about garter snakes?

     Today, on a very hot and humid day, I stepped out of the garage door to walk out to the street to get our mail. There in the center of our fairly large cement garage apron was an adult garter snake. She was slowly moving toward the edge of the cement but seemed to be in no hurry. She was about 2 feet long and I thought she had a bit of a swelling in her mid section. Maybe she is pregnant or else has eaten recently -- I don't know which. I took a couple of quick steps toward her and she raised her head as though to strike, her tongue flicking in and out. One more quick step toward her and deciding flight was the better choice, she slithered very quickly, even throwing her tail section ahead of her middle section to get the heck out of there. Earlier this summer while mowing, my husband said he saw a snake on our lake bluff. I find this interesting because we have lived here for 13 years and I have never seen a garter snake before. I am used to them, however; there were always garter snakes in our yard where I grew up. My mother had the typical fear of them and if one was seen and she had anything to do with it, she would get the garden hoe and that snake was no more. Actually she was doing the wrong thing. Garter snakes are harmless and they help us by eating rodents which can be quite destructive in our yards. We have a lot of moles and voles, and chipmunks and field mice. Sounds like a smorgasbord for garter snakes to me.

     I decided to read up on these creatures now that I know we are sharing our 3 acre lot with them. They are the most common snake in North America and range from very northern locations such as Alaska, to Central America. There are several different species; some may be different races with variations in the markings. These snakes hibernate during northern winters and may migrate fairly long distances to join others of their kind in a hibernacula (sleeping den for the winter). They emerge fairly early in the spring, sometimes while there is still snow on the ground. The males emerge first, warm up and get active, and are waiting when the females emerge, in order to mate. The females are producing pheromones that are highly attractive to the males. Often a single female will be surrounded by as many as 25 males in what is called a "mating ball." Interestingly very early in the spring, as the males are waking up, some males may produce some of this female pheromone which attracts other males to attempt to mate with him. This false copulation allows the attractant male to steal heat from the other males, allowing him to come completely out of hibernation more quickly.
     The female snake does not have to mate every year. She can store sperm for several years and fertilize her own eggs without ever seeing a male that year. She incubates and hatches the eggs internally and therefore gives live birth to from 3 to 80 juvenile snakes that are from 3-5 inches long. The juveniles are on their own immediately after birth and many fall victim to predation by birds, other snakes, raccoons and many other creatures. Herons and egrets often will take juvenile and even adult garter snakes.
     The success of the garter snake probably relates to its broad diet. It will eat almost anything, even carrion in some cases. Its usual prey are grubs, earthworms, leeches, frogs, toads, other smaller snakes, birds, rodents, and sometimes other creatures' eggs. Though some species and subspecies seem to prefer to live near bodies of water, many live in drier locations. In mid summer, they especially like the cool damp locations under vegetation, in wood piles, in stone walls, and stone foundations. Even so, they are on the endangered list since 1969, probably threatened by water pollution, vehicles on our roadways, and humans. Many of we humans still kill garter snakes when they are observed. It is no wonder that generally these snakes are timid, avoid humans, and are not seen.
     It was always thought that the garter snake was non venomous. But recently a mild neurotoxin has been found secreted from glands that are located behind the snake's eyes. The snake does not have fangs to deliver the toxin in a bite, but it is thought that the toxin enters the saliva and may enter prey through bite marks. The garter snake does have a tooth but the toxin is not delivered through it. Usually a garter snake will choose to flee like my friend did, but if captured it might bite. Such a bite in a human might draw a pinprick of blood, and might get a little red and itch a little much like an insect bite. When captured the snake also defecates and secrets a very strong musk odor from glands near its anus to try to drive its captor away.
     If a snake gets in one of our homes, it is totally by accident. It probably was hibernating under the foundation and in spring went the wrong way, into the basement or house. If this becomes a regular occurrence at your residence, you can reduce the likelihood of this happening by reducing the vegetation that extends all the way down to the ground, making certain that your foundation is well sealed, and get rid of other places that snakes like, such as woodpiles, stone piles, and loose stone walls with lots of chinks in them. You can also enclose the space under your deck with fine wire mesh that needs to be buried into the ground several inches to keep snakes from living there. But if you just see a snake now and then as we have, you probably don't need to do any of these things.
     Well that's all I know about garter snakes. I was kind of happy to see this lady on my cement driveway today because it means that my garden is an inviting place for another species of wildlife. I just have to make sure my baffles are securely attached to my bluebird house poles to avoid heartbreak there. 

Eagle camara in Decorah, Iowa

One of our young eagles, August, 2010

     By now probably most of you know of the Eagle camera focused on an eagle's nest in Decorah, Iowa. It can be addicting to watch these eaglets in the nest, and just sit there waiting for one of the parents to bring breakfast, lunch or dinner. What most people don't realize is that it is very unusual for a pair of eagles to successfully raise 3 eaglets in a single year. Often 2 or 3 eggs are laid, but frequently one or two of the eaglets do not survive. This is either because there is not enough food to raise 2 or 3 such large birds or there are other environmental challenges such as cold, ice, wind. Also sibling eaglets are much like human siblings. There is competition and disagreement, but in the case of the eaglets, this disagreement can be a life and death issue. Frequently, a stronger nestling will push a weaker one away from the food source and may even push the weaker one out of the nest. I watched these Decorah eaglets for quite a while, and they seem to get along fairly well. This speaks to the abundance of food available for the parents at this site. Though I do think one of the three are significantly smaller and less developed than the other two. This might be because of receiving less food, or it might also have been the third to hatch. The last to hatch and especially if that hatching was delayed a day or two would be behind and would always get less food than the other two. The parents do not make any attempt to keep track of who eats and who doesn't. They put the food into any open mouth that is around. So if one eaglet is too weak to get close enough to demand food, it would be at a significant disadvantage.
     We are lucky enough to live on Lake Michigan about 1000 feet from an eagle nest tree. We can't see the nest but we see the eagles often. Last year  in their 4th year here they raised two eaglets which we thought was quite a remarkable fete. It was fun to see these two young eagles learn to soar and compete with each other riding the updrafts. Prior to that they had raised a single eaglet for 3 years in a row.
     Another indication that our adult eagle pair is pretty well off here on Lake Michigan is the fact that they allowed the yearling bird from 2 years ago to remain in the area even into the early nesting season last year. They did not allow that immature eagle to get near the nest but neither did they chase it out of the area. The latter would be more normal behavior. Again I think this means that there are lots of fish for the taking in that lake and probably plenty of varmits which fill in the gaps in the food cycle.
     Another interesting fact about eagles is their weak cry. From such a large bird, one would expect quite a cry but they have a very typical raptor's cry. The red tailed hawk has a similar cry. If you watch the Decorah video for a while, you can sometimes hear the parents approaching the nest with their relatively soft high pitched call. However, the parents do vocalize softly to their young during their caretaking duties.
     If by some chance you have not become addicted yet to watching our national bird in its most private duties, here is the website for the Decorah camera. Also there are several recordings from portions of this year's upbringing from the laying of the eggs, to the pipping, the hatching, and then the young eaglets in all their fuzzy glory.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/06/eagle-cam-decorah-iowa_n_845635.html

  Below is a link to nest in New Jersey. I haven't looked at this camera before but it also appears that this nest has two eaglets.

 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/eagle-cam

     I notice that yesterday, a fairly cold spring day with rain, the female (probably) is brooding the young ones, at least 1 1/2 of them. One eagle is completely and the other is partially covered by her body. But the fact that she is there at all indicates her instinctual  knowledge that these youngsters need protection from the cold and rain. On other sunny days, these three are old enough that both parents will often be gone from the nest at the same time searching for food. When the eaglets are younger, the parents never leave them alone in the nest. They take turns brooding and guarding the eaglets. I find these instinctual behaviors very fascinating. I guess that is why I am in the ranks of birdwatchers.

Fall is in the air!

How to tell its fall!! Here in Wisconsin, we have had one of the hottest summers on record and statistics are similar across the country at least from the Rocky Mountains east to the Atlantic coast. But a front has gone through and now the air is cooler, there is a wonderful breeze! Some people would call it a wind. We are opening the windows and turning off the AC. This year's two young eagles are practicing their flying. One landed on our neighbors' chimney and my husband caught a picture or two. It is still so exciting to see those birds as our neighbors here on Lake Michigan.  The purple coneflowers outside my dinette window are turning chocolate brown as they end their flowering season. But there are gold finches in droves on the seed heads. The gold finches nest late and therefore are probably still feeding their fledgelings. I hear our neighborhood bluebirds occasionally give their bubbling song and they are hunting in our backyard. Of course, these may be northerners moved in on their way south. Today I heard a wren singing. That usually doesn't happen in September. The little bird must feel the same invigoration that I feel with the lowered temperatures and humidity. A hummingbird is making the rounds of the flower heads. It comes around the corner of the dinette where there is a window cranked widely open to catch the refreshing breeze. The little buzzing bird stops in midair as only they can do and looks in the open window. It obviously sees something different than its usual rounds. Then it quickly moves on. These little birds with their high metabolism and need for constant nutrition, with their complex tiny brains that keep track of all the flowers they visit and the time it will take for each flower to reacccumulate its nectar, can notice tiny little changes on their daily rounds. There are apples on our flowering crabapple tree and every morning a doe and her two half grown fawns visit the tree to get what apples they can, the doe standing on her hind feet to reach those on the lower branches, the fawns of course eating off the ground. I haven't seen any signs of the males yet but that will come shortly as the males enter the rutting season. They will strut across our yard, neck muscles standing out and looking like kings of the deer world, seeking the females that are receptive.  Monarchs are starting to move south along the Lake Michigan bluff. I must remember the broad wing hawk migration at Concordia University along Lake Michigan. It is usually around September 18 or within 5 days each side of that date, when a cool front with a Northwest wind moves through moving those birds up against the lake shore. Then a viewer might be privileged to see kettles of hawks circling over head and slowly peeling off to move further south. Why do these kettles as they are called form? Raptors generally don't like to fly great distances over water. They rely on thermal updrafts to help them rise and not as many thermals develop over water. Since the broad wings all migrate at about the same time which is a specie specific trait, there will be 100s of these birds in each thermal creating these circular formations of birds. Each individual bird rises to the top of the thermal and when the rising hot air cools and ceases to rise the bird peels off the top of the air column and glides, losing height until it finds the base of another rising air column. This formation resembles a kettle boiling over. Hence the name -- a kettle of hawks.

The Year of Biodiversity

     Did you know that the United Nations has declared 2010 The International Year of Biodiversity? According to a short National Geographic article in the May issue, Pp 30-35, Paul Hebert, University of Guelphe in Ontario, spent 5 year in the 1970s barcoding moths and butterflies from New Gunea. Overwhelmed by the 2,000 different species he moved to water fleas where there are only 200 species known. These barcodes are made by coding for the 600 spots on the CO1 gene which codes for ATP, a necessary enzyme in virtually all multicellular lifeforms on this world. Those 600 spots will be occupied by one of 4 different DNA bases. These barcodes are different among all creatures almost universally. This allows every multicellular creature on earth to have a different barcode. Researchers around the world are now attempting to barcode 500,000 species, out of the 1.7 million already named species from around the world. The plan is to have all these 1.7 million species barcoded by the year 2025. There is some controversy with this goal, some scientists feeling we should be working on identifying and naming more species that are unknown at this time. Some scientists, however, think that barcoding will become readily accessible and that DNA readers may allow even non scientists to barcode species that they have in their own backyard, producing more information about known pest species and possibly identifying those unknowns more quickly.

     I would like to have a similar barcoder for people. Wouldn't it  be cool to barcode that person down the bar from you to determine what species he is. Is he an introvert or an extrovert; is she outgoing or shy; are those two honest citizens or are they criminals (or in today's current events) Russian spies? Will that person be my friend or my enemy? Barcoding could certainly help us in these relations.
     Today we have literally thousands of dragonflies flitting around our backyard near Lake Michigan.  I did some research and identified
these large 3 inch green and purple dragonflies as the common green darner. These harmless but impressive dragonflies have a life cycle much like the monarch butterfly. The adults migrate south in the fall. The adults winter over in the south and then start a new line of offspring which slowly work their way north until a generation reproduces in our area. So these adults are no doubt starting their migration. We welcome them for the mosquitoes they are eating as they fly about our backyard.

Female green darner dragonfly

Yellow swallowtail butterfly

Bumble Bee

Sunrise from My Lady's Bedroom

My writing: 4/19/1998

The bright red ball appears slowly over the watery horizon - the sun playing a sly game with the small linear clouds. The clouds though small were brave - thick enough to stand in front of that crimson orb and block its light for only their small perimeter. Inexorably, the sun climbs into the sky in and out of the pencil and crayon thin cloud lines. Finally it is high enough to make its rosy path on the calm lake waters - but still too morning young to blind the observing eye. A little higher, and that orb sinks behind some braver and stronger clouds -- still a round globe visible but weakened. Now its glory is reflected in a pathway always leading from me to the sun no matter where I wander on that lakeside. Now as the sun rises further behind the clouds, even that pathway dims -- its light reflected off of the tiny waves like fires burning , flashing, and flickering to guide me along that path. These signal fires can be seen all the way to the horizon, flashing and guiding, even where the lake surface is one with the sky. No one could mistake the way with such brilliant guidance.   

Have you ever seen such a path? If you do see one, follow it with your mind and you will no doubt be rewarded in nature's fashion.  

                    

Another unusual sunrise occured also in 1998 from my bedroom windopw. There were lots of clouds around and then there was every so temporarily a rainbow to the south of the sun extending from one cloud to the next in a small short arch. A very interesting sunrise indeed. Like some religious picture or a fantasyt art piece.

Havenwood: Nature Notes: Patterns

Here's a site I found which shows a wonderful view of nature. There's a nice poem on it right now, and some great photos. Posted by an Indiana couple, I think written by the wife, after moving to a farm and therefore really appreciating nature.
Havenwood: Nature Notes: Patterns

Also, VERY IMPORTANT! I have established another blog. I seem to have been overcome by this blogosphere thing. What happened was -- I got on the AARP site and discovered that I can put a blog on that site for free. I have decided to make that site my Birdwatching journal and also a photo album of some of our travel shots and eventually some of my hubby's shots of birds of the world. Here is the new site:

http://www.aarp.org/community/renrae

Morning from Madame's Boudoir

When I awake, the view out my bedroom window is of a pale anemic morning, like the fragile fainting daughter of the domineering English matron. Porcelain grays, cream and pale blues are the colors. There are no cloud distinctions save two small dark wisps above the horizon, but there is a slight blush on the sky's cheeks just beneath the indistinct globe of the sun. But that sun-- in spite of being weakened by the winter and the clouds before it's face -- has the strength to beat a path on the calm Lake Michigan surface. The horizon is marked by a powder blue line of water. Further south away from the sun's pale influence, the water is deeper blue and the sky blushes more visibly. Winter ghosts of trees stand witness to the subtle shifting light patterns. Suddenly, the visible globe of the sun disappears, its only remnant a long narrowing swath of bright cream light on the water just below the horizon, as though someone out there on the lake needs illumination. Momentarily white flakes begin to drift down from the graying sky and within seconds we are playing out the weather forecast -- lake-effect snow showers. The narrow band of sunlight on the lake narrows further and disappears. The indistinct clouds and blushing skies disappear and now the lake world is one gray color from water to sky. Only the trees maintain their distinct silhouette among the snow flakes, and the ground of the backyard is now trying to achieve that oneness with lake and sky by turning white with snow. All this has happened in exactly 12 minutes. Life on Lake Michigan.

Yes, we live on Lake Michigan and see this play of color and light everyday. What a special opportunity.