Butterflies and Larva

I released Rehab again, as supposedly the temps will now stay stably warm. Eddie and I took a short hike about 11, parked at the upper and went west with my macro lens. We took the first right off the gate trail and made our way to bramble hill. We met a couple with their very friendly 2 rottweilers and lab. At the bottom of bramble hill the eastern-tailed blues were plentiful. Then we went to photo the raccoon skeleton, and specifically to try to get a carrion larva for proper ID.

We saw several bikers and many goatweed leafwings. All in all a very pleasant hike of about 70 minutes. I won't take Ed with me tomorrow because I want to try to get some good butterfly shots and I can't manage that with him.
These pretty little grass flowers were everywhere in the area just north of the tadpole. UPDATE: Cranky Lady IDd these as spring beauties


While off-trail in that same area I came across my first poison ivy sighting of the spring. Looks like now I'll stay on the trails until winter


Also in the same area I saw a lizard dart across my path, but this is all I got of it!


Carrion larva and friend on the raccoon scapula (I think). It was the only larva I saw on the remains


I bagged a larva and brought it home. This is the pic my cousin asked for, showing the 6 legs

I really was patient, but could never get a good shot. I think this is an eastern tiger swallowtail


A male goatweed leafwing - one of many many I saw. A lot of them were darting in pairs


Eastern tailed-blues mating


This one is my prize - a rare (for me) glimpse of the top of the eastern tailed-blue.

I'm Getting Spoiled

I had a haircut afterwork so we (Eddie) didn't get started hiking until 6. I parked low and went west. I wanted to go off-trail around the area where I found the leg bone and vertebra. I found the lower jaw bones of a deer, with full cheek teeth and most front teeth. I still think all the bones are from the same animal.

The jaw bones, which I believe are called the ramus (from the skull ID book) were still connected at the very front of the mouth. We didn't find anything else, and we spent so much time exploring off trail that by the time we looped around on the Fairy Dust and came back by Rock City I wasn't going to have time to check out the raccoon skeleton. My daughter decided it should be called a skeleton now since it is nearly picked clean. Plus she can't stand the word carcass.

As Ed and I walked down the path where the deer skull used to hang he looked up on the trunk as we passed by that tree. I didn't slow down, but he knew to glance up there. We heard a few frogs chorusing from the large pond, and saw the mallard pair in a pondish area just before the 1st of the 3 lakes.

Total hike was 1 hr, 50 min, and Ed and I stopped by McDs for an ice cream cone and doggie treat. As Eddie was straining in his seat harness the guy told me they were out of treats, so I gave Eddie the last 2 bites of my cone, which he fully expected and enjoyed.

More Bones

I got a late start hiking, arriving just before 5 pm. I parked in the lower and headed west for the purpose of raccoon carcass pics and to gather some small rocks to look for fossils. I ended up getting bone pics instead of fossil-looking rocks. Total hike 2 hr, 10 min. Here are the pics in hiking order:


This might be a northern cloudywing. It was at the top just before the upper


This sassy robin kept leading me along the path from the upper to the gate


I'm assuming this is a leg bone from a deer. It was just off the trail that's close to the road. What I can't figure out is why the shorter bone off the joint is sawed off. Since the joint isn't quite picked clean I hid it and plan to inspect it later.


Maybe 25 yds or so from the 'leg bone' was this vertebra all nice and clean. It's probably from the same animal


Cute little whirlpool in the Rock City ravine stream. After swirling around it drains down each side below. I wonder how many thousands of years this has been going on in order to create such a nice smooth bowl in the rock


Across the stream and up through the rough I found this box turtle shell. It also has the bottom piece of plastron which unfortunately broke off when I put it in the bag. From the few marginal scutes left on it I can tell it was a common 3-toed, like the ones I have


A long cool rock in the trail


This redbud is growing upside down now thanks to the Dec. ice storm. The arrow shows where the trunk broke


I couldn't believe the raccoon has been picked this clean in such a short time!

Click to enlarge, and you will see just in front of the orbit (eye socket, but now I have to call it an orbit thanks to the skull ID manual my cousin sent me) and going down to the ground from there a bunch of what looks like maybe larvae of the carrion beetle finishing it off. The icky tissue-y hairy mass has sloughed off and is at the bottom of the pic under the mouth area.


One of its feet

I also want to mention that the chickadees were out flitting and singing in full force throughout the ravine area.

Toady Splat

No hiking this week, partly due to rain and also getting over my little flu. Today was pretty nice but I stayed home to do other things, like taxes. I've never waited this late before.

Since I haven't started spraying the lawn for beauty control I have some weeds that are growing tall, even though the bermuda is not out, so I decided to mow. This would be my 2nd mowing this season. After getting gas and gassing the mower I tried to start it and on the 2nd pull the winding thingie got stuck and the pull cord was left dangling and lifeless. After a few minutes of pushing through the little top vent things to make the whirry part turn to coil up the cord I finally decided to remove the top of that whirry, turning thing. No problem, I have good tools.

The 5/16 socket was too small, the 7/16 socket was too big, and after digging around a little I finally found a 3/8. It was just a tad too small. Hmmm. I know I've used these before, but not since I had the mower worked on 2 years ago. I bet the guy replaced those things. Lucky for me that some time ago I had taken a little case of mm sockets from my mom's garage, and the 10 mm fit perfectly. So I got the top off, wiggled and jiggled it, blew dust off, wiped around the top of the lawn mower where the turning crank is and blew off dust, practiced pulling the cord and letting it glide back into coiled position, assembled the top and started the mower. That was easy. I would say 95% of the jobs like that I try to do turn out more difficult.

From the time I decided to mow until I actually began mowing the weather was fine. Nippy and windy, overcast, but a great evening to mow. As I made my first pass on the grass it began to shower. It showered lightly during the entire front yard and just as I was ready to put the mower away it stopped so I got to mow the back, too. I hate mowing in the rain and usually won't do it, but after all my prep work I wanted to get it done. Besides, I was doing anything to put off the taxes as long as possible. Including this entry!

Part of the prep work was taking a picture of the frog splat on the sidewalk behind our garage. We've lived here 3 1/2 years and not one of us has ever talked about it, but I know we've all seen it. It is just too horrible to think of a little frog hopping into wet concrete, struggling to get out and finally succumbing.


In preparation for the real turtle compound I intend to build, last fall I moved a little spontaneous maple tree from the side of our house, where the turtles now live, to an area in the future compound. This evening I inspected it closely and found this going on all over the place:


I still have Rehab in the house because the last time I brought her in because of the temperature I noticed a fresh sore spot on her rump from her molestation. It seems she scabbed over and her tough skin started growing funny there and it must have somehow been pulled on something. I managed to pinch it off and am now treating her for a few days with that special solution. So here she is today:
You can see how her tail was chewed to a nub. Her left forefoot now has only one toe. Or at least only one toenail. I believe the toes are gone, too. Poor baby.

As long as I was taking photos I took one of this sweet fern fossil I found while hiking with my cousin in March:


Now that it's after 9pm, I'm sure it's too late to start the taxes. Guess I'll have to do them tomorrow.

Petrified Toad... Awww or Ewww?

This morning my co-worker excitedly said she had something for me, then produced a baggie containing a small petrified toad (dehydrated, mummified, whatever.) She was cleaning her garage over the weekend, came across it, immediately knew I would want it, swept it into the baggie and brought it to me.

Of course I oohed and aahed over it, as I truly was happy to get it. Now keep in mind we are mature professionals in our 50s and we've never discussed dried up toads before. She does know I'm a box turtle lover and that I hike alot and take lots of pics of bugs and stuff. And she dutifully listens to my tales of skull finding and such. Mummified toads? It's never come up. But she knew.






What's funny is that when my cousin was here in early March I had found a small stiff frog, no legs and totally smashed. I studied it and placed it at the base of a tree by a rock to I could show it to my daughter (yes, I know it's gross, but she likes stuff like that, too.) When the 3 of us went out I looked for it and it was gone. So something found a stiff squashed tiny legless frog appealing. My co-worker was unaware of this, because even I know not to discuss everything.

Eddie and I headed west. I glanced down the deer skull path and saw the skull was missing. We went over to it because I was hoping the strong winds had maybe blown it off the stub of broken branch. It was nowhere to be found. I can't believe someone took it. While I looked around on the ground for it Ed stretched up on the trunk and reached his nose has far as possible. He remembered it was the skull tree (or else smelled it?) It was cute and disappointing.

It should be mentioned that at exactly 1 minute, 32 seconds into the hike I had a tick on me. Well, it was really on the back pack but that's the same as. I was still carrying the empty pack and just getting ready to put it on. I couldn't believe it. It seems we didn't see ticks until sometime in May last year, but I could be wrong.

Total hike about 55 minutes, but it's supposed to hail tonight and good chances of rain over the next 3 days, so I'm glad we went.

Great Day, Can't Hike

Although today has been a beautiful day, all springy and chirpy, I couldn't go hiking because I have a touch of the flu. All the usual flu symptoms, but very light.

Yesterday evening was going to get pretty cold, and Blocky and Mark were wandering around the compound, so I brought them in again to join Rehab. Since they have to re-establish their hidey-holes I'll wait until I know it will stay warm enough for them.

Today I saw Twyla and Sunny out... just barely. They were each teetering on the edge of their respective dens. I got to check them over and they don't appear to have any mole damage. The only one I haven't seen is my beautiful male, Rebel. I hope to see him in the next couple of weeks as he is my only boy. Mark is a girl. Go figure!

Rehab Released

In January I discovered that Rehab, one of my box turtles, was above ground. She was bleeding from her hindquarters, her tail had been chewed to a nub, the heels of her hind legs were scuffed up and she was missing a couple of toes. A mole had molested her! Poor thing, her body was too cold to get back in her hibernating den.

I took her to the vet, who, after digging in her rectum with a q-tip, proclaimed it to be patent, therefore she would be OK. We were given, I mean sold, a new special solution (concocted out of the vet school in Georgia) and I followed the doctor's orders.
Of course I had to keep her in the house after that, as it was then way too cold to put her out. A few weeks later a couple of the other turtles, Blocky (aka Hooly) and Mark, were also out. Seeing mole signs all over and fearing for their lives I brought them in, too. So the 3 have been wintering in our kitchen/den area.

Well, it's April and turning warmer, and with today being a day with nice showers off and on I thought it would be a good time to put them back in their compound. About an hour later the sky cracked open and it hailed! Small, but it was hail. At 8 pm I went out and Rehab was wandering aimlessly around so I brought her back in. I'll consider putting her out Saturday, weather permitting, so she'll have several hours to find a little hidey hole. Poor thing.

I've worried about our other 3 turtles and hope they were spared mole damage during the winter. I'll find out in a couple of weeks. I've had turtles in my yard since 1979 and have never had this problem before. Last year one of my friends lost a 4-yr old box turtle to the same thing. Her damage was too severe for her survival. I told her then that I'd never heard of this happening, although I knew I had lost eggs to moles over the years. When I make their new compound I'll have to try to bury the hardware cloth about 18 inches down around the perimeter to keep them safe. I don't look forward to that.


Rehab, on the left, and Blocky sharing a monkey biscuit and fresh blackberries last July. Rehab got her name because a friend of mine found her in a yard after several hours in the same location. We decided to get her and found she had a hole and bone splintering on her carapace. We took her to the turtle vet, she wore a patch for a year, and voila. I decided not to release her because she had lived with us for a year and I was worried she wouldn't recognize her old home. She's a real sweetie.