gljcrsmith's Favorites

I found a black widow under a log the other day. I offered her a cup of coffee and asked her how she liked her insects, but she just gave me a venomous stare and scurried away. I guess she wasn't in the mood for small talk

Found on the ground on hiking trail. Looking a little beat up. We picked it up to get a better look and noticed some tail feathers missing on the one side. We held it a while as we continued our walk along the trail and gave it a little water. What we where not expecting was she was starting to lay an egg. The other pictures show it. The egg came out broken yoke first then the shell. Only minute after the ordeal she had enough strength and flew off. She was still bulging on the bottom and appeared to have more eggs to lay.

110 km southerly range extension for the Karoo region. As far as I can find out, the closest known record in the general area is from Karoo National Park, having been collected by Werner Conradie. Ex. Psammophis trinasalis

Out and alive and basking on New Year’s Day!
I encouraged the snake to move to the edge of the pavement for safety…oh my!! As it got to the edge of the pavement, something large in my peripheral vision from sunward was coming in…a red tail hawk swooping for the snake and then noticing me. It aborted the attack and landed on a branch nearby. I was going to pick the snake up and move it to a thicket nearby, but it squirmed into the grass and hid itself well enough. Now, a waiting game. Who would leave first, the hawk or me. 15 minutes later, the hawk gave up. Hopefully the snake slithered off to his hibernaculum safely. 😊

A member of the nominate and northern most subspecies. Characterized by broad white supercillium and thinner, lighter ventral streaking (compared to the more southern breeders). Largely resident from Alaska east through central Canada, into northern Quebec, the Maritimes, and the eastern US. South to the southwestern US (up to southern Arizona). I found this immature individual after it had captured a grey partridge (better seen in the second photo, looks to be still alive). I didn't want to scare it off a potential kill so I didn't stick around to see the fate of the partridge.

The coyote let out a huge yawn, revealing a set of pearly white teeth that any dentist would be proud of. I couldn't help but think that maybe coyotes should start their own toothpaste brand. I mean, if they can keep their teeth that white after all the scavenging and hunting they do, they must be doing something right!

Was biting something under the leaf-cover...I moved a leaf to see its head, and it left. I found a Copes Grey Treefrog was being bitten. Re-buried it after taking photos. Didn't seem to have any injuries.

Drama. These guys all normally get along pretty well, but here a squirrel decided to start something and nearly got kicked in the head as reward. Moments later they were back to munching sunflower seeds side-by-side again.

The American mink was devouring the vole with such gusto that I swear I saw it start to do a little happy dance. It was like the mink had just won the lottery of meals, and I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of its enthusiasm. Maybe we should all take a page out of the mink's book and start appreciating our food a little more - even if it is just a vole!

When I first saw this snake behind the Nature Center I thought it might be some escaped exotic species, but a closer look shows the stripes and red marks of a garter snake. Most of the black pigment appears to be missing, although there are some spots on the head and along the dorsal stripe. Does anybody have any ideas about what colour aberration this might be?