WILDLIFE REMINDER

I posted this on Facebook today, as I see these things every spring, and I thought I would use this forum as well to try and get the word out to people...

It's that time of year. Spring is when nature is pretty hyperactive, and danger is high for wildlife. Some things to keep in mind while you are out and about:

1)  Keep an eye out for turtles crossing the road. Females and males are on the go, seeking out new venues and females looking to dig nests and lay eggs. If you see one crossing the road, please try to stop and help it in the direction it was heading. They commonly get run over and need all the help they can get. Sometimes they can't get over the curbs to get back to safety. Sometimes people forget how tall the turtle shells are, and how low their cars are, and they think they can safely straddle them. They are often wrong.

2)  Likewise look for squirrels and such. Remember that squirrels are prey animals, created to avoid birds of prey. Their avoidance technique is zig-zagging. So people think they can just straddle them with their car, not realizing that the squirrel will dart in the opposite direction and run in an unpredictable zig-zag path. When you see a squirrel, slow down and just give it time to realize you are coming and head back to safety. It really isn't that difficult. I do it all the time!

3)  People also believe that they can just head down the road at 50 mph, and birds will always get out of the way. Especially this time of year, that may not always be true. Birds are focused on courting rituals and building nests right now. They are distracted. And you may easily see something like I saw the other day, with a bird so distracted with the nesting material he was collecting, he didn't think to get out of the way of cars leaving the intersection at the light, and he was plowed over before he could get out of the way, because the drivers are too impatient to edge forward to warn the bird and get him to move. Often the birds are in the middle of a dispute, chasing one another, and are so focused that they forget the cars.

4)  And, in situations like the above, realize that birds are often stunned for awhile after being hit. So they may appear dead, but are actually just in stasis. Like the one I saw get hit last week. He actually laid on his back, feet in the air, for several minutes and appeared dead. Then he flipped over, as cars whizzed inches from him, but was still too stunned to fly off. I grabbed him and given time to recover, he wound up being fine and I could let him go back in the area I'd found him a few hours later. I've picked up stunned birds from the side of the road a few times now.

5)  Remember that animals that are hit by cars aren't doomed. They often can recover, if given an extra hand. If you see an injured animal, try to capture it and get it to a wildlife clinic like CROW on Sanibel Island. They have pick-up locations all over Lee County. (I picked up an injured opossum a couple of years ago that I spotted in the road. He had a broken jaw. They monitored him and were able to release him after a week or so.)

6)  Speaking of opossum, realize that if you see a opossum hit (or hit one yourself), that they are often females carrying young in their pouch. If possible, check for babies. I once had a maintenance crew find a dying mother opossum and a pouchful of babies covered in fire ants. They took the babies from the dying mother and gave the little pinkies to me. I took them to CROW. Unfortunately that bunch couldn't survive the fire ant venom, but often they can be saved!

7)  And, just in general, be patient and thoughtful. If you see an animal in the road, or near the side of the road, SLOW DOWN! Don't expect it will just get away from the road and be fine! If it is in the road, don't keep speeding on, assuming it will just get out of your way!

We are the keepers of the earth and its inhabitants, and let's keep it well!

She's back!

The little raccoon from yesterday is back once again.



Unfortunately for her, I did not put out any food today. But that didn't stop her. When she was denied a meal, and confronted by me and a snarling Zook, she wound up heading up my trellis to the roof...




Little Coon spent awhile sitting on my roof under the shelter of my schefflera, before coming back over to my trellis and hanging out at the top of it for awhile.



My jasmine is so wild right now, that you could not even see the coon from the outside...



She got really comfy up there, and wound up stretching out and napping for a bit, with her head resting on the roof.



She really is adorable! I feel so bad trying to scare her off and refusing to feed her, but figure it is for the best (for both of us). She hung out for probably an hour or so. She keeps looking for a place to get into the porch. Hopefully she won't find a way, since I have a cat door going into my house, and really don't want her in my house! We'll see how long she hangs around when there is no food for her.

That ain't no cat!

I've had a yard cat (stray or neighbor cat) spending more and more time in my backyard. So I put some food out for him about a week ago. I put it out before work, and when I came home it was gone. I continued putting it out everyday, and found when I was home that the food would disappear between 3-5 PM, but I could never confirm whether or not it was the cat eating it. Today I was running to the store, and I saw the cat run across my front yard toward the back fence, and realized I hadn't put food out for him yet. So I put food out first thing after I got back. About 15 minutes later, this is what I found when I looked outside. Zook finally snarled at him near the end, but it didn't even phase this guy...

Surprise Encounter

Yesterday morning I went to take Zook out for the first time of the day. I opened the french doors to the porch, and I found Zook was hesitant to go out. I finally coaxed him to the screen door, but after sticking his head out the door, he backed up and decided he didn't want to go out. So I had to toss his butt out, and order him to "go to the bathroom!"

He quickly did his business and ran back to the door to be let in. I let him in and we were walking back through the french doors when I heard rustling in the leaves next to the porch. My first thought was "snake", and I glanced over to see what might be in the corner beside the porch, only to discover a small opossum on its back with my large opossum (that lives under my shed) on top of it. There was no other sound- no hissing or anything. I ran to get my camera, and turned it on just as the small opossum tried to get away from Big Boy, and Big Boy decided to go around and pursue her


Then the little girl decided she really wanted to get away from Big Boy, and tried climbing the trellis to get away.


When that failed, she gave up and just scampered off under the bench on my deck.


I left to go get ready for work, and went back awhile later to check the backyard and found Big Boy running around on the deck in front of the shed. Then he disappeared under the deck where I have seen him go before.


Then he reappeared seconds later, only to run around the back of the shed (where he or some other critter has torn off the lattice work across the bottom), and presumably disappeared back under the shed again.

I just never know what I will encounter around here-- and I live in "suburbia"!

Ants and their wiggling captive...

A couple of weeks ago I was leaving for work, when I spotted something wiggling around on the walk to my car. I saw a bunch of ants holding onto what looked like a worm or something, and they appeared to be carrying it left and then right and then left again. Back and forth. I thought, "What the heck?" So I put my stuff in my car and came back with my camera to get a better look, and this is what I found.

That would appear to be the lost tail of a baby lizard. It is still moving, and the lizards are hanging on for dear life, trying to figure out what to do with it, I guess. Pretty cool. A few days later, Woodrow spotted a very small lizard with no tail. So it seems the trick of dropping it's tail succeeded in saving its life. (For those who don't live around lizards, that is a little trick they have. When caught by a predator, they will drop their tail, and it's wiggling on the ground will sometimes distract the predator so the lizard can get away. The lizards then grow new tails.)

Myrtle and Bert Turtle

We went for a short bike ride at sunset tonight, and found these...


Bert (on the right) was found in the middle of the street. I was carrying him when we encountered Myrtle on the side of the road about 20 feet further on.
I'm just keeping them overnight for pictures and study. I have to figure out where to let them go. Perhaps over by my Mom's place, where there are lots of ponds and creeks.

By the way, did you know that baby softshell turtles have a soft spot in the middle of their belly like a baby has in their head? If you have your finger placed over that soft spot, you can feel their muscles tense and contort as they they stretch their heads out and kick and claw with their feet.



Cute little boogers, ain't they?

Momma Duck

About a month ago, we found a nest of duck eggs in the bushes outside our office building.

So we've been waiting for them to hatch. I got word from the boss the other day that we now had ducklings, and as I left for work I saw Momma Duck taking a break from the nest, flapping her wings and reveling in being free from the nest and little peepers for a moment.
I stopped by on my way home, and decided to take a peek in the nest. Momma got a little nervous having me get so close to her babies, and made funny little little sounds of anxiety, but let me take a peek without getting aggressive like some swans and geese and other fowl.


A couple of days later, I took another peek and found Momm and babies gone.

I tracked them down and found them across the street.

I know it's hard to tell, but she actually has about a dozen babies hiding under her in the photo above. I came back later and finally got a shot of a few of the babies.


Cute! I'm guessing maybe when I go to work tomorrow, I might find the babies now in the water with Momma. We'll see!

From Ugly Duckling to Swan

Woodrow and I recently attended the burrowing owl festival. This was the same festival that we attended last year and enjoyed. Unfortunately this year there was a huge downpour in the morning, and by the time that it let up enough for us to go, we found most of the booths had shutdown and we were left with this...

...mud and muck. But while we were there, we stopped by the butterfly house and took a quick trip through it. There were a number of beautiful butterflies.

This is the Florida state butterfly, the Zebra Longwing...


I think that this is an Orange-Barred Sulphur...



This looks to be the 'oft spoken of Monarch...


Another Orange-Barred...


I'm not sure whether or not this guy was alive...


This might be a Great Southern White, with his wings smudged from the rain...


This might be an American Painted Lady...


...and another Orange-Barred...

Before we left, we bought a couple of American Painted Lady caterpillars in cups to take home and "hatch" into butterflies. I know they don't really "hatch", but humor me. It's late and I'm too tired to be clever. This was my caterpillar Little Joanie. Unfortunately the other one didn't survive to metamorphoses.

It was amazing how quickly Little Joanie grew. You could almost watch her grow!


Within a week or so, she had attached herself to the top of the cup.


And by that evening, she was wrapped in a cocoon.


About a week or so after that, I opened the cup to this...


A Painted Lady butterfly.

I coaxed her out onto a leaf, and left her on my spider plant outside the porch.





I left it there for the night, and it was gone in the morning. Here is a little video...

You never know what will cross your path...

UPDATE 03-12-10: This little opossum is a juvenile male. This occurred on the 9th, and today he is still hanging in there, but not yet out of the woods. They believe he has a fractured lower jaw, which I wondered about initially when I drove up and he was running in circles and doing weird licking things with his mouth and shaking his head. (I had a feeling they were going to tell me he had a fractured jaw.) I'll check in on him again next week, and see how he's doing. Here's to patient #662 of the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife!

I started out this morning like any other, and little did I know that when I left for work I would be delayed and side-tracked for about two hours.

I was taking the little side-street I take every morning (the one that runs next to Hope Hospice), just a couple of miles from my house, when I spotted something in the other lane up ahead. At first I thought it was an armadillo crossing the road, as there are tons of them out in this area, and they are commonly out in the daylight. But upon closer inspection, I realized it was this...
An opossum. I saw it walking in circles and shaking it's head. Around and around and around. I wasn't sure whether it was hit by a car or if it may have distemper (you'll commonly see things like circling, lethargy and seizures in animals infected with distemper). I circled back and ran out to check on it. I could see a couple of spots of blood around it's nose and around it's back end, but no other obvious injury. However I suspected a head injury, as it had some obvious neurological impairment. But I still wondered whether it could be distemper causing it to circle around.

I started making phone calls, trying to figure out what to do. See normally I keep supplies in my Jeep to handle situations like this: heavy gloves, towels, cages, leashes. But these things were removed last year to make room for camping supplies, and never put back again. So here I was, all alone with an injured opossum, with no supplies and no one to help. I called CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife) right away, and they told me of the clinics nearby for drop-off. (I keep them programmed in my phone for times like this.)

I couldn't reach Woodrow for to ask him to bring me my supplies, and I wasn't sure who else to call to help. I was afraid to leave the opossum alone, for fear that it would either walk off and I wouldn't know where it went, or it would get hit by another car. There were already vultures nearby, patiently waiting for the opossum to die. I love vultures, but I was going to do what I could to rob them of this meal!

I initially tried putting my sweatshirt over it to see whether I might be able to pick it up with my bare hands. But it stopped circling and looked up at the sweatshirt and sort of hissed in a half-hearted way. If you are unfamiliar with opossum and why I might be apprehensive, here is a picture of one that my mother encountered in the crate she setup for a stray cat.
They can be quite aggressive when cornered and have lots of sharp teeth. They are pretty fierce little creatures when they need to be!

While all of this was going on, the opossum quit circling and set it's head down on the ground and seemed to be going into shock, but I still wasn't sure whether it had been hit or had distemper. Then I spotted this about 5 feet away...



So that seemed to confirm that it had been struck by a car. However that didn't rule out distemper. I simply am not positive whether or not opossum get distemper.

A couple of nurses from Hope Hospice stopped to see how the little gal was doing. The second one to stop was on her way to see a patient, but she pulled over and got out and looked at the opossum. By this time, I had called my co-worker and asked him if he could come sit with the opossum while I ran home to get supplies to transport it. So I was waiting on him. The nurse said that she was on her way to see a patient, but she would be happy to stay with the opossum for me until my co-worker arrived. I was about to take her up on this when I saw my co-worker approaching. So I thanked her for her kindness, instructed my co-worker to just stay with the opossum and flag people around her, and I would be back as soon as possible. At this point, the opossum was very still and you could only tell she was alive by seeing her chest rise and fall with each breath.

I rushed home, ran frantically around looking for a box, grabbed an old towel and my work gloves, and headed back.

After I got back to the spot, my co-worker gave me a piece of paper on which the nurse had written her name and number, and asked that I let her know what happened with the opossum.

I tilted the box on its side in front of the opossum, and she stood up when I did. I put the towel behind her and began to drape it over her, and she looked around at me and took a step away from me towards the box. Perfect! I continued to prod her forward with the towel and my hand on her butt, and she actually walked into the box in an attempt to get away from me. We then gently tilted the box upright, and I wrapped the towel around her in the box and closed the flaps up. I thanked my co-worker, put her in the front seat, and called CROW to get the address to the clinic for my GPS. I got her to the clinic, filled out the paperwork, and headed on into work. On the way, I stopped by Englund's and got a sub...
Mmmmmmm...Englund's!

The whole ordeal took me about two hours, and I hate to think that the opossum suffered for that long. Every minute counts in a situation like that.

Tomorrow I will call CROW to check up on her and see whether she made it through the night or not. I'll update the blog when I know more on her condition. You never know what will cross your path when you start out your morning.

Urban Myth: Florida is always warm and balmy...

We're freezing down here! Literally! We were at freezing last night, and tonight we are expected to get around 29. And I am in south Florida, near the Everglades. The rest of Florida is even colder. There are reports of snow flurries around Orlando, frozen ponds in mid to north Florida. It's cold!

I've already had my chenille plant hit by the freeze...
It's the one plant that got hit by the freeze last year, too. Something about that spot makes it vulnerable. But it came back after it was frozen last year, and it will probably come back again this year.

But the poor animals. We went to go out to breakfast this morning, and Trouble (the stray cat) ran off from the front bed where he'd apparently been hiding, looking for a dry, warm spot. I've been worried about him. So I put the dog carrier out back with rugs and towels in it, and covered it with an old sheet.
If he comes around the backyard as he likes to do, maybe he'll take shelter in it.

And I put a small carrier in the front entrance with a towel over it, and left the screen door open.
So he's got a spot out front, too. We'll see whether he uses either, but at least I tried. It is just miserable outside.

Folks: Please bring those animals in. It is way too cold out to responsibly and compassionately leave your animals outside. Even down here in "balmy" Florida.

Looky-looky here!

You know, I have a friend who once said that I am very "animalistic" in a way. I am very alert to my environment and notice things that no one else notices.

So today as I walked into work, I happened to glance down and spotted something as I walked by my co-worker's car. I took a closer look and saw this...
This is a baby snake. It looks like it may have had a neck injury. To give you better perspective on just how small this little guy is...
Raise your hand if you have ever seen a snake this tiny! I didn't know such a thing existed!
So what do you do with a dead and crispified baby snake? Well if you're me...
...you display it with a toy car that a security guard brought back for you from Disney when he thought that you "needed a new car"! I mean...duh! What else do you do with a dead snake?

On another subject, I returned from lunch today to find that the boss' son had left me reindeer cookies on my desk...
How cute is that?

True Joy

I took this video about a couple of months ago. I was waiting in my car for a store to open, and this bird was sitting on a sign nearby chirping. He chirped on like this for probably five minutes before I finally whipped out my camera. He just expressed such complete and utter joy in the moment. Tail wagging, beak wiping, exuberant chirping. He was a very happy little guy.

Please think before you relocate wildlife...

Since this is my "happy place", I started another blog last month for when I need to vent. Today I am venting about people who are quick to relocate wildlife, and the inherent dangers to the animals when this is done. You can check it out on my other blog Just Me Spouting Off.

Momma with a built-in umbrella...

I saw this picture over at TYWKIWDBI, and thought that it was just the cutest!

Lee-zerds

The other day at work I happened to spy a young lizard that had died in the office. Unfortunately this isn't uncommon. Once they get inside, they can't figure out how to get out, they dehydrate and die. This one hadn't made it. I got the bright idea to put it outside and let the ants do their thing on it and leave me a lizard skeleton. I came back a couple of days later, and this is what they'd left me.


Some will think that's gross. I think it's cool. I love nature and biology.

However today I got lucky. I actually caught a live one. And he was a lively live one. Usually if I can get them alive, it is because they've been inside for awhile and are dehydrated and hungry and sluggish. This guy almost got away from me, but I snagged him. He was just a baby.


This little guy got released outside, skin and skeleton intact. Happy ending.

Little Miss Muffet better not sit on THAT tuffet!

This morning, while leaving for work, I opened my front door to the front screened entrance. And I-- being afraid of spiders in general, but especially big, fast ones like wolf spiders-- made my usual visual inspection to determine whether there were any wolf spiders that were about to surprise me. Instead I spotted this:

This spider had a caterpillar, and the caterpillar was still alive and wiggling. I got some video footage of it. Sorry about the shaking at the end. I tried to zoom out, and then found it was fuzzy and couldn't get it to focus again.

I felt bad for the caterpillar, but that is nature. The spider must eat.

After awhile the spider moved off of the caterpillar and hung to the side. I got some pics of it.

Do you see what I see?

Isn't that a red hourglass on it's belly? I do believe that is a Brown Widow. However she was quite large. I would say she was about an inch in diameter. I finally decided that she had to go, as she was right by my screen door I have to go in and out of everyday. I avoid killing whenever possible, so I swept her outside.

However I also got a shot of this guy, too. This one has been hanging out on the ledge for a couple of weeks.

Then while looking back through my photos, I realized...

...this is another widow! I don't know how well you can tell in these little photos, but when you see the full res photos you can clearly see the reddish hourglass.

The last couple of weeks, I've noticed this wispy and messy webbing taking over around my place.

Now I know what is making this. I have a widow infestation, and they are building these webs around in my screened areas. There's more around my bird's cage. Hopefully THAT won't become a problem.

After looking up info about brown widows, I saw a pic of their egg sacs, and a light bulb went off. Wait a minute. Is that what I saw around my garage door the other day? So when I got home today, I got some pics around the garage door.



I don't know about you, but I think those are brown widow egg sacs. At least a dozen of them around my garage door. 80 eggs per sac. That's a lotta widows!