The Water System as Wildlife Habitat

A Black Racer has been hanging around the property this week so I thought it was a good time to dust off and republish one of the lost articles on these sleek beauties.

Dateline: February 2014*

Living in a rural location, I have an outside well pump and tank with a water conditioning system added.

Who goes thar?

This week as I walked passed, something swooshed and I spotted a Southern Black Racer snake (Coluber constrictor priapus) slithering through the hole in the platform that holds up the tank section.  I guess this is a perfect place for protection from the elements, but with opportunities for a free meal.

All settled in to the ready-made den

You see, recently we had a brief freeze, so I had to bundle up the well to prevent freezing pipes.  I use two moving blankets and a sheet along with some clothespins and a bungie cord to keep everything snugged up.  Two days later when we returned to record 85F temperatures, I undressed the pump and found that a Green Anole had taken up residence in the sheet…great protection from the freeze, I suppose.  And I guess the snake followed the Anole to the “Well Pump Inn”.

The pump bundled up for the freeze

There is the time I found a jumping spider nesting in the protective cover for the conditioner timer.  And another when I spotted a jumping spider dining on an invasive treefrog that would have clogged up the gears, had he not taken care of the problem.

Female Regal Jumping Spider (Phidippus regius) picked an unfortunate location for her nest. My attempt to relocate tho’ necessary was unsuccessful

Unfortunately, the invasive frogs still manage to clog up the gears and the result is a broken timer so that I now have to go out and manually set it to backwash the unit.  This is the second time they did it in…another $167.00 dollars down the drain…so to speak 😉  A new unit is on the list to be ordered.  Thankfully I can install it myself.

If only the jumping spiders could get rid of the invasive treefrog BEFORE they cause major damage to the timer units

I’ve had ants short out the electrical box in their quest to find a home and somehow a lizard got through the conditioner tube and screwed up the float that regulates the water…he didn’t make it on his adventure.  I’ve had friends who had lizards’ short out the electric box…unfortunately, they called a plumber before they talked to me.  I could have saved them some money by teaching them to clean out the contacts that cause the short.

This lizard was hiding in the sheet that was covering the well for our day of freeze. Happily released into 82F weather

I’m happy that I am handy enough to have been able to fix many of the problems on my own…amazing the empowerment of a Phillips Head screwdriver.  😀

So, the well continues to provide interesting habitat.  I suppose that I could enclose it, but likely, that would not eliminate the use as a fun, warm habitat.  This past week with the return of high temperatures, I saw through the shed window a swarm of ladybugs…another habitat for our friendly fauna.

Next day, he still seems happy

Critters will get in to small places, so it’s just a matter of routinely monitoring them to ensure they don’t cause a problem.  In the meantime, I will stop by the “snake den” to see what his plans are for the day.  Racers are egg layers as opposed to giving live birth, so it won’t be a maternity ward.

Do you have unusual places around your home that provide habitat?

*This tale was originally published by Loret T. Setters in February 2014 at the defunct national blog beautifulwildlifegarden[dot]com.

Wildlife Deception as a Defense

I was out and about looking for things to photograph this sunny Sunday when out of the corner of my eye I spied my friend in the above featured photo.  While it may look like a snake, it is actually a legless lizard.  It brought to mind an interesting encounter I had with this native species a few years back, so I thought I would republish the tale of the tail.

Dateline:  August 15, 2014*

Tanner, the English Setter (08/26/02-09/24/17) was headed out for his afternoon stroll of the yard.  I saw something over behind a tall cluster of Bidens alba and it seemed to be thrashing.  Tanner zoomed on over and flushed out a Red-Shouldered Hawk.  The hawk flew off with its feathers somewhat ruffled in the quick getaway.

Ruffled feathers

Tanner headed back to the spot where the hawk had been.  I called him and quickly ran over to see what was up…concerned that the hawk had caught one of the venomous snakes that were around in recent times.  It’s important to remember that even in death snakes can inflict harm via a reflex bite for a considerable amount of time.  I saw something writhing and quickly ushered Tanner off to the house where I grabbed the camera.

Tanner ((08/26/02-09/24/17), always alert for wildlife adventures

Back at the scene of the crime, I relaxed as there was only the tail end of whatever the hawk was enticed by.  No rattle, and too thin to be a cottonmouth…WHEW!  Naturally, needing to share my story, I took a quick video (19 seconds) of the headless creature that seemed quite lively despite lacking its thinking cap.

Then I took a few still shots so I could identify just what wiggling friend this had been before becoming victim to the food chain.  I picked it up and flipped it over the fence into the wildlife area, considering that maybe the hawk would come back once we weren’t around.  Initially I thought it was the end of a black racer snake, but the cut section seemed too clean to have been a snake shredded by the hawk.

the headless horseman

That’s when it dawned on me.  I had the tail end of an Eastern Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis), a legless lizard often mistaken for a snake. I confirmed this with my trusty pal Kim of Swamp Girl Adventures who is a naturalist specializing in reptiles.

Most lizards will break free leaving their wiggling tail behind in an attempt to distract their predator while making an escape. This phenomenon is known as autotomy.  This lizard will regenerate the tail over time.

Clean break

The tail seemed to have snapped off cleanly with innards that formed a zigzag pattern.  It looked like it could nicely fit back together using a little super glue if it ever met up with it’s front part.

Glass lizards are native to the southeastern United States.  They eat insects and their larvae, spiders, snails, small snakes and possibly small rodents. In turn they feed snakes and birds. Females lay eggs and stay with them unless threatened.

Bottom was pure white

I didn’t get a real good look at the hawk taking flight, so I can’t be sure if it had the business end of the lizard in its grasp.

I scanned the tree line to see if I could find the hawk and I spotted him far in the distance sitting atop a street light pole on the next block.  With the limited zoom capability of my camera, it is not the best picture but you can tell where his feathers are clearly ruffled.

Ahhhh, there you are!

I headed in and checked the photographs on the computer. Satisfied that there was enough photographic detail to accompany my tale, I went back out to move the tail out into the open where I’m sure some critter(s) would enjoy the doggie bag.  This was 30 minutes later and it was still writhing and twisting.  I don’t know about the hawk, but I’d certainly be deceived into thinking it was alive.

loseup of a complete Glass Lizard from November 2010

We’ll never know if the glass lizard made a clean escape, but it’s another example of Mother Nature’s wonders in my beautiful wildlife garden. Once again I thank her for giving me the idea for my weekly article.  It has been fun to be able to tell the tale of the tail.

*This tale was originally published by Loret T. Setters on August 15, 2014 at the defunct national blog beautifulwildlifegarden[dot]com. Click the date to view reader comments.

Nothing Goes to Waste in a Wildlife Garden

I often don’t leave my property for days at a time. That gave a Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina) time to build a nest alongside the driveway gatepost in a tangle of Saltbush. It flushed out the other day when I was headed to the vet with Louie, the new Labrador rescue family member.

First there was one egg

I was out and about several time since and I guess the dove didn’t like the constant disruption of the gate opening and closing for it seemed to me as of yesterday that the two tiny bright white eggs had been abandoned.

Wait, you don’t look like a ground dove

Today as I was cleaning up after the dogs I noticed some movement by the nest. I crept over to get a closer look and was surprised by what I found staring back at me. A colorful Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus). A very BEEFY, colorful corn snake.

A snake that goes by many common names: Eastern Corn Snake, Corn Snake, Chicken Snake, Red Rat Snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

I could see that it already had eaten an egg by the bulge 10 or so inches down its sleek length. Corn snakes are generally 18-44 inches but can grow to as long as 7 feet. I’d say that this one was about 3.5-4 foot or so and noticed that the tail was blunted, obviously bitten off by something larger up the food chain.

Great markings on the bottom of this beefy snake

The snake was quite tolerant of the photo shoot but when I reached in to move some leaves in the way it backed down the tangle of Florida native Saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia) that the dove had chosen as a home. I glanced in the nest and it was empty.

Given the bird’s leeriness of me (I’m harmless, I swear), it probably was for the best all around. I don’t think the eggs were being properly incubated given the amount of time mom had been spending away from the nest. Even if I was 20 to 30 feet away the bird was flushing out to take cover across the street. When I mowed the driveway the other day Momma bird was gone for an hour or more.

Pretty good length. I see them crossing the road sometimes, but they are not usually this big.

So, Mother Nature found a solution. Snakes need to eat and what better choice than abandoned nest eggs. Now I just hope that the snake is feeling full enough that it doesn’t seek out the new Cardinal babies that are growing daily over in the Wax Myrtle.

World Snake Day…And Me Without My Pungi*

Guarding the trash

I find is fascinating how coincidences just seem to automatically happen to me. Today I was headed out to put some cans and bottles into the recycling bin when I was startled by a visitor lounging atop my trash can.

closer look

Although this black racer snake is harmless in that it is of the non-venomous variety, I immediately called Jorja, my English Setter girl and put her inside since I wanted to take some photos and I knew she’d scare my sleek friend away. I did my photo shoot and took a video with my phone.

oh good. He’s into recycling too!

Excited by my encounter I posted the video to Twitter and alerted my good friend Cindy. I was actually kinda proud because she had posted a video of a spider who was doing laps around her lampshade just the day before and I was pleased to have an “action” post of my own.

And me without my pungi 😀 🎺 #snake cc @gemswinc @Janet1129 pic.twitter.com/4r6BFz3Z0q

— Loret T (@setters99) July 16, 2017

A bit later in the day Cindy alerted me to the fact that it is actually World Snake Day. Seems there is a day for everything. But how coincidental is it that my buddy showed up on this particular day?

He was maneuvering around the mess on the patio

I’ve written about black racers a couple of times in the past highlighting in one article that they are cannibalistic after watching an encounter with my very own eyes].

climbing the walls

This one seemed intent on catching the exotic brown anoles along the brick skirting around the house. That is encouraging because those exotics take habitat away from our native anoles. Then it started to climb up the side of the house and I thought that was a pretty good idea since (s)he seemed to want to crawl behind the shutters where I know the invasive Cuban tree frogs lurk during daylight. Nothing I like more than my native friends keeping pesky invaders in check.

He did his best imitation of a venomous cottonmouth by flattening his head

The racer did slither along the fence providing more great entertainment and making for a really happy World Snake Day. Hope you enjoyed yours as well.

* Pungi is a wind instrument played by snake charmers on the Indian subcontinent.