American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) at the Red Wolf Overlook.

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) on a tree trunk inside the Red Wolf Enclosure. Or, is this butterfly an Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)?

Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) in the U-shaped pond next to the Bungee (Take Off).

Eastern Bleubird (Sialia sialis) sits across from a woodpecker hole in a pine tree, sizing it up for potential occupancy.

All photos shot on the balmy 18th of February.

While talking with the Explore the Wild Team of Animal Keepers and Volunteer here at the Museum, Kimberly, Marilyn, and Ashlyn respectively, Kimberly spotted a hawk in a tree some fifty yards or so from where we were standing. The hawk looked to be eating something. I had to get a closer look.

I walked over to where I could get a better view of the bird, took out my camera and started clicking away. It looked to me, through the camera viewfinder, that the hawk was eating a frog. I’d seen a pickerel frog earlier in the day in the pool in front of the Black Bear Enclosure, so maybe it was a Pickerel Frog that the hawk was tearing at with its sharp, hooked bill.

A Red-shouldered Hawk with what I thought was a Pickerel Frog (2/15/12).

A garter snake in the talons of the hawk.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later after the hawk had departed and I was reviewing the images on the camera that I realize that it was a snake being torn apart by the hawk, a small garter snake.

If you remember from a recent post, there had been at least two other snakes caught by what I assume is this same hawk. This capture makes three.

It seems that garter snakes have been active all winter, at least so far. When they should be brumating these snakes have been crawling around the landscape.

Yesterday was a particularly mild winter day in the mid-sixties. I saw two species of butterfly, many ground beetles, spiders, and of course at least one Pickerel Frog, so there were probably many other prey items around for the snakes to eat, if indeed they could move fast enough for them to catch anything.

Remember, the colder it is, the slower these cold blooded animals move. And although the mid-sixties is pretty warm for the middle of February I’ll bet that it wasn’t that warm on the moist floor of the forest. Everything slows down in a reptile’s body in winter. A slow metabolism means that they probably don’t need to eat, so the matter of finding prey may not be an issue for them.

I can’t wait to see what turns up tomorrow!

I wish the best of luck to all of those birds represented on the map as purple dots (above link), we still have plenty of winter remaining. The temperature drops as I sit here typing. It will be in the twenties tonight and we’ll be lucky to reach 40 tomorrow, not weather conducive to flying insect (martin food) activity.

Mahonia showing berries. Note that there are still flowers towards the tips of the racemes.

Thanks to the mild temperatures this winter, the Mahonia (Mahonia sp.), Grape-holly, or whatever it is that you prefer to call it, on the Dinosaur Trail has been in bloom continuously since the fall. It now has berries where once, bright yellow flowers lured honey bees, various flies, and ants to perform the pollination duties. These plants should provide a good crop of berries for the birds this year.

Not quite ripe these berries will turn deep purple with a light blue pruinosity later in the season.

Common Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is showing its first sprouts of the season.

Fresh shoots are beginning to show themselves on elderberry. This plant is on the Dinosaur Trail opposite the Maiasaura.

There is only a handful of Silky Willows that I'm aware of here at the Museum, all are on the north side of the Wetlands.

The buds on Silky Willow (Salix sericea) are beginning to awaken from their winter slumber. This small tree or shrub is more northern in distribution than the abundant Black Willows that grow just about everywhere you look here in our Wetlands. The silky variety is rare on the coastal plain, more common here in the Piedmont and Mountains.

Silky Willow blooms very early here at the Museum and these trees should be in their glory by next month (March). It’s been very mild and things are moving rather quickly here in the Piedmont, but we may yet get a blast of coldness to slow things down a bit.

I expect that we’ll have to wait and see what the rest of winter brings us. Until then, enjoy the weather, and the early floral happenings.

Groundhog.

The first groundhog of the season was spotted on February 8 running across a service road and then over the path near the boardwalk leading to Explore the Wild. I assume that this marmot is the “Boardwalk Hog.” There is a groundhog burrow just below the fence at the head of the boardwalk that leads to Explore the Wild. The animal that I saw was last seen swiftly moving in that direction.

There are many groundhog burrows throughout the Museum campus each housing different animals, two or three in Catch the Wind, one at the entrance to the Dinosaur Trail, at least two in Explore the Wild and one in the Black Bear Enclosure, among others.

Although this was the first groundhog that I saw, it’s not necessarily the first to be out and about this season. There is a groundhog that has a burrow along the path behind the Lemur House. This is the groundhog of the “Lemur House Clan” and the entrance to its burrow was used well over a week before the Boardwalk Hog was seen prancing along the backroads of the Museum.

Lemur House Clan burrow. Notice that the entrance hole is clear.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Lemur House groundhog’s burrow, it was covered with leaves until the beginning of last week. Someone has been in and out of this burrow. Keep your eyes peeled for any large, chunky ground squirrels running about the landscape, there are probably others surfacing to test the air as well.

Not long after this tranquil scene the egret flew off over the pines to the north.

GBH-2 on a familiar perch, a Loblolly Pine waiting for GBH-1 to go to sleep.

The bounty of fish is gone. The shiners that once lay within easy reach of all who munch fish in our little Wetlands have either dispersed or been dispatched. No more can the egret and herons pick off shiners at their leisure at the edge of the Wetlands. They now have to work for every fish, tadpole, frog, or crayfish that they catch, which is probably why egret and heron are nowhere to be seen.

It’s been just about a week since I’ve seen the egret in the above photo, longer since the last time I laid eyes on GBH-2, our visiting blue heron.

Even the number of mergansers is down. In fact, I saw no mergansers this morning as I made my rounds in Explore the Wild (2/7/12). The Wetlands is very quiet.

Now that I think about it, it wasn’t all that quiet out there this morning. The Red-shouldered Hawks were up soaring, stooping, calling out and just plain showing off for their potential mates. Very noisy, they are.

Cardinals were singing, the Eastern Phoebe was vigorously calling out to any females in the area (I don’t think there’s any other Phoebes on site though), and the bluebirds have been seen investigating their nest boxes. Even the titmice and nuthatches are vocalizing.

I didn’t hear any frogs (peepers) though. The cold nights must have put them back in their places.

Have a good one!

Red Maple in bloom (2/3/12).

Don't walk by a red maple without getting a close look at the flowers, they're quite pleasing to gaze upon.

At least two Red Maples here at the Museum are in bloom. The trees are located in Explore the Wild on the north side of the Wetlands. Being out of the wind at the bottom of a former quarry, and on the north side of that quarry where they get direct sun the year-round, it’s typically warmer where these trees grow. In my opinion, they’re slightly ahead of schedule. But according to the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association the trees are at the very beginning of their normal blooming period.

Red Maples are early bloomers no matter where they grow which is one reason that they’re a personal favorite of mine, they brighten up the otherwise gray and brown winter landscape with their red buds and blooms.

Not quite ready, these catkins have a week or so before they're ready to pollinate.

Another woody plant that’s in bloom a tad ahead of itself is Hazel Alder. We have three here at the Museum, all are located just west of the maples mentioned above. Alders are shrubs or small trees and can grow to 20 feet or more. Ours are much smaller, probably because they’re out competed for sunlight by the many Black Willows growing all around them. Alders are a wetland species.

Both male and female flowers are present at the same time and are located at the tips of the branches, the males in the form of catkins dangling just below the reddish female flowers. The catkins put out abundant amounts of pollen which is carried by the wind to the female flowers.

All three of our alders are in various stages of readiness for the “breeding” season.

Almost ready. A few more days should be all that's needed for this alder to put forth pollen.

Ready for action. Note the lone female flower above the catkin on the left. There are often two, three or more females present.

If you suddenly find yourself sneezing during the month of February here in the Piedmont and are near a wetland, you may be allergic to alder pollen.

A tap of a finger, or gust of wind, releases generous amounts of pollen from the catkins.

And you thought you were safe from allergies during winter.

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) in Explore the Wild.

Same cloak with partially open wings.

Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer).

This peeper was in Catch the Wind (same frog as above).

Besides the snake being captured by a Red-shouldered Hawk last Friday, Kent (Animal Department) reported seeing what was probably the same hawk catch one in the Lemur Yard on Sunday (1/29/12). From the descriptions given it doesn’t seem as though they were Brown Snakes so, although I can’t be sure, I’m assuming that both were garter snakes. Both Brown Snakes (Storeria dekayi) and Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) have been known to be out and about in both late fall and late winter/early spring. Of course, this is mid-winter. I saw a garter snake along the Eno River, just half a dozen miles or so from the Museum, on New Years Day this year!

A few birds…

A Downy Woodpecker works on gaining entry to a Trumpet Vine seed pod.

A resident Northern Mockingbird hangs out in a holly, one of the trees under the bird's guardianship in Explore the Wild.

Several turtles…

Crawling out on a boulder in the Wetlands, this Yellow-bellied Slider is responding to unseasonably warm weather (12/22/11).

Another yellow-bellied enjoys the sun several weeks later (1/12/12).

And the heat goes on…

This slider catches some late afternoon warmth at the base of a willow (1/24/12).

What looks to be the same turtle as above was out the very next day (1/25/12).

And something left over from summer…

An Eastern Tent Caterpillar egg mass on a small cherry tree along the Dinosaur Trail.

The other side of the egg mass reveals what seems to be an attempt by a bird to get at the eggs within. Or did some of the caterpillars hatch thinking it spring? The black-topped eggs are empty eggs.

It wouldn’t be out of the question for those eggs to have hatched. It is very much like spring on this last week of January. The Red-shouldered Hawks were up performing their aerial courtship displays, I saw a spider wasp carrying a spider along one of the service roads here at the Museum, Spring Peepers have been heard calling (on my drive home Saturday I heard chorus frogs!), the male Belted Kingfisher was in town trying to impress our female with his fish catching prowess (she was having none of it and chased him off), and Jennifer Armstrong (Exhibits) reported seeing a red-shouldered with a snake!

And there’s much more, but you have to be there to see it. So, get out and have a look around!

Perched on a tree inside the bear enclosure, a gray squirrel shows its appreciation for corn-on-the-cob (1/19/12).

I should say that the squirrel in the photo very much appreciates the animal keepers here at the Museum. It was the keepers who tossed the corn into the Black Bear Enclosure. The corn was meant for the bears to eat but the squirrel beat them to the punch.

Happy squirrel.