This one was already being slotted in for the weekly topic the moment that I saw it, but before I even got the necessary photos, another topic that I liked much better happened along, so we’re going to go ahead and use this one now, rather than save it for another week. Spring is on its way, and I expect to have plenty more subjects to feature.
We still have to sell the old house, and The Girlfriend took a weekend trip back there to prep it to go on the market. While there, she gathered a handful more plants that had been in the yard, mostly daffodils, but she also collected what I believe is a coastal witch alder (Fothergilla gardenii) that came with a bonus:
Yep, that’s the egg case/ootheca of a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis,) and definitely this past season’s, because it hadn’t been there before. About the time that the mantids would have been laying egg cases, we were deep in the throes of the move and I wasn’t paying much attention to the front garden, plus the fact that this shrub was wrapped in honeysuckle vines, so much so that the vine was incorporated into the ootheca and had to be cut away. But this does mean that I didn’t leave all of my old mantis subjects behind, even when none of them actually survived the winter because they don’t live that long anyway. So, cool!
Meanwhile, this morning The Girlfriend spotted something that I’d walked right past (but that’s okay because I’d already found something cooler anyway – that’s waiting until Friday.)
We could make out even fewer identifying marks than before, but this is likely an eastern mud turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum,) perhaps the very same one spotted before. I had thought that it was departing its burrow because the temperatures are better now, but on returning to the spot a little later on, there was no hollow, just an expanse of very loose soil, and now I suspect it was actually re-burying itself. I didn’t try digging gently down to see, though I might try this later on, since they apparently go less than 2cm under and I would contact the shell pretty quickly if it’s there.
[Actually, now that I think about it, The Girlfriend was the first to see both instances of mud turtles, so she’s challenging my wildlife-spotting abilities. Next thing you know she’ll be writing obsessive posts about free will and eighties music…]