These are not snakes


No, I’m not trying to show off my amateur naturalist cred, and no, ‘amateur naturalist’ doesn’t mean I’m bad at getting nekkid – that’s ‘naturist,’ goober. And you still wouldn’t want to see it.

No, I’m referring to the fact that all of these were shot while I was looking for snakes for World Snake Day, which is still going on as I read more

Can’t keep up

It started just two nights ago. After the rains, I could hear a few Copes grey treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) calling nearby, including one that had to be in the backyard. I was checking on other things, so it took me just a couple of minutes to get to the approximate location, and by that time, she’d achieved her goal.


Seen here in the residual water atop one of the rainbarrels, read more

Outside the box

Ran across this image online, unfortunately I forget where, but it was unattributed there anyway.


Though it’s not so much the image itself that I’m highlighting, but the context and captioning, which were references to a mother carrying her brood on her back.

Uhhhh, no. Almost certainly not, anyway. And it’s a subtle illustration of a prevalent attitude among humans, because we tend read more

Damn noisy neighbors

… but I can cope with this kind of noise.

A few nights back, not too long after some long overdue rains, The Girlfriend and I went over to the pond to see what sunset was doing, and as the sky darkened… well, the video explains it better.


This was peak activity, but unfortunately the batteries in my video light were almost kaput, so more of the lighting is provided by the headlamp and read more

Spring is in the air, but the water’s pretty funky

Yesterday, The Girlfriend and I attended a party back near where we used to live, and afterward I wanted to visit one of my old haunts. The purpose of this was to see if I could find some praying mantis egg cases (‘oothecas’ if you want to be technical or sound pompous,) because I’ve found none in our region, and in this we were quite successful – I have ten in hand now, read more