Garlic Mustard:
- Animal sightings: A half-dead black rat snake lying on the road... Tara had to put it out of its misery. It was pretty intense. Also, Kristin found what seemed to be a hognose snake (our first one), still alive.
Showing posts with label snakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snakes. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2008
Monday, 6/2
- Finally, a day where the majority of it was not actually spent sitting around in the dark VC. Did some garlic mustard (invasive species) removal at Chapman's State Park, which meant "weeding the forest", as Morgan said. Garlic mustard is really easy to identify and comes out of the ground really easily, so it really wasn't that bad. The forest was mostly Paw Paw trees, so there wasn't anything spiky to run into and the ground was mostly poison ivy free. At one point, we were wading through a lot of waist-high grass, which led to everyone but me being covered in ticks (though i did find my first one when i got home, happily attached).
Garlic Mustard:
- Animal sightings: A half-dead black rat snake lying on the road... Tara had to put it out of its misery. It was pretty intense. Also, Kristin found what seemed to be a hognose snake (our first one), still alive.
Garlic Mustard:
- Animal sightings: A half-dead black rat snake lying on the road... Tara had to put it out of its misery. It was pretty intense. Also, Kristin found what seemed to be a hognose snake (our first one), still alive.
Sunday, 6/1
- Took the Girl Scouts out for a canoe ride up to the Patuxent. Someone had to stay back in the VC (where the power was out) and tell visitors they couldn't use the bathroom. That person was me, and the visitors were a never ending parade of cyclists in spandex.
- Animal sightings: Painted turtle, swimming in the pond behind the VC. Lots of bullfrogs, but they wouldn't hold still for a picture... every time I walked by they would go "BREEEP!" loudly and jump into the pond with a loud splash. I tried sitting on the bridge and waiting for one to poke its head out, but they're too smart for me.
Painted Turtle:
- Also saw a brown thrasher attacking a black rat snake! This is apparently the national crest of Mexico (sort of), and it was the sign that it was time to found a country.
The seal of Mexico:
- Animal sightings: Painted turtle, swimming in the pond behind the VC. Lots of bullfrogs, but they wouldn't hold still for a picture... every time I walked by they would go "BREEEP!" loudly and jump into the pond with a loud splash. I tried sitting on the bridge and waiting for one to poke its head out, but they're too smart for me.
Painted Turtle:
- Also saw a brown thrasher attacking a black rat snake! This is apparently the national crest of Mexico (sort of), and it was the sign that it was time to found a country.
The seal of Mexico:
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Saturday, 5/31
- This morning, Morgan got locked out on the balcony for several hours. Bill came all the way over from Cedarville to let her in, and was annoyed to find out that I actually had been in the Visitor's Center for the last 20 minutes... Oops. I just hadn't gotten around to figuring out where the heck Morgan was, because:
- A woman came in this morning to report a 6 foot long snake hanging out near Windmill Pond. She said it was a "Water Moccasin" but we don't actually, you know, have any of those in Maryland, so I spent my first 20 minutes at work trying to figure out what this lady had seen (results: totally inconclusive, aside from "not a copperhead").
- Animal sightings: 2 bullfrogs in the small pond behind the VC
- At some point in the day it began to hail bits of hail the size of bottle caps, and then there was a very exciting thunder storm centered approximately over Merkle Pond. I learned what herons do in the rain, which is stand still in the middle of a pond, look miserable, and get very wet. Oh, and then the power went out. And stayed out until mid-day Monday.
- In the evening, we hosted a campfire program for Girl Scouts. They were adorable.
- A woman came in this morning to report a 6 foot long snake hanging out near Windmill Pond. She said it was a "Water Moccasin" but we don't actually, you know, have any of those in Maryland, so I spent my first 20 minutes at work trying to figure out what this lady had seen (results: totally inconclusive, aside from "not a copperhead").
- Animal sightings: 2 bullfrogs in the small pond behind the VC
- At some point in the day it began to hail bits of hail the size of bottle caps, and then there was a very exciting thunder storm centered approximately over Merkle Pond. I learned what herons do in the rain, which is stand still in the middle of a pond, look miserable, and get very wet. Oh, and then the power went out. And stayed out until mid-day Monday.
- In the evening, we hosted a campfire program for Girl Scouts. They were adorable.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend
Animal sightings:
- Saw two snakes in the water while canoeing. One was hiding underneath a lily pad, and Mae noticed it while furiously washing her hands off after grabbing onto some poison ivy. She pointed it out to me shortly before I ran into some overhanging poison ivy with my face. With the help of a lot of antibacterial wipes that I got in my Christmas stocking last year, we both escaped without long-term consequences. The snake was never identified because we were both a little bit distracted. Saw another snake with a fish in its mouth. Took like 30 identical pictures of it.
- Many angry ospreys. Some carrying fish.
- Lots of herons, mostly flying overhead. No heron babies, sadly.
- Tree swallow living in Wood Duck box. Poked his head out and stared at us for a very long time.
- Dogs barking (overheard, all night long).
- Barred owl (heard going 'hoo hoo hooHOOOOO. hoo hoo hooHOOOO." so cool!)
Saw a minivan with kayaks driving the wrong way down the CADT (which was closed that day). Almost had a car chase, but didn't. Turned out to be the Patuxent River Keeper who can pretty much do whatever he wants, as far as we're concerned. The only reason I am mentioning this is because my friends started calling him the Trapper Keeper, and I thought that was hilarious.
Later, heard a bunch of teenagers walking down the CADT near our campsite.
- Saw two snakes in the water while canoeing. One was hiding underneath a lily pad, and Mae noticed it while furiously washing her hands off after grabbing onto some poison ivy. She pointed it out to me shortly before I ran into some overhanging poison ivy with my face. With the help of a lot of antibacterial wipes that I got in my Christmas stocking last year, we both escaped without long-term consequences. The snake was never identified because we were both a little bit distracted. Saw another snake with a fish in its mouth. Took like 30 identical pictures of it.
- Many angry ospreys. Some carrying fish.
- Lots of herons, mostly flying overhead. No heron babies, sadly.
- Tree swallow living in Wood Duck box. Poked his head out and stared at us for a very long time.
- Dogs barking (overheard, all night long).
- Barred owl (heard going 'hoo hoo hooHOOOOO. hoo hoo hooHOOOO." so cool!)
Saw a minivan with kayaks driving the wrong way down the CADT (which was closed that day). Almost had a car chase, but didn't. Turned out to be the Patuxent River Keeper who can pretty much do whatever he wants, as far as we're concerned. The only reason I am mentioning this is because my friends started calling him the Trapper Keeper, and I thought that was hilarious.
Later, heard a bunch of teenagers walking down the CADT near our campsite.
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