Yearly Archives: 2021

Scorpion 2021-08-21

“It’s stinging me!” screeched Gretchen as she rushed into the house.

Yes, “screeched” is the word she later used to describe the loud noise she made.

[On the sink]
On the sink

As you can see, she then managed to fling this Striped Bark Scorpion off her, but the Centruroides vittatus landed on the sink.

Like the one I stepped on recently, this one hurt like a bee sting, but caused no noticeable damage by the next morning.

The amusing part is that Gretchen did not get this scorpion here at the farm.

She got it in downtown Valdosta.

-jsq

Praying Mantis 2021-08-07

On the truck:

[Mantis]
Mantis

It’s some kind of Mantodea. Probably a native-to-Georgia Carolina Mantis, Stagmomantis carolina. Probably not the larger bird-eating species. These ones eat insects.

Here’s Gretchen observing it. Continue reading →

Pileated 2020-07-20

I heard a thwacking sound, looked up from the porch desk, and two pileated woodpeckers were on two, then one, pine tree.

[Two pileated woodpeckers on a pine tree]
Two pileated woodpeckers on a pine tree

The crosshatching is the porch screen wire.

These Dryocopus pileatus hang around here all the time, but they don’t usually come that close. That pine tree stob is about twenty feet outside the screen, or thirty (ten meters) from where I was sitting.

Eventually they flew off laughing, like they do.

Pileated woodpeckers mate for life, which would explain why this pair has been here a long time.

Don’t know if it’s always been the same pair, since we’ve been seeing them more than a decade, and apparently the oldest know was less than thirteen years old.

A pair of pileateds wants more than a hundred acres of territory, so they should be very happy here.

-jsq

Bee tree down, bees still up 2021-07-14

Fortunately, when the bee tree snapped off, it broke above the bee hive. So our pollinating native bees are still humming in and out of there. Their exit used to be on the other side of the tree, but they’re using this new entrance now.

[Bee hive in bee tree stob]
Bee hive in bee tree stob

I guess they will relocate, but at least they did not get suddenly evicted.

The bee tree was far from the largest of the fourteen big trees down we’ve counted so far. Two more were less than a hundred feet away towards the cypress swamp. Continue reading →

Turkey Eggs 2021-07-14

Below the longleaf pines, in a thicket: ten turkey eggs. Mama turkey flew up in a tree. Turkeys lay one egg a day, so it took her ten days to deposit those.

[Landscape]
Landscape

The dogs found them. Honeybun made off with another egg in her mouth. Blondie covered the getaway. Continue reading →

Six inches of rain in two days, swamp full 2021-07-05

A month of no rain ended mid-June, capped by 3.5 inches July 4th and another 3 inches July 5th, according to the bucket-and-yardstick rain gauge. Our cypress swamp, which had only puddles, is now full and overflowing.

[3.5 + 6 inches of rain, cypress swamp]
3.5 + 6 inches of rain, cypress swamp

That chair was above the cypress swamp high water mark for this year. Now it’s in the water.

I’m renaming the front driveway Twin Creeks. Most of its flow goes into the swamp. Continue reading →

Spider hat, garden vegetables 2021-06-28

A common occurrence in the woods: a banana spider on my hat.

[Orb weaver spider on hat]
Orb weaver spider on hat

These golden orb-weavers, genus Nephila, weave webs many feet across between trees, often at human eye height.

I left this one on a nearby bush.

Here are a few vegetables from the garden that day. Continue reading →