Bluebirds - Third Clutch

Four new eggs in the nest.

Cozy Treefrog

I spotted this Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis), in the garden nestled in the center of a zucchini squash leaf. He seemed very content and relaxed.  

Gray treefrogs are able to change their color from gray to green based upon their immediate environment. The common gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) found in more northern climes is not found in my region of Kentucky though it is physically indistinguishable from the Cope's gray treefrog. They can be distinguished by their calls, with the Cope's gray treefrog being shorter and faster. And quite interesting is the fact that the common grey treefrog has an extra set of chromosomes, which means that the two species can not hybridize.

More Bluebirds

I have been remiss in checking the bluebird house and low and behold, a second set of three fledglings were well along their way.

Road-crossing Kingsnake

I spotted this black kingsnake (Lampropeltis getulus) on my afternoon constitutional. He was about 3-1/2 feet long and was looking for a place to cross the road. I used my walking stick to keep him at bay in the vegetation on the edge of the road in order to take a picture. He kept slithering further along the edge of the road and was quite intent on crossing. After 3 or 4 attempts to slow him down, he finally stopped long enough for this picture. Black kingsnakes are known to vibrate, hiss, and strike when cornered but this chap was not apparently annoyed sufficiently by my interruptions to his travels to do so. Right after I took the picture he scooted ahead of me and across the road. 

 

Watershed Watch Training

My oldest son and I have been volunteer water samplers and habitat/biological assessors for Four Rivers Watershed Watch for five years. My son will be going away to college in the fall so he is passing the torch to son no. 2. Providentially, the organization is implementing enough changes to the procedures and criteria that re-training was deemed necessary for all samplers, so it was very timely for son no. 2. The lecture part of the training was held at the local community college. We then went to a local stream for some hands-on biological sampling as well as habitat assessment. It was unseasonably warm and we found many examples of dragonfly, mayfly, and stonefly nymphs. This creek is unusually low for this time of year but it did make it easier for the training.

Bat Houses

I had a purple martin house for at least 10 years and nary a single purple martin. This year I decided to take it down and replace it with two bat houses. It isn't that bats eat more mosquitos than purple martins as some have asserted, since research of the stomach contents of both has found that neither consume many mosquitos. Rather, I regularly see bats flitting about around dusk so I know that they are already in the area. The habitat surrounding our home is quite diverse including forest, open fields, creek, wetlands, and a pond within 100 yards.

I used these plans from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife as the basis for my houses. I placed them back-to-back on one post with one house oriented South and the other North. This will allow the bats to choose a warmer or cooler house depending ambient temperature fluctuations.

I made the bat house largely from Oriented Strand Board (OSB) for two reasons. First, I wanted the rough surface on the interior to provide gripping for the bats and second, it is inexpensive.

For the post, I joined together two 12 foot long 4"X4" treated timbers using a scarf joint and two 3/4 inch bolts. With 3 feet of the bottom post buried below grade, that places the bat houses around 20 feet off of the ground.

 

On the interior boards, I sawed shallow horizontal grooves equally spaced in 1 inch intervals. This is to provide additonal gripping points for the bats. I dyed the interior boards with a dark brown stain.

I made some small shingles from larger asphalt shingles to protect the roof of each house. I also placed a finial on top of the post for purely aesthetic purposes. I sealed all of the joints with caulk and I painted the exterior of the house with three coats of exterior latex stain. Bats like the interior of their summer roosting house to be between 80-100 degF. Your geography will determine whether you paint it a light, medium or dark color. Based on our location, I chose a medium color. In addition this should protect the wood and it is certainly more pleasing to the eye than the unpainted OSB.

First Bluebird Clutch

Over the winter, I repaired the entrance hole to the bluebird house as the original hole had become somewhat enlarged over the years.

Our first eastern bluebird fledglings, their four heads buried, probably one or two days old.

And five days later.

Luna Moth

 This rather lethargic Luna moth (Actius luna) was hanging around the rear of the house this early this morning. The left hind wing was slightly damaged but it did not appear to affect his flight later in the day. It should do for his vaporous one week life.

Scarback Sighting

This was the first sighting of Scarback, the eastern box turtle that has lived on our smallholding for at least 7 or 8 years. He was found buried in the side of a drainage ditch near the driveway. He appeared to be quite content, so we left him nestled in the muck to enjoy the last of the cool weather.

 

Earthquake

We had an earthquake this morning that registered 4.0 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was on the New Madrid Fault not far from Sikeston, MO. which is within 50 miles of my home here in Kentucky. It occured at 4:00 am and did not wake me, but many in the area reported feeling it. Being this close the New Madrid Fault, we have many small earthquakes, but it is unusual for ones of this magnitude.