On The Trail With Mark

Snakes are out tonight

Mark — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:15:52 +0000

Driving home on Neuman Road, a distance of about 2 miles, (around 8:00pm) I counted 5 snakes. Two were crossing the road and two were already killed by cars and one was lying in the middle of the road when I past by but I was too late to make a rescue before another car behind me killed it Most appeared to be black rat snakes except for one which may have been a large garter snake.

Pond Monster at Walney!

Mark — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:48:33 +0000

Mike and I started the day of f at 8:00 am birding at Cabels Mill. A Baltimore Oriole and some Flickers were the more interesting types of birds we encountered on this trip. After our brief hike around the meadow trail we headed over to the Walney Pond to prepare for our Pond Life program. While scouting and planing my route I noticed a huge shadow just under the surface of the pond (towards the shallow end). I expected to see a beaver but instead turned out to be a gigantic Carp which we now dubbed the Walney Pond Monster. Mike and I both agree it had to be close to three feet long. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any closer to get a better shot with my cannon point and shoot camera.

Carp are nothing more than giant minnows and are completey harmless (they don’t attack humans) but they can, at least some species, be detrimental to an aquatic ecosystem in particular to aquatic vegetation.

Above a young Hickory tree along the meadow/woodland edge -one of our most abundant hardwoods at Walney

Golden Rod and Cardinal flower . A colorful combination we see this time year at Walney

Box Turtle under a snake board. This completely caught me by surprise. I either expects a Water Snake or a Meadow Vole or nothing at all-But a Box Turtle? Another Box turtle was found completely submerged within the shore line of the pond. It is the same turtle the other Naturalist have reported seeing in that location for the past week.

(Below) The Pond Monster!! Can you see it?

Fungus Amongus

Mark — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:51:27 +0000

Only a portion of the fungal diversity I have encountered this year. I wish I knew more about identifying these organisms. 2010 has definitely been an optimal year for fungi

Clifton 6 Acre Park

Clifton 8 Acre Park

Yatesford Road Near Hemlock Overlook (above and below)

Below Beaver Creek Road

Beaver Creek Road

Above Wykland Road and Kincheloe

Wolf Run Shoals (below)

Right and below

Wykland and Kincheloe Road

Big Rocky Run ECLP Cabels Mill-by Mike Gregory

Mark — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:23:37 +0000

I found this female Sternotherus odoratus (Stinkpot) while exploring Big Rocky Run near Cabell’s Mill in Centerville.
Although one of our more common turtles, it is seldom seen do to it’s habit of staying on the bottom of bodies of water.
The Stinkpot gets it name from it’s ability to secrete a musk when handled.

Walking Big rocky Run at Night

Mark — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:42:01 +0000

Tonight Mike Gregory and I conducted a Night time Creek Walk through Big Rocky Run. The program was intended to give families a chance to explore, with their kids, a local stream and the animals that live there.

Mike found this eastern snapping turtle lurking in a shallow pool along the stream. Overall we had a great program. Most of the people got into the stream with us. In fact the majority of the snakes we saw were spotted by our guests but the job of catching them was left to us.

Below: Northern Water Snake we encountered 5 of them on this trip. Seems like I am a magnet for these animals.

Paleocene Fossil Hunting in Maryland

Mark — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:28:53 +0000

Below is where we inserted into the creek in search of extinct 55 million year old giant clam fossils. Accompanying me on this trip were my brother in law Andy and his son Ben. The following pictures are posted not in sequence but do show the chronological order of how we entered the creek and made our way to the fossil site.

Below Andy (foreground) and Ben treking into the creek looking to find the mother load of fossils that I promised them would be there

Below Profile view of the creek bank near where we inserted into the creek showing the variuos sediment layers

Above A close up view of the ancient marine sediment layers that forms part of the creek bank and bottom

Above Andy ventures further back into the creek

Above Exposed clay bank and prehistoric sediments. All of those bumpy things on the creek bed are Giant Clams!!!

Below Andy and Ben examine the first of their finds.

Above and Below Andy and his son Ben have hit the mother load and are clearly happy at their discovery

Below a sample of the fossils we found. Shown here are some Ben’s finds an oyster and a giant clam mold fossil. Although there were quite an abundance of fossils only few examples were taken-no need to be greedy:)

Below more examples of extinct giant clams and an oyster fossil recovered by Andy

Night Time Observations

Mark — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:04:54 +0000

After a long hot day in the 90’s and high humidityand tonight wasn’t much differnt. What was interesting about tonight was the frequency of snake sitings crossing the roads. I must have seen at least 4 in the course of two hours time as well as one dead one. In fact I almost hit two of them. From what I could tell most were Black Rat snakes one I believe was a rather large garter snake. I would be curious to know if tonight was an unusually active night for reptiles. If so what factor(s) are contributing to their increased activity.

Just a thought

Popes Head Creek 8 Acre Park Excursion

Mark — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:18:52 +0000

On my way out from the creek today noticed several very large, mature milkweed plants. On them were a number of catepillars and they appeared to be feeding on them. I hadn’t really noticed them on other milkweed plants befreo usually see the monoarch larva and not hese guys. As it turns out they are not butterfly larva but instead moths known as milkweed tussock moth caterpillars

Queen snake and what I believe may be a juvenile three lined or possibly a longtail salamander-Eurycea genus. The snake was found under a rock along shaded stream bank. The salamander was under a rock but in a shaded tributary of Popes Head Creek.

Queen snakes prefer eating molting crayfish are a very sensitive species to change in their environment. I have sen an abundance of crayfish in Popes Head but don’t often encounter these gentle snakes as much as I did in the past.

Close up of the queen snake.

Profile shot of same Salamander

top view of the Salamander

Wild Flowers along Clifton Creek Road

Mark — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:22:37 +0000

Unknown Flowers above. No basal leaves evident. Growing out the side of a bank along Clifton Creek Road. It was th only one like it as far as I could tell.

Flowers above are Phlox. These are relatively common along Popes Head Creek in town this time of year.

King and Queen Snakes at Walney

Mark — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:20:28 +0000

Distant shot of skink gaurding her eggs (above)

Close up shot of female skink gaurding her eggs above (photos by Mark Khosravi)

Well we didn’t find any King or Queen Snakes today but did manage to find a nice female skink guarding her eggs. She was kind enough to pause for a quick photo. Tony Bulmer (Naturalist at ECLP) who discovered the skink said female skinks will often leave their eggs ungaurded to seek the warmth of sunlight. When they return to their nest they use the warmth they absorbed to further incubate their eggs. Another behavioral characteristic is that female skinks will sometimes urinate on their eggs to keep prevent dessication. These photos were taken underneath the bark of a fallen tree several feet from Big Rocky Run near Cabels Mill.