Ray’s account of how he discovered a little ground skink near Henderson Road near the Town of Clifton.
I was walking with my dog Deuce and I was on my way home and I saw something on the ground and I saw this ground skink. So I decided to take a picture of it and posted the picture up on Facebook.
Ray B
Tony Bulmer utilizes a campfire venue to educate families about local reptiles at the park. Below he presents characteristics of turtles,
Snakes and the other species of local reptiles found at Walney. The prsentation is not filemd in its entirety but does give you some perspective Tony’s skills as a wildlife interpreter.
Below Tony with a Kingsnake.
Below is footage taken by Me showing a copperhead Mike and I stumbled upon this spring 2011. See also entry for Hemlock Overlook Herp Survey. All animals are wild and viewed in their natural habitat.
Care is taken to avoid injury to the animals and ourselves any animals that are momentarily captured are released unharmed. WE DO NOT COLLECT ANIMALS FOR PETS NOR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC.
Above footage is a Copperhead stalking its meal- a green frog.
above footage is Mike Gregory preparing to take pics of our discovery.
Below are several shots of Fairfax County’s finest Naturalist safely removing two copperheads from garden mesh netting. Its a delicate procedure obviously no one wants to get bit but Tony Bulmer and Jim Dewing’s team work prove to be a success. Both snakes survived the ordeal and were released back into their habitat.
[flickr id=”5922074365″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
Above Tony and Jim prepare to remove the snakes
[flickr id=”5922071889″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
Above: Message posted on side of container from animal control warning of its dangerous contents.
[flickr id=”5922075195″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
Jim and Tony (with big smile on his face) seem to enjoy their job
[flickr id=”5922638726″ thumbnail=”thumbnail” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
[flickr id=”5922638280″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
Takes a steady hand and good teamwork to successfuly remove these animals without injuring them and of course not to get bitten too.
[flickr id=”5922073711″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”none”]
Every year we receive snakes trapped this way either in sticky traps or garden netting as seen here. For some snakes they are lucky enough to be delivered to us for careful removal. However we dont know how many are killed from entrapment or by homeowners simply because they are snakes.
My friend Mike and I went over to check out some of the migratory birds that visit this facility. There were hundreds if not thousands of common as well as hooded mergansers, and ring billed gulls, and mallards. These were the dominating goups. Other species included other types of gulls, in fact there was one unfortunte hearing gull with a broken wing, a couple of kingfishers, and in one cove we counted 7 great blue herons a red tail hawk and few american crows.
To me the most unique experience of today was the newly installed signs warning people of venoumous snakes. Although the sign doesn’t mention the word venomous it does however clearly illustrate the heads of two vipers -(snakes with fangs) which to anyone who didnt know better that there were dangerous reptiles lurking near shore. Crazy!
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.
