Man you have some beautiful reptiles! I owned a snake once, but I found it boring after a while. I love all animals for their beauty and love seeing them in the wild/zoo.
Thank you, I love reptiles and amphibians, I have been working with them for over 25 years. What kind of snake did you have? LOL I never get bored of my snakes.
Wow Can't believe you hit all those animals spot on haha! Help me out a bit, the small toad I believe is a woodhouse/fowler's, is it just a baby of the last toad picture?
a few of them were questions....is that a River otter or a Giant otter and is that local or at a zoo? Also the Water Snake...if that's in DC, it's probably Nerodia sipedon, but if it's down south, it's Nerodia fasciata. It's tough to tell some species apart as juveniles, but it could be EITHER Fowler's or Woodhouse's, so idk until they get bigger and have more distinguishing markings. Adult size is usually a dead give-away too.
You wouldn't believe it man...I moved my computer down to the basement and while I was on it I decided to look back out the door and BAM! There was the Pileated Woodpecker at the base of a tree, I got 2 pictures, but they were blurry. 30 minutes later I went outside on my deck and I played the call of the woodpecker on my mp3 player and I know 99% it was pure chance, but 3!!!!!!!!! of them flew by me and landed on trees. I SHIT MY PANTS! I was so incredibly excited, but 2 of them took off they are so quick and man they are big! They scale the trees so fast it was nearly impossible to get a clear shot. I just a 3 picture picture frame and I knew I had to put that picture of the woodpecker, the dragon and my girl in it haha. Later that day I showed my mom the actual photo of the pieleated and while I was showering her I saw another outside the window and I yelled at her haha. I have a feeling I will never see them again and I'm so glad I have a physical picture of one. Also I have no idea what sex the 3 were, I deleted the fuzzy pictures and only looked up how to tell after that. That pic is a male because of the red stripe on it's cheek.
You literally SHIT your pants. That must have sucked, especially since you probably had to jump right back into the shower again.
When sexing birds, most of the time the males have bright colors to attract predators to him and away from nesting females. Alot of the time you won't even SEE females due to their cryptic coloration hides them so well, Mallard ducks are a perfect example and Bird-of-Paradise. Automated mating sounds are one of the ways professionals attract endangered big cats in the wild to photograph them and do their census reports, so you were actually much more on-target than you might think w/ the tactics. That was top tier lol...especially this time of year.
The thing is, I hear their call very often, but I'm not sure because this afternoon I heard a robin making a similar call and it was throwing me off...it sounds almost like a mourning dove when they fly away.
You're asking the wrong person LOL. I'm not good with bird calls.
I have a few more pics of the downy, it visits the feeder rarely, but usually every morning a male and female red bellied woodpecker visit the feeder and also rarely I see a Northern Flicker, so I'm very lucky. Also when I saw the downy the first few times I never knew what type it was because I never paid attention to it's bill and it looks exactly like a hairy except the bill size. I had another bird feeder which had a cage and when squirrels got on it it sank to cover the holes, but it broke and the woodpeckers would quickly grab and go, but this new one they stay a while and squirrels can't get a thing and picky eaters don't make a huge mess.
You can squirrel-proof feeders w/ some 1/2-inch heavy duty wire mesh. Also, alot of bird-watchers that keep feeders on posts place an upside down funnel on the pole to prevent arboreal snakes from invading the colonies and wiping them out. My ratsnakes would make a meal out of a family of fledglings in the wild any chance they could.
You should really make the trip down to DC and visit the National Zoo, it's amazing and they even have a beautiful reptile house with I think 2-3 large Anacondas, but I spent so much time taking pictures I completely forgot to visit it
I will go soon just for that.
I have been there when i was young and saw the Giant Pandas, Ling-ling and Sing-sing, but it's been many years since then. I thought you were from Texas? What you doing all the way up this way? We got several large anacondas at the Philly Zoo here, and I can handle and purchase them at our local Reptile Expos several times a year.....or just play with my mean, evil little bastard.
I was so happy to see the spotted turtle, I saw it when I was walking back to go home, same with the snake. Previous time I went to huntley meadows we only saw painted turtles basking and no snapping turtles, but the previous time before that I went with a class and there were tons of snapping turtles. The park is actually not that far from the zoo and I would also recommend going there, but not a guarantee you will see anything.
man I love animals...
Yea the Spotteds aren't very abundant these days, I haven't seen a wild one for over 15 years, but they're out there somewhere, best we just leave them alone though. Painteds are getting protection now because these idiots buy baby Red-eared sliders then when they get too big they let them go in public water-ways and they destroy the ecosystem an compete w/ native turtles for space like Painteds, Spotteds, Wood, Pond, etc. Unfortunately the Common Snapping turtle is considered a nuisance in most areas because it eats massive amounts of gamefish and they are harvested regularly for meat in soups. Animal-lover that i am, i understand this is neccessary, as I have seen first-hand what they can do to a balanced pond ecosystem....and they have no natural predators as adults. Same concept of deer-hunting since we have virtually extirpated their natural predators in this area...wolves, mountain lions, etc....so WE must be the "natural predators" to keep the population from exploding. The Alligator Snapping turtle, on the other hand is protected at all costs.
I didn't notice until I looked at the picture that the snapping turtle has 2 freshwater leeches on it's head.
