the stripe specialist

Patio Expansion Project!

May 31, 2010

I had to come up with a little project for my spring vacation, and decided to expand the little patio to the east of Terra Pen. The hard part is digging up the sod and removing the dirt from it. Laying the stones is the fun part! I bought 20 of them and laid them out to extend the patio out in front of the Water Garden’s north side, and then along in a nice curve to the existing decorative fence. Then I had to go get six more, and them I had to go get three more! The baby toads are out and about now- each the size of a small house fly, so I had to be extra-careful not to injure any with all the digging.

After the stones were laid came the exciting part- planting! I decided to try day lilies and lilies of the Nile for a change, and I also found some gorgeous fuchsia Gerber daisies and three new sage/salvias for the butterfly garden. I enclosed it all with a small wrought iron fence so now Bella can go out and sit with me at the Water Garden, off lead. This means she sits as close as possible to my rocking chair on the deck! I’m so happy with how it turned out. Now, what next?

Amphibian Anecdotes

May 23, 2010

It’s late spring and the tree frogs are out in full force! They start calling when the sun starts to set, and it is even possible to trick them into calling by making croaking sounds myself! A careful search will usually turn one up.

Over at the Water Garden, the baby toadpoles are growing quickly. Most have hind legs. As in years past, the toadpoles quickly figure out that they can join in when I feed the Sarassas in the evening. This year, even the snails come out when it is fish-feeding hour. If I am very careful, I can hand feed them!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get a picture of the large bullfrog who lives under the bench facing Fort Tort. I hear him rustling around in the evening and have even seen him twice, but he is very wary. He likes to take a dip in the small free-standing water garden next to the big Confederate Jasmine. Maybe I’ll catch him “on film” some day. Finally, here’s a picture of the D.D. Blanchard Magnolia with a bloom at the very top. Remember, you can click on any image to make it larger!

Box Turtle Rescue: Amie!

May 23, 2010

I picked up a little female Florida boxie yesterday from a friend who works on a road construction project down in Polk County. Some workers were carrying her around in a shovel because they thought she was a snapping turtle. Amie has an upper respiratory infection among other problems. She has severe shell damage to at least the keratin layer of her carapace, as well as a big bite out of her plastron near her left hind leg. Some animal, perhaps a coyote or raccoon, tried very hard to eat Amie! It seems that this damage was not very recent, though. She uses the leg most of the time, but sometimes just keeps it tucked in. I plan to take Amie in to see Dr. Pat on Tuesday- we’ll see what his assessment of her health is! Her weight feels decent- not too light. The good news is she has already eaten a couple superworms for me.

Down For The Count

May 8, 2010

Mating is over and the three hopefully-gravid mommy snakes have all gone blue in preparation for egg-laying. In three weeks or less I will know who is gravid, who is not, who will lay fertile eggs and how many. Cherry, the Milksnake-Phase Miami, was the first to go blue. (For any new snake people, “going blue” is the colloquial term for ecdysis, the process of moulting the old skin. A layer of fluid forms between the old skin and the new, causing the snake to take on an opaque milky or blue appearance, especially on the belly scales and the eyes). Cherry and El Wray only mated three times before she went blue, but that should be plenty, as long as I caught her with enough time for the eggs to be fertilized. I removed Cherry’s big water bowl and replaced it with a smaller bowl. This is done to discourage egg-laying in the water bowl, which will drown the eggs. I also removed one of her hides and replaced it with a lay box filled with moist sphagnum moss. I don’t expect her to lay until seven days or so after her pre-lay shed, but snakes don’t always follow the rules, so I wanted to be prepared with an inviting place to lay the eggs in case she decided to lay early. The next snake to go blue was Lily, Lavender Bloodred, who is apparently very heavily gravid. Lily is snuggled down under her favorite piece of cork bark, awaiting her pre-lay shed. Both Cherry and Lily were blue on the last feeding day, and so were not fed. They won’t be offered a meal until after they lay, because the digestive process will interfere with the last stages before egg-laying. After laying the girls will be offered small meals, but will soon go blue again with only time for a meal or two before entering the post-lay shed period. On feeding day, Buzztail, Bloodred, looked rather dark in color. I offered her a mouse anyway, which she ate greedily. Still, she wasn’t her usual ravenous self, and I suspected she would be blue within days, and she is. Buzztail has burrowed deep into her fluffy aspen bedding to prepare for her pre-lay shed. So now we wait. Nervously. Impatiently. Apprehensively! I’ve been using this time to check and double check the incubator temps. I am aiming for a temp around 80F. The incubator both heats and cools, which is important here where my house temp could reach the mid-80s. (Fortunately, the new AC unit has been keeping the house at the temp I set, even on days where the outside temp gets up into the 90s, which is a huge relief to me!) I’ve installed thermometers of two different makes inside the incubator, which are reading the same. One even transmits the incubator temp and humidity to a small “weather station” I keep on my nightstand! Soon I will prepare the egg containers, filling them with a layer of HatchRite. The incubator is small, and I will be able to get three containers into it, but no more. However, with the temperature inside the house finally under control and steady, coincidentally at the perfect egg incubating temperature, if I need to incubate a clutch in room air I am sure it will be fine. And that’s the news from here!

May Day At Fort Tort!

May 1, 2010

The word of the day is amphiplexus! Last night a monstrous storm came through the area. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado warning for much of the evening, and even when the warnings expired, the severe weather continued till midnight. I packed up Dillbird and Isabel for evacuation, put the iPhone in a waterproof bag, and prepared to bolt to the safety of Fort Tort if it seemed necessary.

Luckily, the most severe weather split and passed through to the north and south of my house. At one point, the radio died, and I could hear toads singing. I ventured outside, and ended up wading through a river of flooded fire ants. Ow.

This morning everything was green and wet and humid! Koko and Buttercup, having found shelter from the storm for the night, were out grazing before the day got too hot. As a special treat, I picked a strawberry and a couple mulberry leaves for the torts. The pick-your-own strawberry garden in Terra Pen is producing a good handful of sweet red berries daily. Here’s a photo of Koko enjoying a bite of berry, and Butters with her beloved mulberry leaves.

As I was walking around my beautiful “outdoor room,” I stopped to check the Water Garden. There’s a toad! It looks strange…Wait- AMPHIPLEXUS! “A sexual embrace, a grasping reflex, the mating ritual of toads.” I’ve seen pictures of the act, but never witnessed it in person! They must have started in the night and continued mating into the morning. This, exactly, is why I allow the unkempt mat of grassy greenery to take over a good portion of the Water Garden- to provide an appealing haven for mating amphibians and shelter for the tadpoles and toadpoles. The toads remained locked together, seemingly undisturbed by my presence. I had time to run in and get the camera. Not wanting to disturb them, I limited myself to a couple quick photos. When I returned later, they had moved slightly, leaving a trail of hundreds of toad eggs. Toad eggs are easy to distinguish from other amphibian eggs because they are laid in a string of tiny black pearls, not in a mass.

The spring flowering trees at Fort Tort have finished blooming, giving way to vines, roses and perennials. I enlisted Isabel as a model and set out to photograph the Wisteria, the Black Magic Rose and an unusual Gerber Daisy. Although the immense Wisteria up by the house has yet to bloom, this little Wisteria covering the west half of the arbor at Fort Tort has been a faithful bloomer since the day I planted it. Wisteria is toxic, so cannot be planted inside the enclosure, but it provides a shady cover for the little bench facing the Fort. There are three big rose bushes around the deck, and I would like to plant more. Although I’ve grown roses for cutting in a greenhouse, these are the first I’ve grown in a garden, and I really enjoy them. The Black Magic Rose is the youngest of the three.

I love growing Gerber Daisys , especially those of the bright red variety. I’ve planted many around the Water Garden patio over the years, but have never seen one with a double bloom like this. I can’t wait to see how it develops!

The cushions for the glider up on the deck overlooking Terra Pen have not weathered well, and were replaced this spring. This glider makes a perfect place for an afternoon nap, complete with a patio umbrella for shade, a warm breeze and plenty of wasps! Fortunately, the wasps are of the non-confrontational persuasion, so far. Here’s Isabel, relaxing on a pillow in the shade.

Speaking of naps, I’m a little tired from my midnight storm watch, so I am ready to hit the glider and doze off! I leave you with one more photo of the blissful, prolific toads of lengthy amphiplexic stamina! Go toads! I am looking forward to many, many toadpoles soon!! (Don’t forget, you may click each photo if you would like a larger view).