Eva enjoyed running on the beach.
Eva on Tybee Beach
Tag Archives: Georgia
Amos on Tybee Beach
Amos enjoyed digging in the sand.
Visit to Tybee
Warning: don’t take dogs to Tybee Beach… you’ll be fined.
Corn snake (1) has passed
Today, 1 died around the age of 24. He had refused to eat for several months, and may have developed digestive problems. I had inherited two corn snakes a few years ago from a professor at Kent, De Szalay, who had reared them from eggs during his masters work.
1 is survived by his brother, 2, and his adopted family, including four turtles and two dogs.
Eastern Cicada Killer
Amos and I discovered an Eastern Cicada Killer (Sphecius speciosus) female attempting to carry away her prey this weekend outside of my apartment in Savannah, GA. Cicada Killers are solitary wasp parasitoids that sting prey, paralyzing it, and drag it to pre-made burrows, where they will lay an egg on the incapacitated prey item for their larvae’s consumption. This seems absolutely terrifying, especially given that this wasp is a couple of inches long…
The wasp seemed to have taken a cicada that was a bit too large for it; it was struggling to carry it off, and eventually left the paralyzed cicada, possibly because of the dual harassment from my photographing and Amos’s barking.
Amos at the Savannah NWR
Amos explores the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.
Purple Gallinules
I don’t have a zoom lens any longer, given that I sold it to buy a nice macrolens… That said, there is an American Purple Gallinule in the center of the frame below. I encountered adults, dule-colored juveniles, and chicks, which were entirely black. Once again, these were taken at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck at Savannah NWR
Dendrocygna autumnalis and chicks at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge just passed the Georgia-South Carolina border.
Dead milk snake
At first glance, I fearfully began to yank Amos away from the snake that he found and sniffed curiously. Upon further inspection, I discovered that (1) it was dead, and (2) it was a harmless juvenile milk snake. I wonder if anyone has trained dogs to track herps for fieldwork…
Bushy seaside tansy
Sea oxeye – Borrichia frutescens
