Skinks Alive!

  It's amazing what you can come across in nature, and in most cases, the best things are found by accident.


This female lizard with her eggs was discovered by my parents under an old board on their property. We gently raised the board to take a peak.

I'm not a 100% sure of the identification of this lizard, but I am sure that it's either the common five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) or the Southeastern five-lined skink (Eumeces inexpectatus). It's difficult to discriminate between these two species on the basis of physical appearance.

Regardless of the id, skink are very common in our region. They are often seen close to ground level around house foundations or spotted scooting across the deck or sidewalk. I even had one in my house a few years ago. Needless to say, the Misses wasn't happy.



Even after they hatch the female stays close to her young. Look closely and you can see her half buried in the dirt below.


Juveniles are similar to adults but have a bright blue tail, which serves to attract predators' attention away from the body. The tail breaks off when the skink is attacked, and it continues to wriggle for some time to distract the predator further.

Skinks feed mainly on invertebrates, including beetles, grasshoppers, wood roaches, caterpillars, spiders, and centipedes.

I've seen skinks probably a thousand times in my life but watching the female protect her eggs is a first for me. It kind of puts a whole new prospective on how I view these lizards now. Even some of the smallest creatures we often take for granted serve an important role in nature.

Be sure to check out  Camera Critters website over at http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/ for more photos of fabulous critters.

Summer Storms - Skywatch Friday

 What's summer without afternoon thunderstorms? You know, the ones that made you nervous as a kid (as it does my 6 year old daughter). Now I look forward to the tranquility that they bring, not to mention the heat relief and rain, especially now that's its so hot and dry in our area this summer.

We had one such storm this week that resulted in some beautiful skies...

God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. (Genesis 1:8, NIV)

Be sure to visit the Skywatch Friday home page for more great photos.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Give Grapes a Try

  Growing fruit in the home garden is more popular now than it’s been in years. More and more people are discovering the fun, savings and great taste from growing their own fruits. I grew up in a family that always had fresh fruit and vegetables available in the summer. One of the fruits I fondly remember was grapes. I remember my grandmother picking grapes and making fresh grape jam. It tasted best served on her homemade country biscuits. It was the greatest!

Maybe its me, but with all the fruit tree and home gardening craze going on you just don't here that much about grapes. Not only are they good to eat, grapes provide a beautiful ornamental look and are valuable as shade or screen plants around your home when trained to grow on a trellis or arbor. And growing them is not hard. All you need is a little space, plenty of sunshine and decent, well drained soil.

Here is an arbor that I built about three years ago located in the corner of my backyard.

Eventually the vine will spread across the top of the arbor and completely shade the area underneath. At that point, I'll probably add a garden bench underneath.

There are many choices when it comes to growing grapes - green, purple, red, black. Some have seeds, and some don't. When choosing a grape cultivar, your best source of advice is a reputable nursery to help pick out a good one for your area as well as a variety suitable for your intended use.

I grow scuppernong grapes (not sure of the cultivar). Scuppernong is a large variety of the muscadine grape family (Vitis rotundifolia), a species of grape native to the southeastern United States, and thus well adapted to the warm, humid conditions of the region.

These will turn to a coppery-bronze color when ripe.

 

Grapes are best planted in early spring or fall. Regular applications of a balanced fertilizer during the growing season will benefit them. Pruning grapes can be tricky. When it comes to pruning I personally don't follow the suggested methods. Pruning is important if growing grapes for commercial use, but in the home garden less so. I do some light pruning in early spring (just before the leaves appear) to thin out the vines. Also, keep an eye out for any dead or damaged limbs throughout the summer and remove them as necessary. A lot of information is out there on the subject if interested in learning more about pruning grape vines.

Birds enjoy grapes too, and not just for eating. Look closely and you can see a young chipping sparrow sitting in its nest located deep within the grape vine.

So go ahead and give grapes a try - they're good, healthy and can make for an attractive setting in your yard.

More info on grapes...

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8203.html

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/pdf/1429.pdf

http://www.isons.com/muscadine_grape.htm

Cool & Useful Garden Links

 Like most blogger's, I enjoy reading other blogs when time permits, and its probably no surprise that I tend to favor nature and garden related content. However, I must admit that I also enjoy reading a few other blogs that may not fit that criteria. One such blog I enjoy visiting daily is Lifehacker. Lifehacker is made up of a team of bloggers that post several times a day covering tips and tricks for streamlining your life. A lot of the content is technology and web 2.0 related but don't let that stop you from checking them out - you just might learn something.

Recently they've featured some really cool garden related post and sites that I thought would be worthy of sharing with you.

The first site is called SproutRobot! SproutRobot will build a custom planting schedule based on your zip code so you always know what to plant and when. It's free to sign up but they also offer paid services that offer extra benefits. Click here to access and read Lifehacker's post with more info about SproutRobot!

Next is a web tool called Garden Pest Detective. This site helps you hunt down garden pest. Pick the vegetable, select the kind of damage you're seeing, and the Pest Detective highlights what could be causing it, from plant pests to diseases. Click here to access Lifehacker's post to learn more about this.

And related to this same subject, check out Lifehacker's post titled How to Keep Your Yard and Garden Pest-Free Without Harsh Chemicals. This post discusses garden pest from slugs to deer. Within this post check out how you can repel garden pests with coffee.

Lastly, check out their recent post about cloning herbs from cuttings to expand and extend your garden season.

 

 

I hope you can find at least one of these links useful this season in your garden.

Hummingbird Hitches a Ride - Another Local Bird Tale

 Another bird story surfaced in this weeks local paper and its got me convinced that the birds in my city have gone a little "cuckoo" (no pun intended...ha ha).
First was the escaped emu that was roaming the city, now a story just came out about a hummingbird moving to the country. And when I say moving, it's probably not moving in the way you think.

It's hard not to get excited about seeing a hummingbird. I see them in my garden all the time and I stop each and every time to watch them zip around my flowers. Their curious nature often makes it possible to get very close to them from time to time. But what recently happened to a local woman takes it to a whole new level.
Below is a brief story as to what happened, but you will have to read the article to appreciate the whole story.
A lady was visiting her mother across town, and for whatever reason a hummingbird took a liking to her. The hummingbird actually landed on the woman's head and at one point licked her face. The hummingbird later entered into the woman's truck when she was ready to drive off.
She named the hummingbird Jake and it traveled with her while she ran errands around town. The hummingbird actually waited outside for the woman while she attended her doctors appointment. The bird ended up going home with her.
Check out the article if you get a chance. It's a must read!
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/jun/28/city-bird-moves-country/

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Bee Good to Pollinators

 In case you missed it, this week (June 21st-22nd) was National Pollinator Week. Three years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of the final week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has grown to be an international celebration of the valuable services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and other insects.

One of the leading organizations for this cause, and a great resource for all things pollinator related is pollinator.org. Their mission is to protect pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. Signature initiatives include the NAPPC (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign), National Pollinator Week, and the regional Planting Guides. Be sure to check out the regional planting guides on their website. Once there, input your zip code and it will give you an informational guide (.pdf) for selecting plants in your area for pollinators along with other useful information about the pollinators in your area. Here is the regional guide for my area: http://www.pollinator.org/OuterCoastal.rx5.pdf

In addition to planting a variety of pollinator favorites, you can also provide housing for our native pollinators like the orchard mason bee and the leafcutter bee. Here's a photo of my mason bee house.


Mason bees nests in natural holes, creating individual cells for their brood that are separated by mud dividers. Unlike carpenter bees, they cannot drill there own holes in wood. They will often use holes created by carpenter bees or any other small hole or crevice found in nature. They are great pollinators to have around for your garden, and you can help attract them by purchasing or making one of these houses for them.
I put my house up a little late this spring so I haven't had any mason bees in it but it has attracted a few leafcutter bees. Like Mason Bees and just as fascinating, leafcutters have a similar nesting style and will nest in the same wooden bee houses except, as their name suggests, they line their cells with small pieces of leaves instead of mud. Here's a close-up comparison:

Mud sealing - a Mason Bee hole

leaf sealing - a leafcutter Bee hole

Leaf cutter bees are also great pollinators to have around.

Check out these links for more information on our native bees, as well as attracting and constructing housing for them:

Information about solitary bees and attracting them: http://wingsinflight.com/gardbees.html

Managing and instructions on building a mason bee house: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Other/note109/note109.html

http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Outdoor-Activities/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bee-House.aspx

Great site about native bee conservation: http://www.ournativebees.com/home.html

Also, check out the pollinator page over at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/

Big Bird on the Loose

 As most of you know, I’m all about attracting wildlife, especially birds, to my yard. It’s always exciting to catch sight of a bird at the feeder that I haven’t seen before. But the bird I saw last week wasn’t one I expected, or better yet, didn’t even think was possible.
I was cutting grass on my riding mower one afternoon last week when something caught my attention. I looked over to my left and what was there didn’t seem real - oh, but it was! It was Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae). The closest I had ever been to one of these Australian birds was at the VA Zoo, which is at least 30 plus miles away.

Emus are large flightless birds that reach up to 6-1/2 feet tall. They are native to Australia and are one of the largest birds in the world, second only to the ostrich. Emus forage on a variety of plants, seeds and insects and are capable of traveling long distances in search of food (not good news for the owner still looking for this big bird). In recent years Emu farms, both abroad and here in the U.S. have become very popular. They are farmed primarily for their meat, and sometimes for leather and oil. They are also popular animals to see in petting zoos and hobby farms.
For just a split second, the Emu was coming straight towards me at a hasty trot before veering off to one side. I think the running mower probably startled it a little. I turned the mower off and just stared at it in disbelief for a moment. I knew this wasn’t normal, but I wasn’t aware of an emu farm nearby and wasn’t sure who to call. I continued to watch as the Emu slowed to a casual walk and proceeded across my front yard. At that moment I realized I should document this or possibly be considered crazy for telling everyone what I just witnessed, especially since my wife and daughter were not home at the moment of encounter. As a matter of fact, none of my neighbors where outside to witness this. I was definitely all alone on this one. At that moment I jumped off the mower and went inside to grab my camera. I came back out and was able to snap off a few photos before the emu disappeared down the street.

My feeling went from disbelief to comical later on when viewing the photos with my family. I’ve attracted many birds to my yard using bird feeders and nest boxes, but without saying, this was definitely the oddest bird I have ever had in my yard.

A few days later my mother-in-law emailed me an article from the local paper that helped to put the puzzle pieces together. It seems as if several emus escaped from an animal farm in a neighboring city and have been showing up in odd places, one of them being a local golf course. Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/jun/16/trail-emu/
Just this past weekend another article surfaced in the same news paper. Seems as if one is still on the loose:
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/jun/19/emu-loose/
And just this evening the story made it on our local TV news - hey, this is big news for a small city like Suffolk.


UPDATE: The last emu was captured on Tuesday (6/22) and moved to the VA Zoo. Here's a link to the local article: http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/jun/22/emu-captured-moved-zoo/


Be sure to check out other birds this week over at Birdfreak's Bird Photographer Weekly #96