We are currently tracking five Box turtles via radio transmitters (see the transmitter in the picture?). They have been in partial-hibernation collectively since late November to early December, and since I started working in late December, I have had little trouble finding them. During hibernation, they can burrow up to 2 feet deep and can stay in hibernation for 3-4 months!  They are in partial-hibernation because the warmth of North Carolina’s lovely weather keeps some of them from completely shutting down all winter. Although, in most northern states Box turtles will completely hibernate all winter long.

One way we can pass the time as we wait for them to finish hibernating, is by having a contest!  Our contest is simple.  What date do you think the turtle named “CHO” will come out of hibernation?  To participate, send an email to turtle@peiedmontwildlifecenter.org with your name and the date YOU think she will emerge. The winner will get a reptile and amphibians field guide! In case of a tie, we will have a drawing to determine the winner. Hurry and send in your guess to get a chance to win!

Want another way to become involved in our turtle project?
If you see a box turtle anywhere – on the road, in your yard, at a school – you can become a scientist and record data about the turtle and take pictures.   Our citizen-science box turtle project can be found HERE.

Thanks!

Entries must be received by Feb. 21st.  The staff will vote on her name and the winner will be announced by the end of February via the blog!

Here is some info about our Kingsnake:

Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula getula) – The Kingsnake was donated to us in 2011.  She was previously being used as an educational animal, but was no longer needed by her owner.  The kingsnake’s owner donated her to Piedmont Wildlife Center and she has been a great addition after a little bit of socialization!

Kingsnakes are resistant to venom and they will even eat venomous snakes that are found in your yard, such as copperheads, cottonmouths and rattlesnakes!

Kingsnakes also frequently rattle their tails to mimic rattlesnakes.  This is one way they can defend themselves from unwelcome predators!

Piedmont Wildlife Center held a series of multiple tracking intensives, which culminated in a class titled, “How? The Art of Empathy.”  We used the tools we learned in our previous tracking classes in order to, as the name suggests, understand how an animal was feeling in order to obtain a complete picture and better track the animal.

At one point, we were empathizing with what it meant to be a prey animal, to understand their behavior.  Humans are not only predators but also tend to be cushioned from the demands nature places on other animals, so it can be difficult for us to really understand the choices animals make in response to their environment.

As vulnerable as prey animals are, they cannot constantly creep through the forest to avoid predation; it requires too much energy.  They must alternate periods of caution with moments of relaxation and deliberate when to be on guard.   Such a change can mean the difference between life and death.  Moreover, how can you convey the importance of these decisions to 8 adult humans traipsing through the woods on a Saturday morning?

We had reached our destination: the beginnings of a chain-link fence.  On the other side were a strip of trees that were thick at first and then thinned out.  Beyond that, I could hear the rush of cars on the interstate below us.  The instructor explained our exercise.  We had to pretend to be one of the individuals the Nazis targeted and avoid detection.  We were to sneak through the woods, then travel close to the treeline but within sight of the cars on the highway below us while avoiding detection.

During World War II, people had to avoid capture all the time.  They would crawl along roadsides and hide in ditches in highly trafficked areas, much as prey animals do in the woods.   “You didn’t know if the people you could meet on the roads were friend or foe,” the instructor said.  “They could be an informant or a Nazi.”

My heart started racing.  If anything could convey to me the gravity of choosing how to sneak through the landscape, it was empathizing with those seeking escape from the Nazis.  It was also a very real threat in the sense that it showed how human beings could fall prey to an ultimate predator.

At first, I took extra precautions not to make a sound, to stay low and move quickly.  Within a few minutes, I felt a strain in my abdomen.  If this were a real scenario, I would not be able to keep this up for hours and days on end.  I also mused that my yellow fireman-esque pants would command attention even through the trees and thought about how animals camouflage themselves.  I learned that, in the cover of the woods, one could walk upright, in a more natural, relaxed posture need not move as silently or keep a low profile.   I had to conserve energy and save it for the more exposed areas.

We finally reached an exposed part of a hill that sloped down to the highway.  Hugging the treeline, one person used his elbows to bellycrawl towards the end of our route.  Eventually, it was my turn.  I used my elbows to push myself forward and slithered on my belly.  What had seemed a short distance from the safety of the woods had stretched out.  Some of the people in front of me began to crawl.  I propped myself ever-so-slightly with my arms and within a matter of seconds— HONK! HOOOOooonnkkk!  A trucker had spotted me.  I had been caught.

The WWII scenario put me in the shoes- or perhaps paws would be a better word- of a prey animal.  My brief experience with their struggles and the mistakes I made would help me with my tracking.  And next time, I won’t be wearing bright yellow pants.

Moments like these teach us about the potential danger of teaching the birds to unlearn  their training.  We spend so many mornings, afternoons, and evenings training the owls about how to approach a gloved a human hand, i.e. to step onto the perch we provide as we literally sweep them off their feet.  The owls learn to feel safe at our approach.

Today was different.  Lily was on her perch in a barred owl box, which we use for transportation, but things were not calm as usual.  I could tell by Sara’s stance when she approached the box.  She opened the door, stuck her arm in, and grabbed Lily boldly by the legs.   It almost reminded me of something out of Looney Tunes.   When you’re administering a dose of much-needed medicine, you have to commit.  The goal was to minimize Lily from thrashing around and harming herself.  In cases like this, safety trumps the risk of undoing our careful training.

You also learn about the value of single-minded determination and preparedness.  While Sara held Lily by the legs and cradled the owl’s head with her other hand, I had an open bottle of eye drops and an open tube of antibiotic ointment ready.  I pried open Lily’s injured eyelid and added a few drops and let them be absorbed.  I then swapped out the drops for the ointment and applied a swath of it to her eye, which I had reopened.  Short,  sweet, and less than a minute.  It was painless, too, but one could not tell from Lily’s face.  Her eyes were closed like a long-suffering martyr, but she was better than new.  Before I knew it, the door to the owl cage was open and Lily summarily put back into her tiny chariot, ready to be carted back to her more spacious cage, a healthier version of herself.

-Margaux Escutin

To try and fix my bad luck and increase my chances of finding some sort of a reptile or amphibian I added another piece of plywood to the experiment.  I decided to prop a large piece of plywood up against one of the wood piles next to the Carriage House.  I let it sit for a couple of days before checking it for signs of life.  And sure enough, situated up next to the plywood was a big Fowler’s Toad.  “She” didn’t seem to care that I had just found her hiding place.  “She” just stayed put hoping that her camouflage would do the trick.  I gently grabbed her, brought her down to the cabin for identification, and took back to her hiding place.  Before I rested the plywood back on the wood pile, I snapped a picture or two.  The next time I checked the plywood the Fowler’s toad was still there.  But after checking that location today the toad was gone and there were no new creatures hanging out.  Just a side not she is in quotations because I made a guess at the toad gender based on its size.

I am hoping with an increased number of plywood pieces being used that my findings will increase as well.  There could also be some movement or addition of plywood pieces to the experiment to help increase my chances of finding something new and interesting.  I will keeping doing updates as things progress further.   

You may be thinking, “What exactly is herping?”  Well herping is the act of going out to the wild and looking for reptiles and amphibians.  This also includes road cruising, which is drive on the road (usually at night) to find reptiles and amphibians.  You can go to many different places including parks and even your own backyard.

“What do you need?”  The checklist for each herper varies from person to person.  So I will just list what I usually bring with me when I go herping.  First thing to consider is clothing.  The type of clothing I wear really depends on where I am doing my herping.  Most of the places I go usually aren’t full of briar patches so I go with khaki shorts.  When I am at a location full of briars, long pants like jeans work the best.  When it comes to footwear I usually go with some boots, but you can also wear some tennis shoes you don’t mind getting dirty or wet.  I always make sure that I have either a camera or my cell phone (that has a camera) with me in order to take pictures of anything I happen to come across.  I will always bring a field guide with me.  It comes in handy when you come across a species that you can’t identify.  That way you can figure out, on the spot, what species you’ve found.  I also bring with me a notebook, so that I can keep track of all the different species I’ve found on my trips.  The last thing I bring with me is my trusty snake hook.  It’s a handy tool to have when it comes to flipping rocks or handling snakes.

Some words of advice:  First and foremost have fun and enjoy yourself.  Make sure that you don’t handle anything that you don’t have the training to deal with or don’t know the species.  There are a number of species that are potentially dangerous to humans.  Handling the wrong animal could cause serious harm or even be lethal, so BE CAREFUL.

So I decide to try it out here in the park.  To start I grabbed two pieces of plywood and set them out in the park where I’ve seen either snakes, lizards, or frogs in the past.  I chose two pieces in varying size and shape to see if that had any effect on the outcome.  The first piece is square shaped and around 2 feet in length.  It is located behind the Piedmont Wildlife Center cabin, where several frogs and a Red Bellied Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster) have been spotted.  The second is a long rectangular piece about 6 feet in length.  It is located about 20 feet off one of the trails in the park, where a Black Ratsnake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta) as well as signs of prey have been spotted.  I continue to check the plywood every Tuesday and Thursday and see if anything is underneath the plywood.  If there is I make a note of it along with the temperature, weather, and time of day.  Then I log all the data into an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the data.

So far I have checked each piece of plywood a total of seven times.  All that has been found so far is some wood lice and a wolf spider.  But I am keeping my spirits up and keeping my fingers crossed that in the very near future I find something slithering or hopping underneath it.

Almost two weeks ago, I came across my first new find.  I went by this small pool of water I usually check, expecting to find a frog or two.  But there was something slithering on the bank that caught my eye.  It had the typical watersnake look, the rounded head, large round pupils, striped pattern, and brown coloration.  But what caught my eye was the color of this snake’s belly, it was red.  That’s when I realized I was looking at a snake I’ve never found before, a juvenile Red Bellied Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster), probably around a year old.  That same day I had more luck in adding to my list.  After trampling through a forest of thorns, I stopped to check the damages.  There it was right there in front of me.  At first I didn’t even notice it until the snake caught site of me and start to move on.  It was an adult Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus).  These snakes will actually sway as they move, similar to the way Chameleons move, to mimic a branch swaying in the wind.  The next day I was interning, I was flipping log and found a tiny Worm Snake (Carphophis amoenus).  Today, on my way back from tracking turtles I found a Black Ratsnake eating a large prey item.  I snapped a few pictures and took some video and let it go about finishing its meal.  I am just amazed at all the new things I’ve seen in only a few weeks.

The Eastern King snake (Lampropeltis getula getula) are found in a range that spans north-to-south from southern New Jersey to northern Florida. L. getula getula also is found east-to-west from West Virginia to extreme western North Carolina and south Alabama.  The Eastern King snake tends to dwell in dry, rocky wooded hillsides, srteambanks, and the borders of swamps.  These secretive animals grow to be 90 to 122 centimeters in length.

Eastern King snake coloration ranges from chocolate brown to jet black with light yellow or white horizontal chain-like patterns.  They have 21 scale rows. Eastern King snakes often feed on rodents, birds, lizards and eggs.  Eastern King snakes often consume other snakes, including venemous snakes in their range, which sets them apart from other snake species.

The Eastern king snake is most active during the early morning and near dusk but will become nocturnal in the summer months.  They mate from mid-March to June and lay clutches of 3 to 24 creamy white to yellowish elongated eggs mid-May to August.  These snakes are primarily terrestrial but will occasionally climb bushes and other low-lying plants.  They can live for about 20 years.

Works Cited

Behler, John L., and F. Wayne. King. “Common Kingsnake.” National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. New York: Knopf, 1996. 618-19. Print.

Conant, Roger, and Joseph T. Collins. “Eastern Kingsnake.” Peterson Field Guides: Reptiles and Amphibians: Eastern and Central North America. Third ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. 205. Print.

Margaux Escutin

I suppose the only authentic way to sum up this summer’s experiences is to tell it from my point of view.  What I saw from the window of my office was a lot of hard work on the part of our staff and volunteers.  Who knew that preparation for summer camp started in November?  Or that the registrations from parents would start rolling in while I was still slipping over ice to get to work?

In the office, we all slaved over computer screens, organizing the camps, processing the registrations, scrambling to hire counselors.  But we were far from the only ones busting our humps to make sure that this summer was the best PWC had ever seen.

Our maintenance volunteers, Dave Schell and Pete Hoffman, were an ever-present dynamic duo, making new boardwalks through the swampy wetlands of the outer loop, repairing old stretches of trail and blazing new ones.  They created an entirely new log circle in the woods, in the shade of a beautiful ancient oak tree.  That Council Oak circle served as the main gathering place for camp this whole summer, and it wouldn’t have existed without their efforts.

We lost Pete this year due to a tragic accident which ultimately claimed his life, but I like to think that his efforts have left an indelible mark here, not just in the signs he has left behind in the park, but in the impact he has made on the lives of the young people who attend our camps.

The Council Oak Circle and I weren’t the only new things at camp this year.  We hired four new counselors and introduced five brand new camps.

It was a bit of a stressful time in the office, hiring new people for new camps, not knowing if the camps or the counselors would even work out, but this year’s counselors have been nothing short of amazing.  Charles Helms has shown up every morning to camp at 7:30, even when the previous day’s heat index hit 110.  This year, my alarm has been set for 7:30, and even then I have a hard time getting out of bed.  Charles, on the other hand, has always been energetic and vibrant, with a smile on his face, and a genuine enthusiasm for sharing nature with young people.

Charles putting on his make-up

As great as our new counselors have been, our new camps have matched them.  We were worried, prior to the start of the summer, about whether or not anyone would be interested in our five new camps – Way of the Cougar, Deep Forest, Wild Worlds, Artemis Camp, and Ancient Ways.  The response from our camp community couldn’t have been clearer.  All of our new camps were filled to capacity, and they have brought us some of our nicest compliments of the whole summer.  (Plus it was fun to see Charles show up three weeks running completely covered in mud).

Our new camps have introduced primitive skills to young people in a way that is fun and exciting and feels like an adventure.  It’s been an adventure for me too, tracking down the supplies we’ve needed for these camps.  I can honestly say that I’d never had a shopping list with the words “artificial sinew” written on it prior to this summer.  Now, I know that it can be found on aisle three of the local AC Moore, bottom shelf, near the far wall.

Keeping our camps in supplies have definitely posed a challenge for me, but it’s been a thrill to see the results of all of that behind-the-scenes work.  The Artemis Camp girls produced some beautiful dream catchers with the sinew and beads I scrounged up for them, and they’re far from the only ones to come away from camp with amazing primitive crafts.  I’ve seen baskets woven with a special god’s eye technique that produces an intricate square on either end of the handle.  I’ve seen pottery made with real terra cotta.  Some of the campers have even managed to make flint and obsidian tools that they knapped themselves.

Throughout it all, I’ve been amazed at the energy of our camp counselors, matched only by the energy of our campers.  Time and again, when it was over a hundred degrees, with a heat index that would cook an egg on concrete, our campers have clamored for an authentic deep woods experience, and our counselors have never failed to deliver.  With all-day hikes on Thursdays, and even teen overnights, the campers have had the opportunity to really be mentored about nature whilst out in nature, and I think that is one of the strong suits of PWC’s summer camps.

Sometimes, all of that time spent in the woods and the heat has necessitated a few minutes playing in the hose behind the Leigh Farm House.  I know that Alia Riley, one of our new CITs, can attest to my expert aim with that hose.  And when the hose wasn’t enough, there were ice cream sandwiches and ice pops to be had at the cabin, as well as a weekly treat of watermelon on Fridays after closing circle.

The community closing circles on Fridays after camp have been wonderful.  It’s been great to see so many parents take time off work to share their kids’ excitement at the Council Oak.  As a staff, we’ve been excited to build a stronger sense of community with parents as well as campers, and we hope we’ve created a lasting relationship that will last for many summers to come.

Now, with the summer drawing to a close, there’s still not a lot of time to pause and reflect.  In the office, we’re busy prepping all of our Fall and Winter intersession camps as well as our adult programs.  I’m sure they will bring with them a new series of challenges and adventures in creative shopping lists.