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.

Top 10 Local Hazards

10. Urushiol- the active ingredient in poison ivy

Plants that contain it

• Poison Ivy tends to be “hairy,” red or orange buds, leaf scars resemble a toothless monkey smile, hair-like projections from vine tend to grow on all sides, whereas lookalikes tend to grow only on right and left sides; HOWEVER, poison ivy leaves can adapt to look like surrounding leaves

Poison ivy leaves tend to be alternate and compound, but can change its morphology.  Sometimes there is a red dot at the base of the leaves, but there tends to be a long stem in the middle leaflet of its compound leaf

• Poison oak never looks like a vine. It always looks like a shrub with oak-like leaves.

• Poison sumac favors wet places and had a compound leaf with white berries. (White berries tend to be poisonous.)

If exposed, take a cold shower, change your clothes and wash them.

Herbal remedies:

• Jewel weed/ touch-me-not: (Under water, it looks like sterling silver.) Crush it up like aloe and rub it on like a sponge.  To prevent and treat it,  you can eat jewel weed by gathering it up when it is below six inches, and boil it 2 times in a change of water.

• Yucca- soothes and dries

9. Poisonous plants

MUST KNOW 2 FATAL PLANTS IN ALL STAGES

• Poison hemlock- causes more humane, gentler death European in origin

• Water hemlock- causes but is not limited to cramps, convulsions, severe urination, bleeding out of all orifices, and painful death, native species

In parsley family, so can be confused with edible plants, such as carrots, turnips, wild parsley, sweet cicely, Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot), and wild parsnip.

Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot)- upside-down umbel, purple flower, hairy stem, leaf, smells like carrot

8. Poisonous mushrooms

Ammonitas are responsible for 90% of mushroom-related fatalities.

They cause liver damage, and the remedy- milk thistle- is neither reliable nor widely available.

Common ammonitas include death caps or death angels, which can be configured in a fairy ring 60 feet in diameter.

Ammonitas can look like puffballs, but they have the remnants of a stalk.  They also can have warts on top of the cap and a skirt, but those can wash off.  To determine if a mushroom is an ammonita or a puffball, cut the mushroom open.  If the inside has a smooth white surface, it is a puffball.  If the inside shows signs of a stalk, it is an ammonita.

Poisonous mushrooms outside the ammonita family exist, but they are more likely to make you sick than to kill you.

7. Venomous snakes

Local Venemous Snakes: 4 are pit vipers and one is not

• Coral Snake- small snake with a small mouth, non-aggressive, tend not to strike, tends to bite digits, very unlikely to get bitten, can remember the coloration of coral snakes with the following saying: Red on black, poison lack.  Red on yellow, kill a fellow.

Pit Vipers

• Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin- their bite can cause a body part to be amputated

Most dangerous of local poisonous snakes

Baby snakes are more dangerous than adults because will not ration out their venom

If cottonmouth swims, its head will be above the water.

Aggressive and will stand its ground

Can look black as adults

• Copperhead- babies have bright yellow tails

• Timber Rattlesnake/ Cane Break Rattlesnake

• Pygmy Rattlesnake

In N.C., there are no deadly black snakes.

Ways to ID poisonous snakes

Poisonous snakes have barrel-like markings after the anal scale, whereas non-poisonous snakes have the barrel-like bands separated.

Pit Viper Characteristics

• diamond-shaped head; however, non-venomous snakes can make their heads appear diamond-shaped

• elliptical pupils; however, pit viper pupils can look round in the dark

• a rough hourglass-like pattern on their skin

• hypodermic fangs

Behavior

• Snakes tend to run, then dry bite.  Since they use venom to capture prey, they rarely inject venom in order to be efficient.

• If a snake is not poisonous, it is a constrictor, which means it uses its muscles to squeeze its prey.

Treatment

• Pit Viper: elevate area, get to hospital ASAP, do not move them

• Coral: respiratory issues, use a tourniquet at minimize exertion

6. Venomous spiders

They can crawl into your home, which gives them the number 6 spot.

• Black widow- deadliest venom, more so than snakes (just don’t put out as much volume), have characteristic hourglass or 2 red dots, tiny head an d big thorax, web is very stony, messy in appearance, and are in the dark; bites: painful, cause severe abdominal and back cramps; treatment: hospital must administer anti-venom

• Brown recluse- has a fiddle back, reclusive; including its legs, it is an inch long, more apt to be found inside than black widow, has spread due to RV transport; bite is not painful, within half-an-hour, a bump will appear, then subside, then grow bigger, necrotizing, causes secondary infections

• Green sack spider- can be found in homes

5. Weather

• Storms (lightning)

Approximate how far away a storm is by counting how many seconds there are between a lightning flash and the sound of thunder.  Every 5 seconds  1 mile

Sign a storm is approaching is a blast of warm air on a cool day

Stay away from water, metal, a field. Your car is a safe place.

If someone is struck by lightning, survey whether the scene is safe.  Then, call 911 and do CPR.

• Hurricanes

• Tornadoes- away from windows, stay low; If in the woods, dive in to a ditch and cover self up with debris

4. Viruses

• water-born: untreated water, ex. Leptospirosis  which causes diarrhea, Giardia a.k.a. “beaver fever”

• rabies:  If an animal approaches you, LEAVE.  It’s an unnatural behavior. Signs: frothy mouth, out, friendly, especially if animal is nocturnal

• Hanta: least likely to contract; comes from rat or other vermin poop; has 80% fatality; can be found in dry, hot areas; can be inhaled

• leeches: drinking them can cause infected wounds, so BOIL YOUR WATER

Prevention: wash hands or use yarrow leaves or cedar leaves; antiviral include cedar berries, peppermint, and grapeseed extract

3. Exposure

Exposure to the elements poses yet another danger to humans, which can cause hypothermia or hyperthermia, among other things.

• Hypothermia

Look for the “umbles:” mumble, stumble, etc.  These signs of clumsiness or disorientation indicate hypothermia.

Prevention: Wear layers.

• Hyperthermia

Caused by too much sun.

Causes headache, dehydration

Treatment: shade, plenty of water, but not too much because of electrolyte imbalance, splashing water on yourself, eating a salty snack with your water

Signs: red in the face, DIC (Disoriented, Irritable, Combative)

2. Ticks

Ticks are the #1 disease vector.

Local ticks are:

• Black-legged Tick or Deer Tick

• Lonestar Tick

• American Dog Tick

Ticks accompany white-tailed deer, so signs of deer in the forest are a sign for ticks.

Learn how to ID all the local ticks in all their stages of development.  Larval, nymph and adult ticks all pose problems to humans.

Treatment

• larval stage: Use duct tape to pull the ticks off.

• nymph and adult:  Use your fingernails to pop out the fold of affected skin, and pull the tick straight out so the head is not cut off.

Prevention

• Tuck pants into your socks. Ticks like to crawl up your body.

• Wear light-colored clothes.  It will make finding them easier.

• CHECK for ticks.

1. YOU!

Your lack of awareness is the greatest danger.  Look around, and recognize your surroundings and the potential dangers they hold.  You are the greatest champion of your own safety.