Early for Good Behavior

Well, our ducks never hatched. I thought they were going a little bit long, and then found a broken one outside her nest- not a thing had developed but the smell. Yuck. I decided to pitch the whole bunch into the compost. Aside from this, we needed the garden back. I had decided to go ahead and slaughter the ducks for the freezer, but had a last minute change of heart and put them up on Craigslist. They wound up going to a petting zoo, so that's pretty great. Happy for them. Over the time that we had them, they did a great job keeping the snails and grassy weeds from taking over the garden, but it's well past time to plant, and my tobacco starts are ready.

The great part is, no more baby ducks means I could release our nest raiding gopher snake a little earlier! I took some pictures before I said goodbye. He/she is all fattened up, having had no less than 6 mice and 2 chicks (hatched but didn't survive). I think it was more of a vacation than a sentence actually.

Here are the pics!

Definitely one of the prettier gopher snakes I've seen, got a few close ups of his/her scales as well.

Steal my eggs; go to prison.

Well, our little thief has returned. Jen was on the phone with her mom and looking out the window, when she noticed the mama duck bolt frantically from the nest. She shouted at me that the snake was probably back, and sure enough he was at the nest again. All eggs were still there.

       I went out with my trusty snake stick and snatched him up. You're going to prison bud. 

Luckily I already had a spare tank, already wired up for heat, sharing the thermostat with the cage above where Kiwi (my Mexican black king snake) dwells. Kiwi got excited with all the commotion. She is a snake eater (among other things) by nature, wonder if she smelled the new one? He's much bigger than her at any rate, but every snake lives solo around here. I only plan to keep him till the baby ducks are big enough that he won't be a threat anymore. And I have a CA fishing license so I'm legal to grab one from the wild. (I know it sounds funny that it would be a fishing license that you require, but it is! I even have a 'bag limit' that I'll never get near to reaching.) 

In order for this to work out though, I'll need to see if he'll eat in captivity. I thawed some mice (Kiwi's feed, I have about a hundred or so in the deep freeze) and decided to give it a try. 

Boy did he ever! This is one hungry snake. I guess he was likely going after the eggs in desperation. I gave him two more mice and he swallowed them without hesitation. That's a relief. If he wasn't going to be a successful captive, I was going to have to start looking around for another home for him. I'd be bummed not to have him on the property anymore. This snake is one of three regular gophersnakes that we see every spring and summer. I don't want to be short any gopher killers..

Here's a few more feeding pictures: He (or she) is a really pretty example of the species in my opinion. Lots of rosy/coral pink colors mixed with the black and tan pattern you usually see. After he has settled in some and digested this meal, I'll try and get some better pictures.

And not to leave Kiwi out. She is a permanent pet here- captive bred and been with us since she was only weeks old. Sorry the picture is not so great, I don't dare mess with her too much while she's feeding. She gets a little 'snappy' when she can smell mice, and she does NOT let go. 

One more of him curled up and full! Don't worry buddy, your 'sentence' won't be long.

Even when predators interfere, we think it's important to remember that they are worth saving. After all, I've almost lost an embryonic duck or two, but this guy didn't get this big from eating ducks (I would have noticed). Even while he doesn't see eye to eye with us regarding our livestock, he does his share of work around here by keeping the gopher, ground squirrel and black rat populations down. I feel the same way about the coyotes, the hawks, the owls, and all the other potential threats to my flock. I'm not saying I wouldn't ever resort to killing a predator, but honestly, I would do just about all I could to not have to ever do that. After all, wildlife is a big part of the reason we wanted to live out here in the first place, and life without them here would be a sad trade-off for that little bit of comfort. As of now, I've managed to lose not a single animal to predators, and I've never yet had to reach for the gun either to keep it that way. That's just the way we like it. 

Snake versus Duck

Heard a terrible duck-ish racket and Jen and I went out to investigate. When we saw them splashing around, we figured mama duck (buff and white runner pictured) was just enjoying herself splashing in the water. She spends most of her time on the nest, so she likes to go crazy when she takes a break. Running around beating up the other ducks, splashing in the water and quacking up a storm.
Luckily we thought to check the nest too. There was a snake trying to suck down her eggs. I figure that must have been what chased her off initially, I'm kind of surprised she didn't try to fight him off. Anyway we scared him away and all eggs are still there. He was VERY persistant. I pushed him off the nest over and over, but he kept sneaking around the artichoke plant and coming back to it. Finally we took the hose to him, and he raced off for a gopher hole. Now that's where I want the gopher snakes going.

Now that he knows where the nest is, he's very likely going to come back. I think I'll have to set up another snake tank- Just in case he's too persistant, he may end up spending his spring in the library eating frozen thawed mice like my king snake does, and released when the babies are too big for him to mess with.

Photos of the snake in the nest and the ducks splashing in the water to follow..

(And check out part 2 of this exciting tale here- http://allthumbsgreen.blogspot.com/2012/05/steal-my-eggs-go-to-prison.html )

Late post snake (beware)

Been awhile but we have quite a bit to post. I'll try and put up a bunch today, maybe some more in the coming week. We have lots of pictures of stuff we've grown and made and found in the yard.

Firstly a young red racer aka coach whip (Coluber flagellum piceus) that was out in the driveway eating a lizard. It must have been pretty hungry, because no matter how close I got to it to snap pictures, it was NOT going to let go of this lizard and crawl away. I wound up literally about 5 inches from his head and got to take some macro shots. He's quite a bit smaller than other coachwhips I've seen so this may have been his first year.

Eeek, a skunk!

A few days ago, I looked outside to investigate what the dogs were barking at. I thought it was going to be a cat, but I quickly recognized the tell-tale black and white markings of a skunk on the other side of the ditch, trying to find the best way to cross over onto our side. I ran back into the house to grab the camera and tell Tom about my new find. He opted to stay inside (which is probably the sane thing to do.) Anyway, I was too excited to worry about getting sprayed because we had been discussing with some friends just the night before, about how no one ever sees live skunks. They only seem to show up as road kill. And statistically, skunks are probably the most often hit thing on the road. We figured that this might be due to the fact that skunks aren't really scared of humans like mountain lions might be. Of course, mountain lions have fangs and claws, but skunks have stink, and the confidence to know they can use it against almost anything. (Except, they haven't figured out that the threat of stinking doesn't scare those rapidly approaching metal things on wheels hurtling toward them.)

Well, I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures. They were a bit too far away to get any great shots. The flash going off a bunch of times is probably what scared them off (yup, there were two) running away with their tails pointing straight up in the air. I thought the tails pointing upward was just how they ran when they wanted to be cute, but Tom told me they were in spray mode and that my flash probably ticked them off! I guess I was lucky they didn't decide to let one go as a warning shot!

Here are some pics. It was pretty dark, so the quality isn't so hot.

More snakes!

In case you can't tell, I love when I see new snakes.
Since yesterday, I've seen two.

First one is the garter snake I put up the other day near the drainage ditch. He must have heard somebody mispronounce his name as "gardener snake", so that's why I found him in the garden. But I had to break the news to him that actually he's a garter snake. Specifically, a two striped garter snake. From what I've read, it's actually the most common snake in Southern California, but today is only the second time I've seen one and he may even be the very same individual.

Love the red tongue!

Second one may be the very same snake I watched eat a lizard last year- If some of you are reading this because you know me on facebook, you may have seen the pictures I posted of him/ her. It's a red racer aka a red coachwhip. Very quick snake! I chased him down into the drainage ditch, where I finally found him curled up among some old tree roots.

First the picture from last year, with a lizard tail poking out of his mouth..

And here are the pictures of the snake I spotted yesterday. Maybe the same one?

Morels

Early this month, my brother and I (OK mostly my brother- hah!) were digging out a drainage ditch here at the house. It is an old concrete ditch about 4 foot deep, but over the years it has filled up with leaves almost to the top. Frank (my brother) wanted to take some of this old leaf mould back to his garden, and we wanted the ditch emptied out, so it seemed like a pretty good arrangement.

While he was digging however he came across this mushroom which I thought I recognized immediately.

Well, I looked at a guide to identification for them, and it seems that it really is a morel; Probably a yellow morel. From what I've read, only the 'false morel' is close in appearance, and it is easy to differentiate because it isn't hollow. This mushroom was hollow through both the stem and the cap. In fact, the cap even had a hole in the top- though I think it may have been broken a little.

We didn't eat it however, because of the difference between sure and pretty sure- and because you never know with the internet. As one website advised, "You can actually eat ANY mushroom, it's just that some can only be eaten once." (paraphrased and can't remember where I read it- sorry to not credit..)

Anyway, this has really been on my mind this morning. Wouldn't that just be amazing if I could encourage my own little wild mushroom patch here? And MORELS no less. I could only be happier with truffles!

I have some emails out to experts on morels, hopefully I can get some more info on this.

If you know something about wild mushrooms please chime in or drop me a line. In the meantime I'm going to tag this post with Wildlife, and optimistically with Garden- let's see if we can make that a reality.

More wildlife

Just some photos of more animals in the garden.

A bee I chased with the camera trying to get a flying shot..

And here it is, ok not great but anyway. He's pollinating the tomatillo here..

For the next one you have to see a raspberry flower first- 

So here's a raspberry flower.

And here's a white spider with no web. He is always there, he holds his legs out like petals on a raspberry flower, and the bugs just come to him for that hug. He's hugging two flies here, so it looks like a pretty successful strategy..

Where did he live before we planted a raspberry I wonder? Maybe on the lemons next door?

Flies love compost, lizards love flies. Here's the king of the compost pile. 

And finally, one that's a first sighting for me. 

Jen actually spotted it in the grass while we were leaving for Lowes. In all my years in this county, I've never seen this species. Anybody care to guess? Pretty sure I knew the genus right away, but I had to dig up some info to get specific. Looks like we caught him enjoying a meal. I'm guessing he ate a fence swift (lizard) by where we found him. He was right near a wood pile where they are plentiful. 

Here's a hint!

Snake day

Must be a big snake day.  Just found this guy while out picking up the mail.  Much smaller gopher snake than "Stumpy", and with its tail point intact.