Three’s Company

For many species of terrestrial vertebrates living in the lower Susquehanna valley, it’s time to take refuge in a safe place below ground to enter a winter-long slumber.  The numerous frosty nights of the past two weeks have expedited the stragglers’ efforts to find a suitable place to pass our coldest months.

Wood Turtles
Aside from the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), the Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) is our most terrestrial species of testudine, however it is seldom found far from wet bottomlands.  Last week, we found this pair preparing to burrow into alluvial soils along the edge of a floodplain wetland where they will spend the winter.  In recent years, Wood Turtle numbers have plummeted due to habitat fragmentation and loss, and due to collecting by short-sighted petkeepers and profiteers.
Wood Turtle
A sluggish Wood Turtle catching a few last rays of sunshine before digging in for the winter.   If you encounter these or any turtles now or at any time of year, it’s important that they not be disturbed.  Look and leave them be.

And now, just in time for Halloween, a look at some hibernating species that some of our more squeamish readers consider to be “scary”.

In the mountainous forests of the Ridge and Valley Province, there lives a seldom seen little mouse which, unlike the more familiar species found in the fields, farms, and homes of our valleys and Piedmont, spends almost half the year in true hibernation.

Woodland Jumping Mouse
The Woodland Jumping Mouse (Napaeozapus insignis) is a nocturnal species of rodent found primarily on rocky forest slopes, particularly those with growths of Eastern White Pine and Eastern Hemlock.  Unlike the similar White-footed Mouse, a species that sometimes enters homes in the fall and remains active year-round, the Woodland Jumping Mouse builds a small subterranean nest among rocks and boulders where it will enter a long winter slumber, often not emerging until the milder days of April.  During the long hibernation, these mice sometimes fatally diminish the energy stored in their body fat; up to 75% may perish before spring arrives (Merritt, 1987).

In spring and fall, Eastern (Black) Ratsnakes are frequently seen basking in the sun as they absorb heat and get their metabolism going.  During the hottest days of summer, when ambient air temperature is sufficient for their needs, they become nocturnal, hunting mice and other creatures that are also active at night.  During October, they make their way back to a winter den where they will remain until March or April.

Eastern Ratsnake
A last-minute Eastern (Black) Ratsnake makes a slow late-October trek across a mountain road toward a winter den on the south slope of the ridge.
Eastern Ratsnake
This Eastern Ratsnake is on its way to a cold-season hideout where it may spend the darker months in the company of other communal hibernators including…
Eastern Copperhead
…Eastern Copperheads…
Timber Rattlesnake
…and Timber Rattlesnakes.

That’s right, all three of these snakes are known to cohabitate, not just during hibernation, but at other times of the year as well.  And you thought they were mean and nasty to anything and everything in their path, didn’t you?

Here in the northeastern United States, fear of indigenous wild snakes is a totally irrational anxiety.  It’s a figment of our indoctrination.  Their wicked reputation is almost exclusively the result of a never-ending stream of demonizing propaganda from the pulpit, press, parents, panicked, and picture shows.  All they want from you and I is to be left alone.  Want something to really be afraid of this Halloween?  Try domestic dogs.  That’s right—the “friendly” pooch.  In the United States, they’ll land hundreds of people in the emergency room today.  Don’t like that one.  How ’bout cars and trucks.  They’ll kill and maim people all day long.  And don’t forget about sugar.  Yes friends, that sweet treat is pure poison that kills all day long.  Happy Halloween!

  SOURCES

Merritt, Joseph F.  1987.  Guide to the Mammals of Pennsylvania.  University of Pittsburgh Press.  Pittsburgh, PA.  pp.230-233.

Shaffer, Larry L.  1991.  Pennsylvania Amphibians and Reptiles.  Pennsylvania Fish Commission.  Harrisburg, PA.

Photo of the Day

Northern Ring-necked Snake shedding old skin.
For this Northern Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus edwardsii), they’ll be no hunting crickets, grasshoppers, and creepy crawlies under rocks and leaves for a little while.  It’s blind as a bat and finding its way by tongue and touch while beginning the process of shedding its skin so it can grow just a little bit bigger before heading underground for winter.

Photo of the Day

Eastern Ratsnake Crossing a Road
With cold weather settling in, reptiles including this Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) are making their way to winter den sites.  Many will be crossing roads, trails, and lawns, unknowingly subjecting themselves to the mercy of the more than one million merciless people living in the lower Susquehanna valley.  Don’t behave like a sociopath, please refrain from murdering, molesting, or kidnapping them.  Turn over a new leaf this fall and give them a brake.  Then leave them alone.

I Can’t Take Another Earth Day

And now, a few words from the old watersnake who happens to live down along the creek where last spring’s Earth Day events were held.

Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon)

Hey!  You!  Yeah You!  I heard that there won’t be an Earth Day celebration down here this week.  What a ssshame! 

Remember how much fun we had last year.  All those kids ssscrambling down along the creek bank throwing ssstones and ssscreaming and yelling like they’re gonna sssack a city.  I ssshould have had the sssense to ssslither away.  But no, I just curled up and played it cool.  But sssure enough, one of the little brats found me and bellowed out loud enough for the whole countryside to hear, “SSSNAAAAKE!” 

Ah nuts.  That’s all it took.  Here they come.  Poking me with a ssstick.  Taunting and ssstabbing.  Don’t you know that hurts?  What did I ever do to you, you rotten little apes?  I’m telling ya, I get no respect.

Think that’s bad?  It got worse.  Don’t you remember?  After a dozen of the runny-nosed monsters had me sssurrounded, one of the brain-dead adults yelled, “…it might be poisonous!”

That’s all it took.  The ssstones got hurled my way and the poking with a ssstick became beatings.  Those rats tried to kill me!  On Earth Day!  I ssslid into deep water and barely escaped with my life. 

Now I want to tell you a few things—let’s get ’em ssstraight right now.  I’m not, nor is any other watersnake in the SSSusquehanna valley, poisonous.  Ssso don’t go villainizing me and those like me just because you have a monkey-like fear of us and need a sssocially acceptable reason to exercise your murderous instincts.  Yeah, we know all about your manly tall tales of conquest that you ssshamelessly tell your friends and family after you kill a sssnake.  Wanna be a hero?  Then leave us alone!  We and all of the native sssnakes of the SSSusquehanna valley, including the venomous copperheads and Timber Rattlesnakes, are minding our own business and just want to be left alone.  Get it?  Leave us alone!  Don’t beat us with a ssshovel, mow over us, drive your car or truck over us, or ssshoot us.  We have it bad enough as it is.  You already buggered up most of our homes building your roads, houses, and lawns you know—so have a little respect.  And one more thing, we don’t want be part of your pet menagerie.  There’s no way we’ll “love you” or want anything to do with you, even if you do imprison us and make us sssubmissive to you for food, you sssick fascists.  And that goes for you obsessive collector types too.  We know you’re hoarding animals like us and calling your cruel little pet penitentiary a “rescue”.  Yeah, we’re wise to that con too. 

What’s left of a Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horidus) in a wild area of the Susquehanna valley.  It made the fatal mistake of trying to cross the road when a simple-minded sociopath driving an oversize pickup truck was coming by.  As you may have guessed, the conscientious driver braked and swerved to hit the snake.

Ssso we’ve heard you won’t be coming down to the creek to terrorize us this year.  No Earth Day event, huh.  Well good, because I can’t take another Earth Day.  Let the sssquirrels and the birds plant the trees, they do a better job than you anyway.  Ssstay at home where you belong—watching television or twit-facing your B.F.F. on that magic box you carry around.  And if you absolutely feel the urge to be upset by a sssnake in your midst, go visit that neighbor with the “reptile rescue”, I’m sssure he has a cobra or some other non-native sssnake in his collection that really ought to give you worry—especially when it finally escapes that prison.  

The snakes of the lower Susquehanna valley, including the Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortix), are very docile and just want to be left alone.  That goes for the turtles and other wildlife too.  How ’bout showing them all a little respect.

Summer Breeze

A moderate breeze from the south placed a headwind into the face of migrants trying to wing their way to winter quarters.  The urge to reach their destination overwhelmed any inclination a bird or insect may have had to stay put and try again another day.

Blue Jays were joined by increasing numbers of American Robins crossing the river in small groups to continue their migratory voyages.  Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous) and a handful of sandpipers headed down the river route.  Other migrants today included a Cooper’s Hawk (Astur cooperii), Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis), and a few Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser), House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), and Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula).

The afternoon belonged to the insects.  The warm wind blew scores of Monarchs toward the north as they persistently flapped on a southwest heading.  Many may have actually lost ground today.  Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and Cloudless Sulphur butterflies were observed battling their way south as well.  All three of the common migrating dragonflies were seen: Common Green Darner (Anax junius), Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens), and Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata).

The warm weather and summer breeze are expected to continue as the rain and wind from Hurricane Nate, today striking coastal Alabama and Mississippi, progresses toward the Susquehanna River watershed during the coming forty-eight hours.

This Great Blue Heron was joined by numerous other fishermen and a good number of sightseers in the falls today.
A colorful young Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) takes advantage of the sun-heated surface of a Pothole Rock to remain nimble and active.  Cooler weather will soon compel this and other reptiles to find shelter for winter hibernation.
CLICK ON THE LOGO FOR TODAY’S MIGRATION COUNT TOTALS