Thanks to the cautious behavior of my cat, Apollo, I interrupted the swallowing of the largest toad ever!
Apollo spots the problem.
The black snake was having trouble swallowing the toad because it was so large. I had to choose between my camera and using a stick to annoy the snake. I poked the snake with the handle of broom I had in my hand. It released toad.
There was a bad smell and it curled and headed my way. I maneuvered away! At last the black snake went the other way.
Thanks for saving me!
I placed the toad in a water dish while I settled my nerves. The photos are of the toad in the water feature and in the last, I imagine he’s smiling at me.
I get to live to croak again.
Once I got back in the house (this had occurred at the back door) I looked up the snake, and I’m pretty sure it is a western cottonmouth.* I’m glad I didn’t know that earlier or the toad would be dead.
Cottonmouth photo by Railprof on iNaturalist — many are much darker than this.
The snake was large, black, thick, and with a skinny short ending to its tail. It also had a musky smell. It did want to escape. I only had an Asian broom but it worked.
The cat was no further help.
*Actually most of the observations in Milam County come up as northern cottonmouths, so who knows? (Inserted by curious editor)
I bribed my little sidekick (not really so little at a bit over six feet and weighing well over two hundred pounds. Anyway, he’s my baby boy, so he will always be “little” to me) to drive me out to Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary to refill the hummingbird feeders. Anthony/sidekick had hung the feeders and of course he “hung ’em high!” I couldn’t reach them, anyway!
The feeders had only a token amount of nectar, so it’s a good thing we went. When we filled them the week before, the hummers were all over them. no hummers were circling this trip. Just FYI, if you go out to the bird station and think the mix looks a bit off, please note that I do not use bleached sugar. If you have ever seen my sugar cane juice, you know it is a dark brownish yellow in color. The color doesn’t make a lot of difference as long as it isn’t colored red with Red 44. Please don’t ever put that poison in your nectar mix.
The hummers are migrating now, so please be faithful to keep your feeders clean and full at all times.
The Wild Wings Bird Santuary
Ruby-throated are the most prevalent in our neck of the woods, but Black-chinned might visit if you have a more open area. You could see a Rufous during migration if you are so blessed.
The Caracara
Just before we turned in to Bird and Bee Farn, there was a Crested Caracara perched on the side of a cattle water trough across the road. He posed nicely for us. I say “he” but there is no difference between the sexes. The juveniles are brown with no distinctive white markings.
When we arrived at the gate to the bird station, a caracara came sailing in. There was another one in one of the tall oaks, and “he” can flying out, so we got to witness a bit of a back-and-forth chase. So special! They really are magnificent creatures, even if they do enjoy some freshly killed carrion.
Caracara. Photo by Felipe Gonu00e7alves on Pexels.com
Locally, some folks call the caracara a “Mexican Eagle.” Sorry, but they are not related to eagles at all. In fact, they aren’t related to hawks, falcons, or vultures, either. They seem to be in a class by themselves. They are birds of prey, so I guess that means they can kill if necessary. They are frequently seen feeding with vultures, so maybe they are opportunistic of just plain lazy.
They are regal birds, for sure. Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Pexels.com
A black crest adorns their heads and part of their beak is orange-red, giving them the appearance of having a red face. The chest, tail, and wing tips are white, so they are often descrivved as “white on all four corners.” They are the only species of caracara in the US, but there are probably more to the south of us.
The Bird Bath Saga
There is a lovely little bird bath at the santuary that the rain chain drips into. We had hoped to be able to keep a steady drip for the birds to have a safe souce of water for drinking and bathing. It’s barely a couple of inches deep, but the heifers or raccoons think Gene put it out exclusively for them. Sadly, they dismantle it and knock the bowl on the ground so that the rain chain just makes a damp spot on the ground. Cindy and Catherine have been diligently seeking a larger, heavier one to put in its place. Lots of dead ends and “sorry, you’re too late” have put quite a damper on the search. Of course, we want one cheap or free.
Ann with the original bird bath.
Update: I just heard from Cindy, and she actually has one for us! Yay! Good job! I know the birds will be happy, too. Pay attention to their tweets for the next few weeks.
Please come for a visit and sit a spell. Even if the birds are still shy, there is always a cool breeze and blissful quiet.
A male Painted Bunting, a Rat Snake in the trees, an Inca Dove, Cardinals on feeders, Pipevine Butterfly, Ruby-throat Hummer on feeder, Swallowtail Butterfly, and Mr. and Mrs. Bunny eating the bird seed.
Around the farm, I have all kinds of lazy water features. Let’s take a look!
This one has a drip from the faucet keeping it full and the water moving. Even large birds, cardinals, come here for water.
Here’s another lazy water feature. The solar fountain keeps things moving. The plant is rooting in a convenient terracotta strawberry pot. Also there for fish “enrichment” I put water hose into a pot when topping it off so the water movement doesn’t create mucky water. The fish are doing well and get fed pellets or mosquito larva from nearby sources.
Lazy water source is by the back door faucet. Shallow kitchen container with shard and pot in corner. When there is a fish, they have a place to hide under the shard. The pot provides extra climbing surface so the toads can get out when they find themselves in here. When mosquitos build up, I move a fish over here for a day. The faucet drips into the container when I’m watering around the house.
This large lazy water feature container is not set up right now. I have an electric ceramic fountain, usually 6-8 fish, and a water plant – this is an arrowhead. When set up it creates the pleasing sound of running water, but being under an oak tree presents problems with leaves.
The next lazy water feature is a plant container from a big box store. There’s a pottery shard for fish to hide under, and a pedestal for the water plant and solar fountain. This solar fountain has legs to keep it from hugging the wall and emptying the water on to the ground. I’ve lost one leg, so water escapes regularly.
One happy fish, pedestal for plant on pedestal – but too hot right now.
Fountains do need to have algae and minerals scrubbed off top to keep it accepting sun power. It’s a very low tech, not too expensive way to have fountain, fish, and a water feature. Just use what you may already have. Solar fountains range from $12-15 on line.
And finally, here’s another low-cost water feature at night. There are two toads enjoying the water at 10:30 pm. One is partially on the solar fountain and partly on the rim of the submerged terracotta pot. He won’t drown.
I’d promised myself that I’d make another visit to the bird station our chapter is working on to see what birds are there this time of year. Even though I wasn’t feeling too well, I figured I could sit in the shade for an hour, so off I went to the special area behind Bird and Bee Farm near Milano, home of our Wildscape project (and chickens and turkeys!)
Rio Grande Turkeys and the Wildscape entrance.
There have been some improvements to the site, as Cathy Johnson posted earlier this week. I enjoyed checking out the new raised beds, charming seating, and a beautiful birdbath watered by a tinkling rain chain.
EntranceRaised bedRaised bedBirdbath before Gene fixed it (cows knocked it down)The donated furniture from Ann Collins
Last time I visited was three weeks ago, when I identified eleven birds. This week I found seventeen! When you sit quietly, the birds forget about you and go about their business catching bugs and picking delicious morsels off the cedar elms.
Bird action headquarters
I got to see Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Eastern Bluebirds, and precious Blue-gray gnatcatchers feeding themselves. Not seen, but very well heard were a Swainson’s and Red-tailed Hawk. Other hidden friends were Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and Blue Jay.
Female Cardinal is in there.
Two juveniles surprised me. One was a young Cardinal who landed very. Eat me and proceeded to find multiple morsels to eat.
Watch it chow down.
You can tell it’s a juvenile by its black beak. It’s growing in adult feathers, so doesn’t look too great.
Young Northern Cardinal
The other juvenile was a real puzzle. It was enjoying the water chain and easy to photograph, but I couldn’t ID it. It had pretty eyes but not many markings. I ran my photos through Merlin Bird ID and it got no results. But when I tried iNaturalist, the result came up Painted Bunting. It didn’t look like the female, who is rather green, but as I paged through the pictures, I saw the juvenile. Bingo! It has the wing and beak markings I saw, and the same eye ring. So, there we go. I didn’t see or hear any adults
The young bunting
Here are today’s birds:
American Crow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Mockingbird
Painted Bunting
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Swainson’s Hawk
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Of course I checked out the plants, so that if I get the area declared an official spot on iNaturalist, the observations can go there. A few were really pretty, especially the berries.
Eastern Amberwing on Western RagweedDove weed, beloved of butterflies PokeweedAmerican BeautyberryTievineCuban JuteBeautiful live oak on the adjacent property. Oval Ambersnail
I’m going to miss the dedication, but I’ll be back to see what’s here at the beginning of September!
Nature Along the El Camino Real 