We had a beautiful and relaxing Memorial Day at home. It followed an early morning storm that started out with vicious winds, but calmed after an hour or so. The weather has been so bizarre, but we're grateful for the rains. As long as we don't get TOO much!
For most of the day, we sat on the back patio and watched the birds. We have a pair of mockingbird parents who are feeding three starving babies. They fight off the squirrels and bombard other mockingbirds who venture into their territory. At one point, I decided to get up and check some milkweed. On my way, I spotted a SNAKE in the velvetleaf mallow! James grabbed his camera and took photos. Meet a redstripe ribbon snake (Thamnophis proximus rubrilineatus)! According to what I've briefly read, this species lives around water so I'm not sure how it ended up in our back yard.
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Later, James spotted this juvenile yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) in some salvias. Yay!
Two young eastern fox squirrels gorged on a corn cob that James put out.
And a Gulf Coast toad hopped by, too, during our afternoon of wildlife watching.
On our neighbor's side of the fence, we spotted silken guidelines so naturally we had to go investigate. I suspect that a giant lichen orbweaver lives somewhere wayyyyyyyy up in a live oak. Her web must be HUGE, but it's only visible at night when she's out (and I'm not).
2 comments:
What a beautiful snake! Glad you spotted it and James was able to get pictures.
I've been wondering if there were any of this year's hatch-lings of yellow garden spiders in the garden or if all the rain might have washed them away. It was great to see your photo. I'll be on the lookout for one.
That's a beautiful snake looks almost like the eastern garter snake
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