So many lizards! And oh my goodness, I wish I could’ve seen that green moth in person. That’s really wonderfully cool!
Ok Gina, so I am jealous of YOU now! . I hope you too are having a great time!
Guys look!
I saw my very first honeybee swarm today!
They were very focused on keeping the queen safe, and I was able to get very close. I noticed the suspicious number of bees in the air, and went to investigate and found the swarm under a bush.
Unfortunately their resting spot was in a McDonalds parking lot next to my bus stop, so there was lots of foot traffic. I kept people away until my bus came, and called the non emergency line to have one of the Purdue experts to come scoop up the swarm for relocation/domestication since it was such a high traffic area.
Great peaceful experience that makes me excited to have my own bees one day
Did a bit of unintentional herping yesterday. This hefty garter decided to cross the very busy road by my house, was just barely missed by a car. Picked them up and got the typical garter thank you of hands full of reeking musk. Thankfully got this one off into the ditch and was close enough to home to just go back and wash my hands. Nice to know the local garters are thriving!
Oh my gosh, you’re so lucky!!! I would have loved to have seen that. Hopefully they ended up in a wonderful, safe new space.
I certainly hope so! With as large and impressive as the Purdue Agricultural Department is, I have good faith that they were scooped up with love and may even end up working for the Purdue community gardens!
Saw potentially the COOLEST THING EVER today!
This is a juvenile red ear slider turtle basking on the back of a GIANT common snapping turtle; first one I’ve ever seen and it was a BEAST
I so wish I could have better pictures, but at sunset and 500+ feet away, its not terrible for a samsung, ha!
I hope that snapper is a female, imagine the clutch size she could lay!
Based on my guess seeing them in person, I’d say the immature slider was 9 inches from shell tip to shell tip (longways), which would make the snapper almost 3 feet of shell!
What a cool thing to see! There are so many odd happenings in nature. It’s such a treat to witness one of them. What a brave slider!
Right? I wouldn’t sit on that particular ‘log’ but the sunshine must have been worth it!
I feel blessed this big momma decided our yard is the perfect place for her babies. I accidentally spooked her a bit when pulling into the driveway so I’m hoping she finished laying. Once I got off work I escorted her back to the creek behind the neighborhood.
Very cool! Hopefully you’ll have baby turtles in the future.
I hope so that would be super cool! I’m going to try and fix up a barrier to protect the nest from predators.
That’s a good idea! Both for the eggs and for you haha; we had a duck nest in our yard and didn’t want to bother her, and a raccoon got her whole nest and I genuinely was miserably sad for days
My stupid brain barely let me sleep last night because I was paranoid a raccoon would get the nest. Gahhh
Best of luck, for sure! We had a box turtle last eggs in our yard last year. Something got to them, which broke my heart. It was probably a raccoon but I don’t know for certain.
That pic reminds me of a song: “You’re not heavy………”.
Oh my goodness check out this itty bitty fella! No longer than my pinky nail. He’s working hard keeping the bugs off my potato plants.
Oh my goodness, what a hard worker you have there! I am OBSESSED
I absolutely love these cute little guys! He’s so cute! I had a "nest of babies hatch in my apartment years ago, and I was happy to have them. I honestly can’t remember what I did to make sure they were moved to a safe location because it was a good 25 years ago! They’re just so neat! Thank you for sharing!
How charming! I love finding these guys! Haven’t seen babies in a few years now. Happy to see this one, @ghsaltie .