Dale brought a Gulf Fritillary butterfly chrysalis
to show; Martha and Bob agreed to take home and give it tender care. Martha will give us updates
on what emerges (butterfly or parasitic wasp).
Hugh read the story of Milton Hopkins and
an indigo snake. Milton graduated from UGA with an MA in zoology, and intended
to become a naturalist on the Barrier Islands, but ended up, in his own words, a
dirt farmer. He was an incredible
birder, and known throughout the state.
Although
it was winter, the snake had emerged from a gopher hole to sun. Milton collected the snake, thinking to offer
it as a live specimen to a professor he knew at Mercer University, the head of
the biology department. At home he made
a pine box and attached the lid with nails nailed only half-way down, thinking
he'd give the snake water the next morning.
"Lo
and behold," his story goes, "the next morning I awoke to find an
empty snake box. The huge reptile had
forced the pine planks clean off the box and escaped into our home. Wife Mary had a few-months-old baby girl at
the time and wailed, 'That huge snake will swallow my baby.' I knew this was
impossible but couldn't convince her."
"'We
all turned the home upside down for several days in search of the snake, without
success. I was certain it had not
escaped the house."
"One
morning early, while we were eating breakfast my peripheral vision caught a
swift darting motion from behind a large upright freezer. Here was our snake. She was coiled in and out of the heat-dispensing
coils on the back of the freezer, which backed up to a closed window. The freezer had recently been loaded with
over six hundred pounds of beef we had just killed on the farm, and I hated to
think of unloading and reloading all that meat, so decided the best method of
recapture of the snake was to take out the window casing from the outside and
remove the lower window. This took some
time and effort, and I had three pairs of eyes watching from inside the house
to be sure the snake didn't move to another hiding place."
"'She
had herself wrapped around and in and out of the coils of the freezer, probably
seeking warmth, and it took some time to get her to turn loose and come
out. This was accomplished, the snake
again put in her shipping box and this time the lid was securely nailed down."
"'After
affixing the address on the box I added 'Live Snake' in big letters. Railway Express agencies prided themselves on
shipping anything, but I thought it prudent to leave the snake box in the
pickup, enter the freight agent's office, and tell him what I wanted to
ship. He says loudly, 'a Live snake?'"
"Yes,
Sir,"
"The
agent said, 'Boy, don't bring that thing any closer in here. Push my scales outside on the loading
platform, weigh the box, and I'll give you a label to attach to it.'"
[From Milton Hopkins book, In One Place: The Natural History of a Dirt Farmer, we
learn that the snake lived for many years at Mercer University. The end came when it bit a student.]
Hugh's reading is from Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
(Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 1999),pp. 189-190.
We then proceeded down through the Dunson
Native Flora Garden to go out the White trail to the Blue Trail up the service
road and back on the Green Trail.
First stop was the blooming Horse Balm (Collinsonia canadensis) in the Dunson Garden.
On the walk found some of the following
items:
Yellow crown beard (Verbesina occidentals)
White crown beard (Verbesina virginica)
Rabbit tobacco, or sweet everlasting (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium)
Elephant's foot (Elephantopus tomentosus)
Fernleaf moss
Pin lichen (Cladonia macilenta)
River oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)
Wood oats (Chasmanthium sessiliflorum)
what we called some kind of boneset
turned out to be
Hyssopleaf thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium)
Lespedeza sp
Coffeeweed, or Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolium) an invasive exotic from tropical america
Winged sumac (Rhus copallinum)
Slender Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis)
Foxtail grass
Plume grass (Saccharum giganteum)
mosses with their spore-producing bodies
(sporophytes)
Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) and its huge
nuts
Black gum, or black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) with leaves turning brilliant red
Southern grape fern (Botrychium biternatum)
Microstegium grass or Browntop (Microstegium vimineum) a very invasive grass from Asia
Dale pulled a June bug (beetle) out of a
leaf. It was a beautiful green on top
and copper colored below.
We also found a cast off nymphal skin
(shell) of a cicada as well as several cicadas.
Last but not least we found a large
American Toad, which we spent some time studying.
On the way back we oohed over the red
spider lilies (Lycoris radiata) in the Shade Garden. We also found the yellow version (Lycoris aurea), and it was time for
conversation and snacks at Dondero's.
Hugh
