Nope, haven’t disappeared, just taking a small break. I’ve also been getting home later than normal during the week, and working hard on maintaining the yard on the weekends.

Here’s what new or changed as of July 27, 2010.

The Purple Martins have all fled the nest. They come by and sing in the mornings, but they no longer stay over night.
Lots of the young Cardinals and starting to get in their colored feathers, so they look a little ratty right now.
The Aphids and Milkweed bugs are really making their presence known on all the Milkweed. I’m spraying them off all the time.
We occasionally see a Giant Swallowtail laying eggs by the fruit trees.
We also have just barely seen any Gulf Fritilliaries.
A few Skipper Butterflies stop briefly on the nectar flowers from time to time.
Doves, Cardinals, and Bluejay’s spend the most time at the feeders.
Starting to see a few Frogs, but not as much as I would expect with all this rain. No sign of Michael Jane, the big Bullfrog in many months.
Lots of Dragonflies, all day and evening. Some are getting huge.
Hummingbirds. We have 3, two female and 1 male
Last, but not least Mosquitoes. They are all over the place with these rains and moist ground we’ve been having

I really need to get out somewhere and go shoot for a day. Everything seems to be non-stop lately. Perhaps I’ll revisit Houston Arboretum, or the park in Kingwood, or some place entirely new. Just need to get out somewhere with the camera and some time.

How about some of you reading the blog. Seeing lots of butterflies where you are?

When I was letting the dogs out I noticed one of the baby Purple Martins on the pool decking just sitting there.  When I scooped him up, it was pretty clear something was wrong.

I called Leecy to come out and help me.  She tried to feed him some crushed, moist fruit, which it did eat, but the bird was really weak.

Leecy Feeding Purple Martin

If you look at the bird’s eye in the picture above, it appears it had some type of disease; we suspect Avian Pox.

I remember seeing this bird in the Martin House the other day.  I remember its eye look closed, but I just attributed it to the heat of the day.

In the two remaining pictures, you can see pretty clearly this bird was sick.

Left Side Of Purple Martin With Avian Pox

Right Side Of Purple Martin With Avian Pox

Although Leecy tried her best to rehydrate the bird and give it some food, in the end, the bird didn’t make it.

Leecy said a little prayer for the bird on his journey to the heavens.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only death today of the Purple Martin babies.

Because this baby likely had avian pox, I wanted to check on the remaining 3 birds.

I opened the one nest, and that bird looked fine and healthy.  I open the next door, and one baby was dead.  The other baby in the same room appeared to be okay.  So of the original 4, two of them passed away today.

On the bright side, this has been the most successful breeding season for the Purple Martins that visit us.  Of the 14 babies that we counted, all survived but 2 so far.  All but the remaining 2 have flying happily for a few weeks now.

They are starting to peek outside of their nest, and it looks like one of them actually moved down to another nest area.

There are a total of 4 babies, although only 3 of them can be seen in this shot.  The one in the middle looks a bit smaller than the other two.

Purple Martin Mother Feeding Three Babies

The doorbell rings at 10pm.  It’s my neighbors young children asking if I can quickly come over because there is a snake in the backyard and the dogs are barking at it.

I grab my trusty snake tongs that I bought last year from Midwest Tongs.

Snake Tongs

As I enter my neighbors house I ask what is happening.  They tell me the dogs have been barking at this snake.  Then I hear, “oh, it got him.”

I figured I better hurry and get outside.  Now to put you in the scene, I’m wearing shorts, tennis shoes with no socks, a white shirt, and I’m carrying snake tongs.

I see the one dog pawing at it’s nose.  Not good, must have gotten bit.  I can’t even see the snake.  Everyone was too excited to tell me how small or large the snake was and it’s dark outside.  I swinging my flashlight from left to right, looking for some kind of snake, which at this point is all I know.  I take a couple more tiny steps and see this small brown thing in deep wet grass.  That’s him!

Bam!  I grab him with the snake tongs and lift it to the porch where I can see it better.  Broad Banded Water Snake (like the other day), nope.  Rattlesnake, uh not sure, no rattle, but coloration’s look similar.  Viper type head.  Check.  Okay, I don’t know what kind it is.  In the interest of safety (kids, dogs..even me), I decide this snake is too risky too release.  Leecy grabs the shovel and gives it a hair cut and places it in a box.

Now open the books on snakebites in dogs.  Number one suggestion, take the dog to the vet.  Also look for drooling, restlessness, diarrhea, swelling, and dilated pupils.  The dog looks fine, not excessively panting, pupils are fine, no problem in gait.  The mother asks if she can wait until morning.  We say it’s up to her, but watch the dog for symptoms over the next few hours.

We tell her we will go home to check our snake books and find out what kind of snake.

After review the different snake books, we guess that this is a Western Cottonmouth, but please correct me if I am wrong.

Oh, and for all you people asking why I have snake tongs, it’s because snakes scare me, but I can certainly appreciate them.  I also thought the only way I can safely catch them is with these tongs.  Sticks don’t work, and shovels don’t either for you snake killers.

So, without further delay, here are the pictures.  Is this a Western Cottonmouth?

Western Cottonmouth Striking

Western Cottonmouth Trying To Get Away

Western Cottonmouth Wrapping Around Snake Tongs

Other than some very loud Frogs croaking at night attracting mates, you also get a Broad Banded Water Snake.

At least that’s what I discovered today while I was cleaning the Pond.

Fortunately I still have my Snake tongs from last year.  I stayed pretty calm, went inside to grab the Snake tongs, called Leecy, and back to the Pond I went.

This guy is much smaller than the Broad Banded Water Snake I found in the Pond last year.  It was also much calmer than the one last year.  The one I caught last year wanted to bite me every chance it got.

Not so for this little one.

Broad Banded Water Snake Face Shot

I can’t say I’m really surprised this Snake showed up after last night with all those Frogs croaking.

The Broad Banded Water Snake (also known as the Southern Water Snake) eat Frogs, Crayfish, Fish, and Salamanders.  They grow to about 20-30 inches.  This one was about 20-25 inches.

It also doesn’t surprise me they are drawn to my Pond.  Other than the Crayfish, I have the perfect habitat for them.

Young Broad Banded Water Snake

After taking a few pictures, I released him behind my house in the woods.  I then put some “Snake Away” by the fence.  I have no idea if that stuff works or not, but it makes me feel better.

Here’s some shots of the Snake scenting the air while I was taking pictures.

Broad Banded Water Snake Scenting Air

Broad Banded Water Snake Lifting Tongue

While I was vacuuming the leaves, I accidentally sucked up this little green thing.  It turned out to be that baby Red Eared Slider that I found a few weeks ago.

He/she doesn’t seem to have grown much.

This first shot is from Leecy’s camera phone.

Closeup Of Baby Turtle From Pond

Baby Red Eared Slider Turtle From Pond

These are Leaffooted Bugs.  We tend to find most of them on our Tomato plant and Giant Sunflower plant.  Interestingly enough, this big cluster was on our Sago Palm.

I know the adults fly, and fortunately this group couldn’t fly.

So I pulled out my primary insect “extinguisher.”  My Extinguisher consisted of a net, and the bottom of my shoe.

Cluster Of Leaffooted Bugs

When I got home I noticed the backyard was rather quiet compared to normal.  I realized the normal flock of Martins were not flying above.  I then noticed several pesky Sparrows sitting on the Martin house.  Those birds drive me nuts as they are not easy to get rid of.

After shooing them off a few times, only to see the male return as soon as I closed the back door, I decided to take down the Martin house to see if they had started to build any nests.

The first nesting box we opened had 4 Purple Martin Babies.  They barely had their eyes open.

Four Purple Martin Babies In Nest

While continuing to check the other nests, we saw another nest that had 2 eggs.  These nests I’m looking at, and expect to see with the Purple Martin are like these.

Empty Purple Martin Nest

Then the inevitable happened.  I opened up this nest.

Empty Sparrow Nest In Martin House

The dreaded Sparrow nest.  Here’s my yearly dilemma.  I don’t have the heart to shoot, kill, or trap the sparrows. What I have done is start checking the nests daily, and if I see a Sparrow nest I instantly remove it.  Knowing the Sparrows, they’ll be back with another nest just like above, then I’ll remove that one.  That normally goes on for a week or two (seems to be their breaking point).

I’m guessing the Sparrows are rearing their ugly head because some of the Martins seemed to have migrated yesterday,  So now we begin the man vs nature ritual.

First these two were making “googly” eyes at each other, then they started preening next to each other.

Eurasian Dove Lovers

After that, you can pretty much tell what happened.

Eurasian Doves Mating

Daddy Martin Bringing In Dinner

Fortunately for me (or the Dragonfly), there was at least one more of these today.  This is a Twelve Spotted Skimmer.  They are apparently quite common.

Twelve Spotted Skimmer