You Never Know..

what you'll find when you head outside.

I spent two cool and sometimes wet days at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area last week and saw these

diamond like raindrops on the leaves of a flower I haven't identified yet. (If you know what it is please let me know.)

A rain drop on a bird's-foot violet. (Viola pedata)

A trumpeter swan taking a break from feeding on underwater plants.

Although it was cold, I was able to find two northern prairie skinks by turning over a few logs. It may not look like it, but this skink is fine. When prairie skinks are captured by predators (or people) they wriggle their bodies until whatever is attempting to catch them is left holding only their tail. The skinks tail detaches from its body and continues to twitch and move, keeping the attackers attention while the actual skink makes its escape. Over time the skink will grow back its tail.

With the day as cool and damp as it was, I felt really lucky to find a 4-5 foot bullsnake crossing one of the dirt roads. I made a few images and watched it move off into a nearby woods.

It was as if I was actually watching spring unfold as these new leaves grew on a scrub oak.

Out for Elk

My dad and I headed back to the Clam Lake area hoping to see more of Wisconsin's herd of wild elk.

On the drive down I noticed an adult bald eagle perched low in a tree at the edge of a farmers field. I scanned the area for a carcass or some other reason for the bird to be there. About fifty yards away standing in a puddle in the worked farm field was another almost adult bald eagle taking a mud bath. Here the bird is taking flight. You can see that its head and tail feathers are almost colored brown from bathing in the muddy water.

Well, I thought, that bodes well for the rest of the trip.

And it did. Once we got to Clam Lake we quickly found a group of five cows in a meadow near the road. This calf born last year walked off into the forest.

I didn't get many photos of the elk, but was glad to see them. For all of my trips to the Clam Lake area I have only seen elk 30% - 50% of the time.

We drove a little more and found a group of six cows and calves grazing and browsing the edge of a pine forest. Many of the elk were wearing ear tags and radio collars as they are intensively monitored and studied as part of the state's reintroduction efforts.

 After awhile the group of elk worked their way into the woods and we left to see what else we could find.

It was only about fifty degrees outside, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this common garter snake laying on some leaves near a log in a pine forest.

The snake had been basking in the sun on a southwestern exposed hillside.

I was able to make a few close up images before the snake went on its way.

It really was turning into a lucky day for critters. As we drove the roads looking for more animals I mentioned to my dad how I'd like to see a porcupine. Within ten minutes.....

This guy showed up crossing the road in front of us and then climbed a poplar tree. I wasn't able to get the photos I hoped for, but it was great to see him. And on request even.

The light was fading as we started to leave the Clam Lake area. On our way out we watched six bull elk walk out of a forest and into a meadow at the edge of the road. One bull had lost his antlers and had started growing new ones, the other five were spike bulls who had yet to shed their antlers.

In all we saw 24 elk, six of which were bulls, one garter snake, one porcupine, many wild turkeys, several white-tailed deer, and three bald eagles. It was a pretty good afternoon.

What Luck

I stopped to photograph wild lupines along a road in the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area near Grantsburg Wisconsin. I wasn't having much luck with the flowers but noticed that a lot of dragonflies were landing nearby. So I changed lenses and decided to try and photograph the dragonflies instead.

The good news is that I did better with the dragonflies than I had with the flowers. The photo above is of a four-spot skimmer on a lupine flower. 

Later in the afternoon shadows fell across the flowers near me and the dragonflies moved about 30 yards away to be in the sun. So I picked up my camera and tripod and walked towards the dragonflies. Just as I got there I heard something moving in the grass and leaf litter. I realized it was a snake and tried to catch it.

The snake looked similar to a garter snake but was much faster than any garter snake I had ever caught. It took some quick action on my part, but I did catch the snake.

I was thrilled when I realized just what I was holding in my hands. I had just caught a ribbon snake, and it was only the second one I had ever seen or caught in Wisconsin. The photo at the top of the page and this one are both of that snake reflected in water.

 Ribbon snakes are very cool and very different than the garter snakes they resemble. The first noticeable difference is their speed, they are really fast. They also have a more slender body and a much longer tail. I could see a place about 6 inches from the tip of its tail where the tail could detach if a predator grabbed it. The snake I found had one injured eye (not shown in the photos), but still had all of its tail.

It took some real creativity for me to make any successful photos of this snake and I am really happy with the images I created of this not often seen Wisconsin critter.

Back to Crex Meadows

I was lucky enough to make it back to the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area near Grantsburg last weekend. I was hoping to find reptiles like bullsnakes, hognose snakes, and prairie skinks. The day started out sunny and I was optimistic.

I finally found this eastern hognose snake crossing a road bordering the wildlife area.

After I pulled safely to the side of the road I picked up the snake and moved it off the road in the direction it was travelling before any other cars came. The above photo shows the snake playing dead once I put it on the ground.

I noticed a small foot sticking out of the snake's mouth while I was moving it. Turns out the snake had just eaten an American toad which it spit out once I set it down.



I was sorry the snake lost its lunch because I moved it, but hoped that my help may have kept it from being run over on the road.

I then followed the snake as it travelled more than 100 yards away from the road off into some scrub oak trees. The snake seemed to draw a straight line as it moved through the terrain, stopping frequently to look around before continuing on.

This hognose snake was the only reptile I found or photographed all day, but I did see a black bear with her cub and lots of muskrats.