Weird Wasps

I bought a new 'outside' broom to sweep up all the sunflower seed hulls that had collected on my patio from my bird feeder.  I went to put it in my shed which I hadn't been in for a few weeks and was met by a strange sight.

Some industrious little wasp had started to build a nest on the handle of the can of stuff I use to fix leaks in my roof! (I lent some of the 'stuff' to my neighbor a month or two ago and there was definitely not a wasp's nest on the handle then!)  Only a very small area is actually attaching the nest to the handle.

Other wasps have built nests in my shed that are in a more sensible location - on the roof.

The little one on the handle is actually an interesting feat of engineering and kind of beautiful in its geometricness.  (Is that a word?)  It looks like a flower seed pod.

I haven't moved it yet.  I also have yet to see any actual wasp working on it or entering it, so I don't know if it's a 'live' nest or whether whoever started it had second thoughts about its location.  I'll continue to check on it and see if it gets any bigger.  Hopefully, I won't have any leaks in my roof anytime soon.

Raising Cane

Cane toads - everywhere!  Literally millions of them.  That's the problem that northeastern Australia is having.  In the 1930s cane toads were deliberately introduced in areas where cane beetles were destroying sugar cane crops with the hopes that the toads would go after the beetles.  Turns out cane toads couldn't reach the areas in the sugar cane where the beetles hide; using the toads as pest control was a total bust.  Not only a bust, but it has turned into an environmental disaster.  Cane toads are very prolific and one female can produce thousands of eggs twice a season.  The cane toads started killing all kinds of would-be predators due to their toxic skin.  And not only are the adults poisonous, but its eggs and tadpoles are as well.  Now endemic species, including native frog and many other species that the toads eat, are in danger of being wiped out, and all kinds of schemes have been and are being hatched to get rid of the toads.

Photo by Tim Laman   Source:  National Geographic

In its native Central and South America, some natural predators have evolved to become immune to the cane toads poisonous glands on its back, keeping its numbers under control.  But in areas where the toad has been introduced, predators such as snakes, dingos, and even crocodiles are dying because they have not yet had the time to counteract it.

Cane toads have been responsible for the death of pets, also by poisoning them.  And the toads that will eat almost anything have been known to go after pet food left outside.  However, the tables have been turned as scientists have discovered one of Australia's smallest natural predators is able to kill young cane toads - carnivorous meat ants.  Dollops of cat food are used to attract the ants to areas where the baby toads are coming out of ponds.  The ants then swarm the baby toads and kill 70% of them.

Source:  Sydney Morning Herald

Another unexpected natural predator is the crow!  The crows haven't become immune to the poison, but they have learned to grab a leg, flip the toad over on its back and go for the soft underbelly, thus avoiding the poison.  Magpies have also been seen using a similar procedure.  I told you in my 'Birdbrain? Balderdash!' post that birds are pretty smart.

Source:  Wikipedia

Some good news, if you can call it that, is that cane toads are literally eating themselves out of house and home - some starving to death because they've wiped out their food sources.  Populations of some endangered species have been moved to islands to protect them from further decimation from the toads.

The moral of the story - don't mess with mother nature!  Introducing one species to wipe out another, sometimes does more harm than good.  For a video, click here.

Success 2

I talked about my beautiful little house finch in my 'A Little This, A Little That" post.  At the time I said that I hadn't yet seen the female, and, of course, there is one and I have now seen it.  But it's the male naturally that stands out and continues to bedazzle.  Saturday morning he was sitting in the sun at my bird feeder and the bright raspberry color on his head just glowed.  Here are just a few pictures I wanted to share with you.

Charming Chipmunks

A while back I was outside and happened to notice that one of the 'outside' cats (will be doing a post on them soon) had something cornered by a pile of loose bricks by my shed.  I shooed the cat away and picked up one of the bricks to see what the cat was so interested in - it was a little chipmunk.  I had never seen any around before this so was surprised at my find.  I put the brick back and walked away hoping to give it a chance to get away.  I came back a little later and it was still there.  I got a few seeds from the bag of birdseed and sprinkled them around in case it was hungry and again walked away.  I'm assuming that it did finally escape, because that evening I checked and it was gone.  I then took care to stack the bricks a bit more strategically to offer better refuge from any other would-be predator.  But I haven't seen any more.  Around here we get Eastern Chipmunks.

Source:  Wikipedia

How could you not love this little guy?  This particular species has the distinction of having two less teeth than other chipmunks, with 4 toes on their front paws and 5 on their back paws.  I could understand why this guy wouldn't last around here - predators include blue jays (of which there are plenty), and raccoons, as well as hawks and cats.  They eat seeds, nuts, fruit, plants including mushrooms, and insects among other things.

We saw lots of chipmunks in Colorado, especially around my parents' house in Estes Park.  The Colorado chipmunk looks a bit different than the Eastern variety with more distinctive stripes around its eyes.  And the Least Chipmunk, the smallest and most widespread in the U.S. has perhaps the most striking of all.

Colorado Chipmunk  Source:  Wikipedia

Least Chipmunk   Source:  Wikipedia

Both their diets are about the same as the Eastern variety.  All three have a maze of burrows that is used for both sleeping and food caching.  Chipmunks don't actually hibernate, but go into torpor or very slowed activity for the winter.

Also in Colorado we had lots of golden-mantled ground squirrels.  I actually enjoyed them even more than the chipmunks.  They seemed to have more extroverted personalities as well as being larger.  They were quite photogenic and seemed to enjoy posing for their 'close-up'.

Its diet and lifestyle are very like that of the chipmunk.  But UNlike the chipmunk, the ground squirrel does hibernate in the winter.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel took too long to say, so I used to call them all 'chippies' even though I knew the difference, but it used to drive my mother crazy.  Whether chippies or ground squirrels, as long as you aren't inundated by them they are charming indeed.

Baby Alert 3!

Tonight I heard some crunching under my window.  I looked out expecting to see the raccoons, but what I saw was a baby opossum.  It was not that small, but definitely not an adult.  Mom was not with it, just one lone youngster.  Somehow they're much cuter as babies than adults.  Of course, it was way too dark for a photo.  To see pictures and a story about an orphaned baby possum, click here.

Brief Encounters

Last Monday I was working a temp job in Cumberland, RI.  The place had a beautiful setting - lots of evergreen trees as well as deciduous trees and open spaces.  I arrived early and sat in my car eating a granola bar before starting work.  I had allowed extra time because it was the first time I had worked there and didn't know whether I would have trouble finding it or not.  As I sat there, a beautiful male bluebird flew in and landed on the back of the bench that was right in front of my car.  I don't ever see bluebirds around my house, so this was an unexpected treat.  It flew into a tree nearby, but then came back to the bench several times as I sat there.  I didn't have my camera with me, although I did have my cell phone, but never thought of taking it out.  I brought it the next day hoping to get a photo, but, of course, that day I didn't see it.

Source:  Wikipedia

Bluebirds are in the thrush family and are insect and fruit eaters.  They will eat seeds in the winter when insects are scarce, but they much prefer a juicy grasshopper or crunchy cricket.  They will also eat snails on occasion.

Photo by Richard Day/Animals Animals  Source:  National Geographic

Saturday I was sitting in my easy chair contemplating what my next blog post would be about :-)  and happened to glance out the window just in time to see a large bird flying overhead.  I could see the long legs dragging behind wide outspread wings.  I'm pretty sure it was a Great Blue Heron.  I do live somewhat near water, but not that close.  I have seen them before a couple of times; it is not a common sight, but a very welcome one.  It was flying away from the coast, but in the general direction of a large reservoir.

Source:  Wikipedia

Great blue herons live in North and Central America as well as some island groups.  There is also a population of great white herons that are found in southern Florida and the Caribbean. These herons are mostly fish eaters, but will eat crabs, insects, small mammals, and other small birds.

Source:  Wikipedia

It's always lovely to take a few moments out of an average day for one of nature's surprises.

Maned Things

I was going to do a post on the maned wolf.   I went to Wikipedia to look up some information, typed in 'maned' and all these other maned things came up.  A maned rat?  Maned owls?  Maned ducks?  Hmmm.

Also after reading about the maned wolf I realized that the information sounded vaguely familiar.  Yes, I talked about the maned wolf in my 'Mutual Admiration Society' post.  So this post will be about all the OTHER maned things.

First, the maned rat.  It's also called the crested rat and lives in east Africa.  It sort of resembles a large rat with a mohawk.

Source:  Wikipedia

With its striped coloring though you might mistake it for some weird looking skunk.  It eats leaves, fruit and other plant material, but will also eat insects.

The maned sloth is endemic to Brazil and only lives in the Brazilian coastal rainforest.  It is of the three-toed variety, and looks like a regular sloth except for a dark 'scarf' around its neck.

Source:  Zeke's

For more information on sloths, see my 'Slinking Sloths' post.

Now about those maned ducks.  They are also known as the maned goose, but I don't see a mane.  Do you?

Source:  Wikipedia

Also called the Australian Wood Duck, they are obviously from Australia.  Here's the female.

Source:  Wikipedia

Maybe Fuzzy Headed Duck would be more accurate.  Their most unusual characteristic?  They don't swim all that much.  They graze the grasslands in flocks and nest in tree cavities.

Next on the list is a maned blenny.  The Webster's New World Dictionary definition of a blenny is "any of various small marine percoid fishes with a long, many-rayed dorsal fin and a tapering body covered with slime."  What a lovely description.  Here's what it looks like.

Photo by J. E. Randall  Source: Fishbase

Isn't it cute?  This particular blenny is found in the shallower waters of the Indian Ocean.

When you think of a mane, fish don't normally come to mind, but there is another 'maned' fish, the maned goby.  It has three or four other names including the long-finned goby and the small-scaled goby.  Gobies are small spiny-finned fish whose "pelvic fins are united as a suction disk that clings to rocky surfaces." (also Webster's).  This goby is found in the Western Pacific.

Source:  Encyclopedia of Life

And last but not least, the maned owl.  Endemic to Africa it prefers rainforest canopy, not regular forest, for its home.  Not a lot is really known about it, including (again) why it's known as a maned owl!  To see a photo, click here.

As far as I'm concerned, I was a little disappointed with all these so called maned things. So to make up for it....

Photo by Chris Johns   Source:  National Geographic

Yeah, baby!  Now that's a mane!