Herp de Derp

I got to play with so many herps (bio nerd speak for reptiles and amphibians) today! It was the best day and I learned so much! I'm sharing with you both so that I remember and in the hopes that I can spread the herp love far and wide. ...Hang on, that didn't sound right.

Southern Toad
Bufo terrestris

Sounds like this. Will not give you warts, I promise.

Six-lined Racerunner
Aspidoselis sexlineata

LOOK AT THOSE AMAZING TOES! They have huge feet, super long tails, and racing stripes: no wonder they are nearly impossible to catch by hand! (Luckily, this one stumbled into our trap, muahahaha).

Fence Lizard
Sceloporous undulatus

LOOK AT THIS TINY DRAGON! Look at how bright blue his beautiful belly is! Look at those spiny keeled scales down their back which makes them feel like Velcro! My new favorite lizard, partially because of how beautiful he is, partially because this guy got out of my hands and climbed all over my back and down my leg and was generally adorable, and partially because they are big predators for bot flies and chiggers, the latter having recently become the bane of my existence. As my Magic Field Guide says: "Does no damage. Entirely worthy of protection, which it does not often get."

Black Racer
Coluber constrictor

Little, light, speedy, agile. Despite the Latin moniker, does not constrict prey. Also, this was the first snake I actually got to pit tag (basically like micro-chipping your dog but underneath their scales). He was really very sweet about it.

Gray Rat Snake
Pantherophis spiloides

Locals call this an Oak Snake, probably because they are especially good climbers and are often found up trees. This one is a baby, probably less than a year old! Isn't he gorgeous?

Corn Snake/Red Rat Snake
Pantherophis guttatus

Absolutely stunning. Look at that color! The black and white checkered underbelly! In love. Definitely the most active and squirmy of the snakes I held today, but in the exact same exploring, non-bitey way the captive corn/red rat snake we have at the office was.

Coachwhip Snake
Masticophis flagellum

Coachwhip snakes: beautiful bullwhips with eyes! I adore these guys. We caught five today! They are ENORMOUS. Just massive. All of the ones we caught today were somewhere between 5-6+ feet! Also they are fun because they are extremely menacing in the trap, wiggling all over and striking and biting the glove, but as soon as you get them in hand they go completely limp, as seen above.

Also, even though they are enormous, coachwhip snakes are super fast! Maybe even faster than black racers! From my Magic Field Guide: "Speed is phenomenal, and to catch it, one must almost reach ahead of it."

Also from my Magic Field Guide: apparently slaves were told that coachwhip snakes would whip them with their tails to scare them and keep them from running away into "unsettled country" where the snakes lived. They do not do that, incidentally.

Another fun fact I learned today: technically all snakes are venomous - they all have the venom gland - they just don't all have fangs to deliver the venom. Coachwhips do not. But! All snakes have anti-coagulant in their saliva so if you do get bitten by any snake it will bleed. A lot. Luckily, I did not learn this the hard way. Also luckily, most snakes, venomous or not, really don't want to bite you.

Reptiles and amphibians are fantastic! The vast majority are not scary, and even the scary ones pretty much just want to get away from you. Not a single one of these guys tried to bite me once they were in my hands or once I released them. Reptiles are friends!

SNAKE HUG! ...For real he just wrapped around me and rested like that. <3

Earth Day Resolutions 2016

Last year on Earth Day I got incredibly fed up and ranted on my personal blog about how frustrating I find the lackluster celebration of this miraculous place that we live and are also slowly killing on a daily basis (here) and called for an Earth Day tradition that will actually accomplish something, even in a small way. Everything I said in that post is compounded by the recent scientific study showing that 93% of the Great Barrier Reef is bleached and 50% is dead (here). The video in that last link is heartbreaking. One of the greatest and most meaningful experiences in my life - personal and professional - was living at the Lizard Island Research Station in Australia and snorkeling on the GBR every day. I cannot put into words how beautiful, otherworldly, and completely transformative it is. The fact that National Geographic reported that it's possible the entire reef, the largest living organism on the planet, could be dead by 2050...it's too big and too sad to comprehend.

And that, I think, is the essential problem. Climate change is too large to hold in your mind. If you actually thought about the impact we are collectively having on the planet and what it will mean even within our lifetime it would crush you and so you don't think about it all that much. That is certainly my instinct. It is so hard to care about something so big and so hard, especially in our disposable, consumer culture which constantly tells you not to care. But I really think no one has said it better than the Lorax:

The Lorax, Dr. Suess

Last fall I was lucky enough to work on and attend the Midwest Youth Climate Convergence, in which youth from all over the Midwest came together to talk and learn and strategize. It was an incredibly reifying experience because there were hundreds of us who gave up our Halloween weekend to come together and learn about the climate fights we're all fighting - from high schoolers who volunteer for interfaith groups encouraging sustainability to folks who started their own companies to reforest parts of India or to help get neighborhoods switched over to renewable energy sources, to a group who started an organic farm co-op in southern Minnesota. We brainstormed about stopping oil pipelines and getting universities and cities to divest from fossil fuels and how to grow a green economy. I went to talks on how the current system is being maintained and why it is necessarily broken and also how to use the system to create companies to do good (taught by the same guy, who was awesome) and through all of it we focused on justice and compassion and love. Although the issues we were tackling were huge and terrifying, it was probably the most hopeful I have ever felt because we all cared so much and we were all acting and we were all together.

The climate movement is real. We're not alone. It's hard, being fairly nomadic and isolated at this time in my life, to feel that way but there is a great community of folks doing a huge diversity of things who all care passionately. And so despite the broken system and despite the warming planet and despite the doomsday news there is reason for hope.

But we need more folks, to do big things and small. And so I am once again challenging you to make some Earth Day Resolutions! Remember to make them achievable, something small you can keep in mind even when you can't hold the enormity of climate change. Here are mine for this year:

1. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store every time. This INCLUDES the reusable mesh bags for produce. I made this one last year and was not the best at following through. Just keep them in your car all the time and don't forget to bring them into the store!
2. Continue to improve my outreach skills, talk about issues, and volunteer to help with social media/media outreach. I like writing about things that I'm passionate about. I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to get better. It's hard to volunteer from afar and it's hard to try to plug in to new groups wherever I go, so it might even just be blogging here more and trying to get folks excited about the things I love about nature. To love a thing is to defend it.
3. Buy locally sourced (at least domestic, and as local as possible) produce. Learn to cook more things if the thing I want isn't in season (this will be considerably easier in Florida, I imagine).
4. Buy second-hand stuff as much as possible.
5. Recycle some old shirts I don't wear anymore and use them as rags and brush cleaners so I don't use as many paper towels.

Those are mine. I look forward to seeing yours. Remember: we're all in this together.

When is an Oak Tree an Evergreen?

When it's a live oak!

One of my absolute favorite trees is the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana). They range from Virginia to Texas, mostly along the coast as they like moist sandy soil and flooding. I love them because they are huge, gnarly, excellent climbing trees that are green all through the winter.

Don't you just NEED to climb it? This is "The Big Tree" in Texas, about 500 years old and not even the oldest one!

Yes, they are an oak species (Quercus is the same genus as the bur and white oaks in the Midwest) that keeps its leaves all winter! It's wonderful! It makes all winter seem like early spring to someone who is used to snow and everything looking dead. The crazy part, though, is that they lose their leaves in the spring and grow new ones basically immediately, which means that springtime in Charleston (and anywhere else there are a lot of live oaks) looks like this:

But then also like this:

The live oaks do a neat trick of growing new leaves as the old ones fall so they never really look barren and dead even when dead leaves are strewn around their roots in huge piles. New leaves look like this:

You might recognize that as "not what oak leaves look like". They usually look like this:

http://justpict.com/image-white-oak-leaf.html

Live oak leaves are thick, leathery, waxy, unlobed, and much smaller than species like white and bur oaks. The thick waxiness helps them withstand salt spray in their coastal range. I couldn't find anything in my research as to why their leaves are shaped so differently (I looked). My best guess is that the adaptation helps them survive in the high winds of the coast. They are extremely sturdy and durable trees and in many areas are constantly windblown. I think large, thin, lobed leaves like other oaks would blow off, killing the tree even though it is strong enough to withstand it.

And they are extremely strong. They live for hundreds and hundreds of years in incredibly harsh conditions - windblown, salt-sprayed, surviving hurricanes and floods. They grow fast and they grow heavy and tough. Before they were largely ornamental shade trees, they were used for shipbuilding. In fact, the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" was actually made of live oak. For context, it was launched in 1797, survived several battles at sea during the war of 1812, was active for nearly 100 years, and still sails - the oldest warship still afloat.

http://newenglandboating.com/

Whooops I digressed from Natural History Nerd to just plain History Nerd. Sorry about that! Anyway, the point is: live oak trees are the greatest. They are beautiful and wonderful and they live so long that they've collapsed spring and fall into the same season. There is basically nowhere better to be than up a live oak tree.