Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Mating Season of the Black Rat Snake

Came home this afternoon and saw 2 Black Rat snakes at the edge of the driveway wrapped around each other.  They then went into the stone wall and out the other side.  A few seconds later a third Black Rat snake joined in the wrap.  All the snakes were over 3 feet long.  Must be mating season!







When a female snake is ready to mate, she begins to release a special scent (pheromones) from skin glands on her back. As she goes about her daily routine, she leaves an odor trail as she pushes off resistance points on the ground. If a sexually mature male catches her scent, he will follow her trail until he finds her. The male snake begins to court the female by bumping his chin on the back of her head and crawling over her. When she is willing, she raises her tail. At that point, he wraps his tail around hers so the bottoms of their tails meet at the cloaca -- the exit point for waste and reproductive fluid. The male inserts his two sex organs, the hemipenes, which then extend and release sperm. Snake sex usually takes under an hour, but it can last as long as a whole day.
Female snakes reproduce about once or twice a year; however, the methods of birth vary among species. Some snakes give birth to live young (from one to 150 at a time), while others lay eggs (from one to 100 at a time); some even combine these methods by holding eggs internally until they hatch, and the babies are born live. For the most part, female snakes do not sit on their eggs like a hen, but in some cases they will protect their eggs (and their young) for a few days after they leave the mother's body.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Wild Turkeys

Over a dozen turkeys this morning getting some breakfast of cracked corn.   And, yes, it is March 28th and it is snowing again.  Everyone is waiting for Spring to arrive!




Thursday, December 11, 2014

Friday, December 5, 2014

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Juvenile) with bird kill

Unfortunately, from time to time, we have a bird kill in the yard by various hawks which reside in the surrounding woods.  We are partially to blame when a bird is killed because we have multiple bird feeders on the property.  Today this juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk captured a dove this morning.   He did not take his catch away (as they usually do) but de-feathered and eat his catch on the lawn.  He stayed on the lawn for over 30 minutes until we went out and chased it away.
















Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Young Buck

Another buck showed up in the late afternoon today along with the 8-point buck from the other day.  At one point, we thought there was going to be a fight between them.  This young buck has beautiful markings!  He is probably about 2 years old.



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Beautiful 8-point Buck

Beautiful buck on the property yesterday.  He was intently watching our does eating their breakfast and followed them into the woods.  Bridget got the first photo early in the morning.