UP

This morning after watering the front yard plants and pulling some weeds in the back, I remembered a report on National Public Radio's Morning Edition this past Thursday. There was a feature story about the world of insects that travel in the airspace far above our heads. As usual, the radio alarm is my wake-up-call, so I may not have paid a lot of attention to it had I not recognized the name of one of the entomologists being interviewed who happens to be at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.

"Sometimes insects and spiders need to leave where they are and go someplace else for food, for sex, for space. For a variety of reasons bugs disperse. You can see them launching themselves," says entomologist Matt Greenstone. "They just stand straight up on their little back legs and just by doing that they can get part of their body up into this layer [of air] where it’s more turbulent and then, if you can get a ride on a parcel that's going up, you can get off the ground and then if you’re lucky you can get carried aloft."

Looking UP this morning, I saw dragon flies, various wasps, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly,  a bumble bee - all flying here and there, as well as now and in the past some of the regular songbirds seen down low, and other birds like crows and gulls that never come down into our back yard. There is an amazing amount of activity that goes on up there - a glimpse of what the reporter mentioned in her story above.

Earlier in the year I kept track of the soaring birds I noticed when looking UP while commuting to and from work on Route 50. There is a place just west of Bowie where there is a natural area that must border a drainage that runs under the freeway. Quick glimpses UP have scored Bald Eagle, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Canada Geese, Red-tailed Hawk, Osprey, and even a Snowy Egret.

There is also the UP at night when thunder storms come rolling in when there are no birds in flight as far as I can tell, and no sounds of bird songs or calls - just the continuous silhouette of the trees against a dark gray background UP above with the the sounds of rain falling on the patio canvas awning, the wind chimes tinkling, and the steady drone pitch of the HVAC system on top of the elementary school across the fence from our back yard, all broken by the rumbling thunder and occasional cracks of lightning. It seems that we have had more thunder and rain showers this summer than the past four. To watch and hear an example of the stormy night UP above the trees, go to the link here.
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Down, too

Back in spring there was a Rough Green Snake, Opheodrys aestivus, hanging around (literally) in our knockout rose bushes near the front porch. The Rough Green Snake grows to almost 100 cm in length. The dorsal coloration is green and the belly is yellowish white. Juveniles look very similar except they are paler green. Females lay up to 12 eggs a year in a variety of places such as leaf litter, in rotting logs and stumps, and under wood boards. This species is semi-aquatic and is generally found in the vegetation that over hangs the streams. The rough green snake climbs vines and bushes and is camouflaged very well. Its diet mainly consists of grasshoppers, spiders, slugs, snails, moth and butterfly larvae, and crickets.

Also a couple of weeks ago when opening the compost bin, I was surprised to see an Eastern Garter Snake balled up on top of the composting materials. If I would have thought for half a second before tossing in  the dried daylily stalks and other trimmings, I would have gone to get my camera. Instead the snake slithered down the side of the inside of the bin out of sight.

Information about the snakes found in Maryland along with a check list can be found here.