August 2024

August 2 Today I was by myself out at the Bluff. Rebecca had other commitments and Abigail, while in route home, was still out of the country. Since arriving, I had been busy dragging hoses around trying to water trees from the two tanks which are part of the catchment system. It was still early and there had been few visitors. I heard a female voice say good morning but didn’t respond because she was some distance away and I thought she was talking to someone else. I had noticed her earlier and noticed she had a small dog on a very long leash. She and her dog were close to the butterfly garden then and I was hoping she wouldn’t let the dog crap in the garden as sometimes happens.

When she repeated her greeting I realized she was talking to me and I responded. Then she said there was a western diamond back rattle snake next to one of the planter boxes. I strolled over to take a look. The snake was up against the planter box in a defensive posture, no doubt in response to the dog. The lady and dog had moved some distance away and I stood still so the snake relaxed and began to slither toward the visitor center building. I was in its path but moved out of the way as it got closer. I watched it until it went under some vegetation next to the building. I figured it was just going under the building. I was told measures aren’t taken to relocate snakes unless they are out in the open where they could be a hazard to visitors.

Since I assumed the rattler was just going under the building to get out of the sun, I went on about my business. Later I was putting up the hoses I had strung here and there to water trees. I went around a tank on the south side of the visitor center, the opposite side from where I had seen Mr. Diamond Back, to disconnect the hose and saw that slithery gentleman in the process of swallowing a rabbit. I was able to disconnect the hose without getting close enough to make either one of us uncomfortable.

Since then, having thought about the encounter, I think what I saw was behavior I’ve read about. Seems a venomous snake will ambush its prey, delivering a lethal bite. The victim, in this case a full grown rabbit, scampers of but eventually succumbs to the effects of the venom. The snake follows along at a leisurely pace using its tongue to scent or taste the trail until it finds its prey, which by then is dead, and swallows it whole. If that is the case, rabbit encountered snake some distance away and only made it as far as the tank where I witnessed the proceedings. The snake did seem to be moving purposefully in a single direction, not meandering as it might if it were hunting.

Nature is harsh, especially when witnessed up close and personal. Old diamond backs have to eat too, but if I were a rabbit and was ambushed like this one was, I would run as far as I could, preferably across a highway to exact my vengeance before I expired.

August 11 Meanwhile out at the Bluff, it was just me and Abigail. Rebecca had a prior engagement. We were working on getting water to some of the trees when a couple of roadrunners appeared and began offering a leaf for, well, I’m not sure what. Food, I guess. One hopped up on a picnic table where I was working and offered a leaf it had picked up but I had nothing to barter with so it moved on. Later I saw it panhandling a couple with a little boy. I think the boy was feeding it something. The roadrunners were probably Wild West Wildlife Rebab alums.

The plants including the shrubs in the garden were stripped of their leaves. At first I thought it was because it was so dry out there, but then someone mentioned clouds of grasshoppers and that was most likely the cause of the denuding. There were still plenty of grasshoppers still around but nothing like what must have descended on the butterfly garden. Last week we watered as much as we had time to, wasn’t much else we could do.

August 25 This past week at the Bluff, Abigail found the smallest horny toad I’ve ever seen. It could have fit comfortably on a dime. Later I found one about nickel sized. I’m glad to see the horny toad population prospering. I just hope the roadrunners we’ve seen around lately don’t get them.

Abigail also saw a snake and pointed it out to me. It was a bull snake and the biggest I’ve ever seen. Handsome specimen, too.

Since the duck didn’t hatch out any ducklings, for whatever reason, we started the process of cleaning up the enclosure. We had avoided going in there when we thought the hen was on the nest and the weeds took advantage of our neglect. I noticed there weren’t many frogs. In fact, I haven’t seen any. There has been a strong population for year, but now there doesn’t seem to be any. I don’t know what could account for that. Did the duck eat them? Doesn’t seem likely. It might eat a few, but I’m not seeing any. Sixty to 70 years ago, the grasshoppers were bad one summer and the people across the street sprayed insecticide which wound up decimating the frog population on SA, but that was a long time ago. There were lots of dead frogs around after the spraying, but I don’t see any dead frogs now and conclude the current dearth is not because of a repeat of the 50’s disaster. There seem to be lots of minnows in the pond. Seems like the high heat the area has been experiencing would, if anything, concentrate the frogs in the pond. Frogs will wander off the reservation when there is enough rain, but it’s not a mass exodus. For that matter, what happened to the duck eggs? I’ve looked where the nest was, and I don’t see anything; can’t even tell where the nest was.

August 27 When we moved back to Six Acres, there was a medium sized tree in the north lane, a mulberry tree, I believe. It was growing far enough to the side of the lane that it didn’t impede getting down the lane in the pickup. I considered cutting it down, but decided to just leave it. For all these years I have been encountering seedling trees of various kinds around: lots of elms, hackberries and others. There was one that was prevalent, but I didn’t know what it was. This year I’ve spent a lot of time removing seedlings underneath the junipers on the perimeter. They can be pulled if they are small enough and the ground isn’t bone dry, but not easily. Pulling is best as long as one gets much of the root. Otherwise, they just grow back. Spraying works too, but not quickly and it may require more than one dose.

The unidentified seedling was plentiful, and, in fact, there was a miniature forest of them between a couple of junipers in the northeast corner. I got them all pulled, cussing every one as I worked and wondering for the umpteenth time what the heck they were and where they were coming from. Safe to say, the birds were distributing their seeds in their droppings

Then this morning I was pulling weeds in the north lane when I encountered yet another seedling of the unknown variety. I bent over to pull it and, lo, it wasn’t a seedling but a sucker growing from the base of the aforementioned mulberry. It’s a shame to be so slow, but now I believe I know what the culprit is and I’m itching to take my chainsaw to it. The birds will just have to find another food source, one that doesn’t cause the grounds crew so much work.

August 31 We have reached the end of this month, and, boy, was it a hot one. There were several new records for heat set. Funny thing, though, we exceeded our last 16-years average August rainfall. The latest came last Sunday evening and the following Friday morning. The two together totaled and inch. We’ve been mowing this week, and it looks like we will be mowing for a few more weeks, even if we don’t get more rain. Oh well, Abigail prefers mowing to weeding. I do too, but we only have one mower.