Wildlife Observations: April 17, 2020
Love and War
A garter snake practicing social distancing near Ridley Creek in Rose Valley. Photo: Silla Prown
Common garter snake. Photo: David Creagan
Common garter snake in the Crum Woods. Photo: Steve Katz
American toads mating. Photo: Lily Scott
In my last column,“Herp Alert,” I mentioned two snakes in the act of mating that were undeterred by my approach, fleeing into the creek, still conjoined in flagrante. Continuing that theme, Lily Scott of Swarthmore submitted a photograph of two American toads doing the dance with no pants, making the beast with two backs, or whatever your euphemism of choice may be. Much like the snakes, these toads were not deterred by the clear and present threat posed by an eastern ribbon snake that slithered right over them! Surely the snake was hoping for a meal, but its eyes and stomach were larger than its jaws. Those toads were just too big to eat.
A pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers spent about 30 minutes checking out a rhododendron on my front lawn this past weekend. I was hoping they would take up residence and build a nest, but they have not reappeared. Wood duck pairs continue to show in the Crum Woods, both in the creek and perched in trees. Eastern screech owls have been heard calling for mates at dusk in the woods, too, as well as near the intersection of Harvard and Park avenues.
David Henderson of Swarthmore reports that on a foray into the Crum Woods he saw an eastern red-backed salamander (in the grayish lead-back phase), a mallard duck, and what was either a beaver or a groundhog. He didn’t get a good enough look at its tail to make a positive identification.
Andrew E. Huemmler of Swarthmore reports that the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order has provided him with the time and opportunity to hone his birding skills. As a result, he has observed a brown-headed cowbird and a golden-crowned kinglet in Union Park, an eastern phoebe on Harvard Avenue, a sharp-shinned hawk, and a red-tailed hawk with a rodent in its clutches headed towards Haverford Avenue, a Cooper’s hawk in hot pursuit. “This led me to believe the Cooper’s had a nest nearby. Why else would a Coop take on a red-tail? Sure enough, I saw the Cooper’s the next day carrying a twig and followed it to its nest near the top of one of the tallest trees in the neighborhood. It will be near impossible to see once the leaves come out.” Finally, he observed a group of about a dozen great blue herons (whose group name is a “siege” — a siege of herons) riding thermals in circles high above Swarthmore.
David Creagan submitted a photograph of a common garter snake in his yard, and Steve Katz contributed a photograph of a common garter snake in the Crum Woods. Silla Brown of Rose Valley submitted a photograph of a ribbon snake taken in Ridley Creek in Rose Valley.
Andrea Knox observed a mourning cloak butterfly in her Riverview Road yard. I believe this is the first report of this species of butterfly in this column.
Bob Steinke submitted a great video of a pileated woodpecker pecking away at a tree cavity, probably for purposes of nesting.
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