Par Pond

22 in Largemouth Bass

Strand Feeding

While I wasn't able to capture it on video, we witnessed these dolphins strand feeding, where they would drive the fish onto shore for easier access. It was a pretty strange site to see them suddenly throw themselves onto the banks.  I was told that this is one of the only places in the U.S. where this occurs. 

 Dead Puffer Fish

Coachwhips

Terrapin Sampling at Kiawah Island

One of the prettier terrapins we caught.

The crew spent this past Friday and Saturday on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We were there to help Michael Dorcas, a professor at Davidson College, sample terrapins in salt marsh streams. Sampling could only happen about an hour before until an hour after low tide, so it wasn't long work, but it sure was hard work. We mostly seine netted, which involves stretching a large net across the stream and dragging it along the river as fast as you can. If done correctly and the stream isn't too deep, the weights on the net will drag along the bottom and the turtles will be forced to swim into a large pocket in the middle of the net. The entire time we were either dragging the nets over mud that could get thigh high or over oyster beds. Sandwich seining seemed to the most effective strategy, which involves two nets along the stream being dragged toward each other. Overall, I believe we caught somewhere between 80 and 90 terrapins! There were no casualties while we were there, but in the past people have been stung by stingrays and cut down to the bone by oysters, which can be razor sharp. However, despite the fact that it was hard work and potentially dangerous, it was blast and I really wish we could have stayed longer!

Unfortunately, I was unable to get any videos or images of us actually doing the seine netting.

Given they were from Walmart, this is what the oysters did to my brand new shoes.

Well I THOUGHT the person with my camera was taking other photos of me, but this is actually the only picture I have of me with a terrapin...

Our friendly neighborhood egret (missing half a toe):

White-eyed Vireo Nestlings

From this:

To this:

In 10 days

Snake-necked Turtle

Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze (and Patrick):

Caught this guy early one morning a couple of weeks ago when the temperature had dipped into the 30s. He was belly up, which no one had ever seen a rat snake do. He was probably so cold that he fell out of a tree. Probably saved his life!

Chuck

Chuck Will's Widow

Incubating:

Thirsty

Currently the area is suffering from a two year drought which is really hitting snakes hard. This is a yet to be named snake just after we caught him.

Our rat snakes at the lab:

Babies!

Yellow-billed Cuckoo incubating: