Toed Toad

I was working in the yard this afternoon over where the tiger salamander was discovered.  I turned toward my wheelbarrow and felt something on my shoe.  I looked down and there was this dusty, marked with dried dirt, toad.

The little guy somehow wound up on my tennis shoe.  There are no pictures as I felt I just needed to stand there and after a short time he moved on.

Kinda cool.

Whoohoo...

Baby Goldfish

Remember the story about the goldfish mating (here)?  Thought I would report that I still haven't seen any little goldfish.  Not say'n they aren't in there somewhere but you would think I'da found a few by now.

Your ever diligent observer is on the job and I'll report here at the first sign of gold!

Part 2 of "What'n Hell is THAT ?!?!"

Are you sitting in front of your computer all smug and aglow because you know what kind of creature we discovered in our yard on Thursday?  Do you even know the name? I hope so because in all my years I've see lots of creatures but never one like that and in the flesh, so to speak, too.  A good challenge don't you think?

That creature is a tiger salamander.  Some might call it a barred tiger salamander and others might just call it an icky lizard.  I have found there are a lot of folks that know about the tiger salamander.

For starters it is the state amphibian for the 34th state... as in Kansas.  Now if that doesn't impress you here is a bit more information about the tiger salamander:

The tiger salamander is the largest land-dwelling salamander in the world! The (barred) tiger salamander typically grows to 6 - 8 1/2 inches but has been measured as long as 14 inches. They are also long-lived with estimates that they may live for 20 years.  What's not so obvious is that they have only four toes on their front feet and five toes on their back feet.

It is hard to see in this picture which is why I
posted it.  Who would think yellow and black is
hard to see?

These large salamanders make a nice meal for many animals such as snakes, turtles, herons and fish. They, in turn, make a meal of insects, earthworms, small mice and even other amphibians.  Tiger salamanders best avoid predators by a nocturnal and secretive lifestyle. They are active under the cover of darkness and spend most of their time in underground burrows or in thick vegetation near water. This salamander may take cover in mammal burrows or, if the soil is soft enough, they will dig out their own shelter.

Tiger salamanders have a fascinating and adaptable life process. Typically, tiger salamander larvae feed and grow during the spring and early summer and metamorphose two to five months after hatching. However, some populations never metamorphose. If the water system where they live is permanent and the environment surrounding this water system is dry and inhospitable, they may retain gills and a wide tail fin, crucial larval characteristics that allow them to live underwater. These salamanders mature in the water and even are able to mate and reproduce, although they maintain the body of an immature salamander. This process is called neoteny. Other tiger salamanders, in response to the seasonal drying out of their aquatic habitat, must be able to metamorphose on demand. They even may metamorphose if they are removed from water and handled temporarily.

Those tiger salamanders that are lucky enough to breed, either as terrestrial or aquatic salamanders, usually do so in late winter, but breeding may take place whenever there is enough moisture. Once the female has attached her egg masses to underwater debris in temporary pools, she has nothing more to do with them. They hatch three to five weeks later, depending on water temperature.

The tiger salamander ranges from central Nebraska to northeastern Mexico. They are distributed throughout Texas except for the eastern quarter.

You are really a trooper if you've managed to stay with me after all the "facts" about this "new to me" amphibian. 

Now the rest of the story... what we found in the pipe on Friday morning:
Nothing!  Apparently in the dark of night the tiger salamander decided it was better to beat a hasty retreat and fight another day than to stay with a decimated den.  That guy is no where to be found.

Wow, that was an exciting find.

Whoohoo!!

Thanks to Wikipedia and Google in getting the info on the tiger salamander

What'n Hell is THAT ?!?!

It's not a wonder it takes me so long to get things done.  Just a couple of days ago I went out to adjust the door to the skimmer.  It was a little low and as a result wasn't skimming the water surface properly.

I took the lid off the skimmer and adjusted the door.  I noted the skimmer basket needed to be cleaned so removed it for that purpose.  Once I removed the basket the water level in the skimmer rose a few inches and water started to pour into the overflow.  After about 15 or 20 seconds the water flow stopped... obviously the overflow pipe was clogged somewhere.

I cleaned the basket and returned it to the skimmer.  Then I selected tools to remove rocks and such so I could trace the skimmer overflow pipe.  I felt I needed to fix the cloged pipe.  I found the pipe and the clog and immediately deduced the need for a larger overflow pipe as the one there was reduced from 2 inches to 3/4's of an inch thus the reason for getting clogged up.

I decided to extend the 2 inch pipe to our french drain which is a 4 inch pipe.  My thinking is a 4 inch pipe would surely take care of anything a lowly overflow might send it's way.  So I started to search for the french drain.

The french drain is on the right, the PVC fitting is white.

I found the french drain.  I also found the 4 inch french drain pipe terminated into a PVC fitting that split the pipe into three 2 inch pipes that, in turn, ran into the wood retaining wall that separates my property from the detention area on the east side of our property.  I wasn't particularly impressed with the design and considering the PVC pipe connections were done with duct tape I was even less impressed with the whole mess.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do.  If I were to run the overflow into the french drain then I would have to seriously alter the split into three 2 inch pipes.  I also ran some water into the french drain to see how it was draining into the detention area.  I found it finally did drain but only after leaking like a sieve as the duct tape had deteriorated and some of the connections had separated.

I decided to pull the whole mess out and just re-pipe it.  I was going to remove all the splits and 2 inch pipe, connect a fitting to allow the overflow to drain into the french drain and also allow me to extend the four inch french drain to the detention area.

Armed with my reciprocating saw I deftly cut the french drain at the precise location determined by measurements, luck, eye-balling, a hope and a prayer, a special pencil mark and the shadow of a nearby shrub.

We're getting to the good part of the story now!

With the french drain cut I started to remove the plumbing from the cut to the retaining wall.

As I pulled the first 2 inch pipe out that's when I saw it!  Ginger was standing near and I looked where the pipe had been and there, in living black and yellow, was the creature pictured below:

I pointed to the creature and said, "What'n Hell is THAT?"

The creature looked stunned and wasn't moving.  I didn't see any wounds but I thought I might have dealt the creature a fatal blow when removing the 2 inch pipe.  Once I got my wits about me I ran for my camera.  I started taking pictures about the time the creature recovered from it's sudden exposure to the afternoon sun.  It slowly crawled to the shade of the now upended pipe I had just pulled from the ground.

The creature was on the far side of the pipe in this picture.  It crawled to the base of the pipe and then crawled into the pipe.

We decided to leave the little guy alone and let it regain it's senses. After all, one can only endure so much trauma per day.

So I'll close this chapter of the story with the creature holed up in a 2 inch PVC pipe after being abruptly and violently ousted from it's moist and protected niche under the leaking terminus of our french drain.

What kind of creature is this?  What will happen to it?  Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

Whoohoo!!!

Lily Pad Update

It's a rainy day at Red Tail Ridge.  About time me thinks, I've never lived anywhere that has such an often prediction of rain and such little reality.  Finally, it arrived last night. 

To celebrate the occasion 2 out of 3 lily pads have broken the surface of the pond.  We've never had lily pads before and was amazed at how fast they grew once they got started.  I don't know what the story is on the one that seems stunted as it was looking good when I posed the announcement that they were growing (story here).

As promised here is the lily pad updated picture:

I'm sure there will be future pictures of the lily pads if they survive.

Whoohoo...

It's a Coming Out Party!

My favorite time of year has been and for the rest of my days will be, spring.  Here is why:

Blossoms from our pear tree.

These will be leaves on our purple ash tree.

The ground cover is coming alive... Hello, Creeping Jenny.

A little new with the old.  Spring on the left side of the pot and winter is still holding on to the right side.  Creeping phlox coming alive.

Our weeping mulberry tree is a tangle of limbs.  The leaves are just starting to emerge.

The "lip-lips" are short lived but oh so beautiful.  If someone could create a strain that lasted into summer they would become very rich, very fast.

Vivid!

Blooming flowers are a work in process.  A bottoms up approach.  These guys smell wonderful.  Purple hyacinth I think I love you.

Our apple tree is singing SPRING loud and clear!

Apple blossoms.  So many colors.

Apple blossoms with dainty shadows on the flower petal.

More bottoms up maturing.  Pink hyacinth, I love you too!











And that my friends is just a quick peek at why I love spring....

Spring Carol by Robert Louis Stevenson

WHEN loud by landside streamlets gush,
And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush,
With sun on the meadows
And songs in the shadows
Comes again to me
The gift of the tongues of the lea,
The gift of the tongues of meadows.

Straightway my olden heart returns
And dances with the dancing burns;
It sings with the sparrows;
To the rain and the (grimy) barrows
Sings my heart aloud -
To the silver-bellied cloud,
To the silver rainy arrows.

It bears the song of the skylark down,
And it hears the singing of the town;
And youth on the highways
And lovers in byways
Follows and sees:
And hearkens the song of the leas
And sings the songs of the highways.

So when the earth is alive with gods,
And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,
And the grass sings in the meadows,
And the flowers smile in the shadows,
Sits my heart at ease,
Hearing the song of the leas,
Singing the songs of the meadows.

Future Lily Pads

Last year we planted lily pads (click here to go there).  I'll be darned if those pads aren't growing and will probably reach the surface of the pond in early May. 

Whoohoo.

More Mating and Fish Facts

Yesterday the female and male nearest the top of this picture were
mating.  Today it's the same male and the white/orange female
centered in this picture. Tomorrow?  We'll see.

I say he's simply promiscuous.  But if he were a human he would be labeled a womanizer, playboy, stud, player, ladies' man, lady killer, and/or rake. Some would call the male fish that was contributing milt to yesterdays mating all those names or more as today he is, again, contributing to the mating of another female ripe with eggs.  Some say Gigolo, I say, WOW, what stamina!

Here are some fish facts I found on the internet:

I read that one of the things spurring goldfish to mate is the warming after the winter cold.  They are very quiet when the water temperature is down into the 30's.  When the water warms into the 60's if they are going to mate it will probably be then.  Some breeders will artificially mimic a short winter to spur the fish to mate. If there are no male fish the female may still lay eggs.

Goldfish need to be about 2 years old to mate and some won't mate until about 4 years old.

The fertile eggs are translucent.  Eggs that are opaque are not fertile and will soon spoil.  The eggs are heavier than water so will sink to the bottom.  In the case of my pond, most will filter down into the rocks.

The amount of time for the eggs to mature and hatch is dependent on the water temperature.  One estimate I read was about 7 days to hatch if the water temperature was around 65 degrees.  A temperature difference of just a few degrees has a big impact on the speed of maturity.

The eggs are less than 1/8th inch in diameter.  When they hatch the fry are described as a translucent body with 2 eyes.  I have seen references stating; "they grow fast."  So far I have no idea if that means they will be 3 inches long by June or 1 inch long in October.  Guess I'll find out.

The fry will stay hidden in the rocks and out of the way of the bigger fish or they may become breakfast (so much for motherly love).  They will eat algae and microscopic (to humans anyway) creatures.  I have no plans on feeding any of the fish.

A mature female goldfish can lay thousands of eggs.  If only half were to get fertilized I foresee a whole lot of little gold/white creatures in the pond.  I imagine the mature fish, birds, frogs and toads will keep the population manageable... I sure don't want to have to do anything like "cull the school" ... ugh!  Hopefully it will be a self balancing population.

Whoohoo!

Big Fish Make'n Little Fish

It can't be denied!  Spring is to what I'm referring.  The fish in the pond have come out of hiding and one pair is obviously doing that procreation thing.

The pair swims around with the male brushing up against the female.  She will slow or even stop someplace and quiver then he quivers and they move on.  In my ever so humble opinion she is depositing eggs and he is offering milt to seal the deal.

It's afternoon as I write this and they have been doing this "dance" since the sun rose over the yardarm right after dark-thirty.  Surely they will sleep well tonight.

The female is orange, the male is white/orange.  He is in position to encourage her to lay eggs and also positioned to contribute his part in this mating dance.

From time to time the pair would swim right out the the water onto rocks.  My thought was they were trying to lay eggs in locations that were not readily accessible to other fish.  Note the pair of voyeurs watching.  One excursion to the shallows resulted in them frightening the resident leopard frog who was able to leap out of what he though was harms way.

I expect we will have little orange and white fish (fry) in a couple of weeks.

Of course you'll be able to read about it in this very blog!

Whoohoo!!