If You Love Them, Let Them Go.

Around a month ago, my older sister, Kari, and her fiancé (both my housemates), Kurt, found a very tiny little snake on our front porch. So small that they confused it with a worm at first - around 8cm long. But they saw that it was sidewinding, which is a trait particular to some poisonous rattlesnakes here in the desert, so they killed it and brought it to me.
I thought it was fascinating because the head was so miniscule you could barely see the eyes or mouth, and the tail was pointed. However, the specimen was smashed and hard to identify. Because it was silvery, my first conclusion was that it was a Silver Snake of Bonaire:

It did seem strange, though, that there would be one here. Perhaps a released pet?
Two weeks later, while helping Tobin move, I found the same snake - one of my own! I was so excited at the opportunity to watch its behaviors live and take a picture that I could use to help identify it. I didn't have our camera, so to do this I had to take it home for a bit. So I held it in my hand and it wound around and around my fingers, using its pointy tail to latch onto places it could hang from. When it realized finally that it wasn't getting eaten, it settled down and quit squirming.
Here it is in a cup - very difficult to focus this photo, but if you click it it gets larger. Much larger.

I spent so long with it that I was quite reluctant to put it outside again, but I did eventually. I was already attached to the little guy. You can see how he really did look exactly like the Bonaire snake (albeit slightly larger)! The first one was grayer too. The top pictures are my accidents, terribly focused pictures-made-art.
After consulting with Whitney and the internet, I've found that it is actually a Western Blind Snake, Leptotyphlops humilis (not surprising that those eyes aren't functional with the underground living), native to our desert and eater of ants and termites. I'm amazed I never saw one before this year, having survived the last 22 years here. Ants surround our house, so I think it will be happy in our yard instead.

The Fruit of my Labor

Today I cleaned our little back yard :)

Even at 8:30am the sun was blaring, causing me to sweat, which is rare.

I not only cleared the dog messes, I picked up all of the little pieces of trash, swept the porch off and wiped down our dusty washer, dryer and glass table.

Magically, I found a rake! So I went ahead and did the best gravel redistribution job that I could. We ideally need more gravel back there (though it's only a rented house), but the times they are a-rough. It looks pretty good though!

Despite knowing that the dogs will have destroyed it again soon, I was happy and satisfied to do the job. Maybe if I maintain it some, that process will take longer.
Our canine culprits:

Athena (left) is a pitbull mix, and Aries (right) is an American bulldog.
They're good pups :)

Turneffe Atoll Wildlife

Ok, I couldn't resist making a post of some of the crazy wildlife they've got on the cayes in Belize. This was one of the coolest parts of my trip. I'm also gonna play with picture formatting (time to branch out a little). There were so many cool species of birds!

Above is a "blackbird" (possibly a Corvid), and the two below are frigates, also known as "man-o-war birds" - they have an enormous wingspan, over 7 feet.











Speaking of man-o-wars, on one beach we saw many babies washed up on the sand. This one was almost trouble.
Here is a Brown pelican sitting on a dock (center), and the other two are cormorants (sea-ducks): one perched in the mangroves and one airing its wings on a rock.





This is a black iguana, sometimes called "wishula" by locals.









And these "Blue Crabs" were everywhere.












The last land dweller I'll show is one of the most beautiful moths I've ever seen.





The following pictures are all water life. We have a squid and a chiton (I thought was a fossil!)












Lastly, many beautiful fishes were witnessed by my snorkel buddy (but my glasses were off :) )

Mangroves

I recently had the opportunity to go to Belize to help with research on mangrove deforestation. Mangroves around the world are being depleted at an astonishing rate, as well as seagrass, both of which provide crucial erosion barriers. A healthy mangrove forest looks something like this:
But after this guy comes through, dredging away 4-6 feet of sea floor, you have "the most beautiful beach in the Caribbean" (you can see a color difference in water it's already been to).
By now, what happens when the mangroves are removed is known. There is loss of beach, heightened hurricane damage, and loss of habitat to name only a few.
This was an entire site of ours, completely removed. In some locations of large clearing, such as in the Philippines, the damage has been done and the toll taken, so now people are looking for ways to re-establish mangroves. Unfortunately, no one knows a great way to do it. The common myth is, "they're mangroves, they grow like weeds." But when you try to just stick them in the soil after the area has been cleared, often there are not enough nutrients anymore to support the seedlings, or the seedlings are wiped out by waves without protection. Or in some places, they become "dwarfed", unable to get large.
The research we did focused on the effects of adding nutrients and wave protections to seedlings both regrowing in previously cleared areas, and growing in normal, intact areas. There are definite and visible benefits of both of these factors.
I helped a family living there plant seedlings in buckets with nutrients so that they can get larger and one day be replanted in the front of the house to help stop the erosion that has already taken away 10+ feet of land.
There has not been a lot of research on effects of mangrove clearing, but some is being done currently. Once research is published, Belize (and hopefully other places), is likely to use it in mangrove regrowth. Unfortunately, clearing will continue, but it is possible that the more knowledge they have, more sustainable ways to clear will be developed along with more ways to help seedlings survive.

The Birds and the Bees

I couldn't pass up making a post of all the country animals encountered on the Oklahoma trip, Grandpa has a hundred cows (at least), and he brought me out to see them one day!

What a good model :D

Can't forget about babies!

Their dog duke made a nest on a haystack one winter


Here's a pony and a goat:



A pretty rooster:

And a huge bumble bee!

Oklahoma House

"Quaint" is a word I don't use very frequently, but there are few words for the cute, rustic possessions my Grandma has decorated her house with. I thought I'd show some of them. Here are iron snails in the front yard.

She loves birdhouses:

And especially flowers!

This is an old well from the house of someone famous: