The photo is of the trunk, with missing chunks of bark, of an old Arizona ash tree in our yard. A week or so ago Susie, my wife, and I were sitting on the back porch enjoying a cool evening breeze when I noticed chunks of bark missing from a large ash tree in the yard. I remarked about, ... Read More
Farm Fauna
Gambusia Road Trip – Day 5
Photo shows San Felipe Creek in Del Rio, Texas, home of Gambusia clarkhubbsi. The dogs, Tally, Gus, Oso, and Maya enjoyed romping in the creek. Day five started early because it was going to be a long haul. From Marathon we would follow US 90 to Del Rio, TX past Seminole Canyon State Park, a ... Read More
Gambusia Road Trip -Day 4
Photo: Cara, Tally, Maya, Gus, and Oso on the Gambusia Road Trip Day four had a great start. The second heater made the camper toasty warm all night. Even Gus had a comfortable night. Also, we had camped adjacent to the spring and its outflow, so getting to the habitat of G. nobilis and the ... Read More
California Bound
I’ll be speaking twice this next week. On Sunday, March 1st I’ll speak at COAST (http://www.coastfishclub.com/ncms/) in Costa Mesa, California at 12:30 pm on fancy livebearers; how we breed and raise them. Then Friday, March 6th, I’ll speak at the San Francisco Aquarium Society ... Read More
Green Lizard Stalking Green Treefrog
The green lizard below the Green Treefrog apparently thinks the frog might be dinner. That can’t happen since the frog is much too large. The green lizard, which usually eats fly-sized meals and occasionally grasshopper sized ones, is a Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) sometimes known as the ... Read More
Gulf Coast Toad, Bufo valliceps
This pictured toad has been living for the last few months in one of our greenhouses. When we walk by it on the wooden walkways we have between rows of vats, it simply hunkers down and waits for us to leave. This is a young toad, about 2.5 inches long; large adults are twice the size. We have ... Read More
Red Eared Slider Turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans
One day recently while going to our greenhouses, I found a young Red Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) walking across our gravel parking lot. The parking lot is not a hospitable environment for terrapins, which are mostly aquatic. This one had gotten disoriented after hatching and was headed ... Read More
Black Widow
A common spider on the farm is the Black Widow (probably Latrodectus hesperus, the Western Black Widow). The pictured spider has been paralyzed by a Spider Wasp and is upside down. In the normal course of events it would have been dragged to a burrow where the wasp would have laid an egg on it. The ... Read More
Green Treefrog
That is a Green Treefrog peering from an old chain-link fence post in our yard. The frog likes it because it holds water making a nice damp home. We have four species of tree frogs on the farm. The Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) is the most common. The other three are Squirrel Treefrog (H. ... Read More
Wolf Spider – Hogna species
One morning in the warehouse I saw this wolf spider running across the floor with an American cockroach in its jaws. The surroundings in the photo include a cold pack (which someone should have put up…hint, hint, Ashley, a hatchery tech who should have put it away), an empty 5-gallon water jug ... Read More