Tadpole progress, snakes and eggs

Lots of little critters seem to be growing up this time of year. This little one is just growing legs in preparation for hopping away, before the first frost I hope.

There are still numerous tadpoles in the water trough. Not as many as we had last year, but they all seem to be thriving. Very few of the individuals in last year's brood were growing when I began taking them to the large pond. This year's siblings are on their own, and will probably do better. (No snapping turtles in the trough.)

Here's one of the frogs who seem quite happy that we built the pond near the new driveway. Each time I walk past it I see at least one, and up to five, frogs jump out.



The water's somewhat murky, but it seems to be algae rather than mud or clay that has washed in.

And finally, here's our big find of the week. Though these babies are at Green View Springs now, we found them and took this picture elsewhere. Since we quit the project at Raccoon Springs, and for some time before then, we have had lots of things stored there outside that we had moved from our old home in Indianapolis. This week we drove up with the trailer to remove some of them.

Inside a pile of paving bricks were a few old bricks with cylindrical holes in them, and inside those holes were snake eggs! (about 15) and baby snakes (2 of 3 shown here)!! Since we were taking the bricks away, and they would be very vulnerable just dumped out on the ground, I put all of them in a plastic cup and replaced them in the bricks after they were re-stacked at the end of our new driveway.


The three babies slithered away immediately. The eggs didn't move that fast and are still there, hopefully preparing to hatch. A property can always use more snakes.

An inquiry sent to the "Herp Center" at Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne late this afternoon (after hours) got a quick reply from the Center's Director Bruce Kingsbury which identified the babies as ring-necked snakes (Diadophis punctatus).

August plant pictures

There are so many plants blooming now at Greene View Springs that I could fill a dozen screens. Here are a few that just began blooming and one tree.

Just one of many goldenrod variations.

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)

Tick-Trefoil

Bald cyprus
One of two we were given at the county fairgrounds last spring. They were bare root and it took a long time for them to leaf out. Both were planted in the damp soil on the edge of the original pond.

One more water post

You've probably seen enough videos of water running all over the place, but here's one more anyway. This is interesting because of how much water flows here after a rainfall. Usually one can just walk right through this stream and not even find mud.



All this water continues across the property and falls into the ditch as was seen in the last clip in the immediately previous blog entry, "What a rainstorm".

What a rainstorm

We had a heavy rain storm the first week of August. Near the end of it, when it was just a drizzle, I took the camera into the woods to try to show where the water goes near the house site and elsewhere.

The this first video shows the large pond on the property just before the rain finally stopped.



(The narrative on this and the next few videos is clipped at the end. I took nine videos on this walk and didn't realize until I played them on the computer that my voice is clipped at the end of almost all of them. Apparently the audio track lags the video by a second or two. I'll stop talking sooner on future productions. Many of you will appreciate that, I'm sure.)

There are at least three places in the low parts of Green View Springs where a series of holes appears on the surface. Each hole can be up to two feet long as the water flows and about a foot across. In some places there are as many as eight of them in the series. All of them appear along the lowest part of a drainage and are from one to three feet deep. Until now I had not had a camera with me while water was running in them. This time I did and here's what they look like with the water flowing.



All of this water, and that from at least two other major drainages on the property, runs into the ditch along the county road. Combining that water with what comes down the roadside from the top of the road above Greene View Springs creates a formidable volume by the time it gets to the culvert under the road. It's going to take regular attention to stay ahead of the erosion.

(WARNING: Turn down your volume first. The water was so loud I thought I needed to talk louder.)



All the water from Greene View Springs flows farther into American Bottoms and finally into Mr Colling's cave.

Our hike to work

Here's another of the trails we've built on the Greene View Springs property. This one is used nearly every day for access to the new house site. It runs from near the current gardens just below the barn down into the wooded area below. Along the way you can see some cardboard on the trail. It will eventually be covered with wood chips like can be seen at the start of this clip.

This trail is rather steep once it enters the woods. It almost levels out as it turns nearly due east towards the trail in the earlier post.

Soon the house site can be seen up to the left. Farther along are stacks of trees that have been removed and saved for later use next to the end of the driveway. The clip ends where the earlier clip begins as found in the second video reference in an earlier post.

I'm embedding this video rather than linking to it. Let me know if you like this method better than the links.



One thing the camera can't show is how much cooler it is in the woods.