A S K   T H E   N A T U R A L I S T

One of the joys of Nature is dicovering and learning new things. Occasionally, something comes along that we just can't explain. And that's what this page is all about. I certainly don't profess to know all the answers, and this page is all about sharing. So, if you can shed some additional light on the topics below, by all means send us your thoughts.

March 20, 2009

A minor little nature-related mystery/question for you...     Over the past couple of days we've been finding these little green "marbles" around the yard, close to the gravel of the driveway. Please see attached picture... no, they weren't found in a nest, I put them there. My suspicion is that they're eggs.... a green, leathery exterior and a white  yolky filling (one was accidently sacrificed in the name of science). Yesterday they were full and round... today they're shrivelling... somethingfeeding on the yolk and ready to hatch?         Barry Thomas, Cherry Valley

Answer:  I gotta be honest about this. I have never seen anything like this before in my life! Without actually seeing one and examining it, I don't have a clue what it might be. I wonder if Rob Kellough would know?  Snake eggs are always white - at least the ones I have seen, and are always elongated. Turtle eggs are round, but white also. 
 
From Rob Kellough: Verrrrry odd.... I've never seen anything like them. I have to agree with Terry, they don't resemble any reptile or amphibian egg I've ever seen. Here's a wacky concept. Could they be partially melted paint balls of some kind? Perhaps buried in the snow and now thawed out and starting to melt/decompose. How they ended up in your lawn is another story...  It's the closest resemblance I could come up with. If, on the other hand,  something actually hatches out of them please call me. This I would have to see!

I have noticed a mourning dove on our deck/feeder lately that has a terrible looking growth that seems to be coming from inside its beak and protruding outside of the beak. The top appears deformed and very crooked. This poor bird tries to pick up seeds to eat, but cannot.  Any suggestions?   Thanks.          Al.

Answer: I thought it might be a trichomonas infection, but Sue Meech from the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee had this to say:  It is avian pox, a retrovirus. I have seen several doves with it this year, but never seen it before in doves. I am also getting call from people with feeders noticing diseased birds. We have also had it in Robins and crows. Each species has its own version of the virus. It is highly contagious but is species specific. The bird will die slowly of starvation. If caught it should be euthanized as there is no cure for it. You are correct in that sometimes there can also be a co-existing trichomonas infection. Pox sores  are usually on featherless areas, beak and  feet but can occur anywhere and  are often internal. I wonder if it was the unusually wet summer that precipitated this outbreak. I have had cases from Gananoque to Ottawa and Pickering to  Peterborough, so the outbreak is very widespread.
I advise people to take down feeders from now until it gets really cold. Scrub and soak in Bleach solution and sun dry.

September 24, 2008

I read your column in the Gazette last week about various symbiotic and transgressive relationships between different insects and had a follow up I wished to share with you regarding the Yellow Jackets that nested in Mother's pear trees. The fruit of the tree the nest was in had yet to fully ripen, but the nearby Bartlett were already ripe and most had been at least half devoured right on the tree. It was while picking the green pears that the nest was disturbed and the hornets subsequently punished my poor Spaniel. As you know I used a commercial foam to kill the wasps after they had gathered in the hive at sundown, and the next day I sprayed a few stragglers and cut the nest down from the tree....not without some remorse. "Live and let live" works best most of the time. I picked the fruit of that tree and to our surprise found the pears were totally free of any worms. We had never applied any pesticides and in other years have to cut what is left of the crop after the worms have had their fill. So, the question is...did the wasps "tend" the pear tree so they could have a better harvest themselves? Would they have eaten other pests like caterpillars or moths that lay eggs on the tree. Was their presence alone enough to deter other insects from coming too close?  Have you heard of any similar situations? I know you enjoy separating fact from fiction.                        John from Allisonville
 
 
Answer: I think you may be on to something. I am suggesting that the bees with the nest were probably bald faced hornets, as yellow jackets which build a similar but smaller nest, usually locate in cavities, such as behind eaves, underground, or in one memorable case, at least to me anyhow, in the dry straw atop a manure pile! Bald-faced hornets are the ones that build the huge dome-shaped nest often found in trees. In any event, whatever the species, all hornets/wasps/yellow jackets, seek out insect larvae which they paralyze, and take back to the nest and insert into the egg cells for the bee larvae to feed on once they hatch. This could account for the lack of any insect presence in the pear tree as they likely stripped it clean as soon as any appeared. The hornets likely chose the tree for two reasons - the presence of insects as well as the presence of fruit and flower nectar which they feed on themselves.
 

May 30, 2008  

I've got a question...I have a fear of snakes, and a common garter snake greets me every morning on my front walk. I also don't want to kill anything of God's great creation, so is there anything I can do to discourage it living in my life. ( aside from just getting my wife to capture it and drive it away)??  I'm kinda curious if it's nesting at this time of year??             Steve

Answer: Garter snakes breed in the spring and give birth to live young in the summer - usually about 50 to a high of 80, although I recall one giant garter snake we had in captivity at Sandbanks one summer giving birth overnight to 132 young! The terrarium was an absolute seething mass of "snakettes". Every staff member took some home! But to answer your question, there is, of course, no need to fear snakes as we don't have any poisonous species here, and they are not aggressive. Anyway, their bite only hurts for a little while! There is a snake in your yard because there is either food that it likes in abundance (grubs, small frogs, insects, etc.) or it has found a place that it can regard as its own hibernaculum where it may even have a family. Are you comforted yet by these revelations? Snakes are cold blooded, so it is likely on your walk to soak up warmth. Snakes do not respond well to mothballs as a deterrent, waving your arms (their eyes are poor) or yelling (they have no ears!). Unless you drench your yard in powerful toxins to rid the area of its favoured prey and virtually level your yard so there are no enticing crevices, and eliminate rockgardens, walkways and wooden decks where they like to sun themselves, there is really nothing one can do to discourage snakes. Destroying them or live trapping them are not options either for as long as the attractant is there, another will move in. No voids in the natural world. It's the law of Nature. Sorry, but you gotta learn to embrace it......or them !

June 04, 2008

When I was very young, I attended Steele St. School, which was only a couple of doors from where I lived and played. A couple of friends and I used to go through a little opening on a trail that was overgrown with trees, weeds and briers. This "secret hideout" was right at the end of Forest St. at Clarence. When you walked out the other side, you would be at the train tracks at the edge of the Cement Plant field. Usually our intended purpose was to get into this shady little area where we would roll over stones and logs and catch salamanders. I recall finding them almost every time we looked. We used to marvel at the little critters, sometimes take them home in a jar, and once we had shown everybody and "scared" a few girls, we'd return them. I haven't seen nor heard of salamanders, or the capturing of them for more years than I'd like to recall. What is the status of these four legged little "Newts"? Are they still around, or have they, too, given way to global warming and pollution? Thanks again Terry!     John

Answer: Reptiles and amphibians are sort of the foul and loathsome creatures of the world, and for the most part, their existence or disappearance occurs quietly "under the radar." Salamanders, like frogs, have thin skins, and respond more readily than other animals to environmental changes. Salamanders are still around, and I suspect there may still be a few boys out there scaring girls with them, but overall they have likely suffered some population decline due to shrinking habitat. In suitable habitats, you can still find a plethora of red-backed salamanders, and I still hear of folks finding blue-spotted salamanders in their gardens and compost piles, but very few yellow-spotted salamanders, and that may simply be a case that they were never a plentiful species to begin with. In summary, I know of no dramatic declines or concerns about their numbers, although like everything else, as the world's human population grows, and the available habitat shrinks for these animals, so do their numbers.

August 22, 2007

I came across this small nut or pit. It is about 14 mm in length. There was actually a whole cache, some larger than this, but mostly this size. Each one had a small 4mm hole chewed into the side of the pit. It would appear that something had done this to reach the meat or seed inside which it had apparently cleaned out. Would a chipmunk do this, and if so, what was the attraction inside?  No matter what the size of the pit, each hole chewed in the side of it was identical in size, and chewed with precision. Do you know what might have done this?        Joyce from Madoc

Answer: Quite truthfully, I haver never before seen anything like this, although I suspect it may have been a chipmunk.