Natural World Education - Naturalist Moment - Water Oak Tree

Welcome to this week's Naturalist Moment.

Don't forget to check us out at www.naturalworldeducation.com

In this video we talk about a Common South Georgia Tree, the Water Oak. Water oak is a conical to round-topped tree, 50-100 ft. tall, with thick, leathery, leaves that are semi-evergreen in the warmer parts of its range. The shiny, dark-green leaves are wedge-shaped and may have lobes at the tips. Foliage becomes yellow in fall. Tree with conical or rounded crown of slender branches, and fine textured foliage of small leaves. A handsome, rapidly growing shade tree for moist soils in the Southeast; however, Water Oak is short-lived.

Get Outside in Valdosta GA -Grand Bay WMA

Getting Outside in Valdosta, Georgia can be lots of F-U-N, especially if you know the right places to go. Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area is a hidden gem in the Valdosta Area that not many people know about.

Grand Bay WMA is located in the lower Coastal Plain physiographic province in what is typically known as "flatwoods." It is situated within a 13,000-acre wetlands system, which is the second largest natural blackwater wetland in the Coastal Plain of Georgia. There are education facilities, a boardwalk to an observation tower, and canoe rentals.

Grand Bay Wetland Education Center, teaches and demonstrates the complex ecological relationships between plants and animals. Its educational activities, including guided trips into the Grand Bay Wetland; working with live mammals and amphibians and reptiles; and interactive ecological experiments, correlate with the state of Georgia's curriculum standards. The center also offers to the public an interpretative experience of the Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area, which includes the 18,000-acre Grand Bay/Banks Lake ecosystem. The size of the Grand Bay ecosystem is second in Georgia only to the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest wetland in the state and one of the largest in the Southeast. Like the Okefenokee, Grand Bay offers many plant communities, including upland longleaf and slash pine flatwoods, cypress and gum swamps, savannahs, and various shrub bogs.

Grand Bay is a designated site on the Southern Rivers Birding Trail, which spans the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of Georgia and terminates in the state's wetlands. There are thirty sites for observing birds along the entire birding trail. Within Grand Bay, visitors may observe egrets, hawks, herons, owls, song birds, white ibis, woodpeckers, and wood storks. Anhingas are also common on the marsh. Common moorhens and purple gallinules nest here also. Rarely seen but present are American bitterns, black-crowned and yellow-crowned night herons A small population of Florida sandhill cranes has been introduced to the area, and individuals can be seen or heard throughout the year. Migratory greater sandhill cranes usually arrive on the marsh in mid-November and remain until mid-January. Several hundred cranes typically feed on the floating mat community in Grand Bay during winter.

Alligators, deer, otters, and various species of frogs, turtles, and snakes are also common to the wetland. The diversity of wildlife also compares favorably with that found in the Okefenokee. Uplands surrounding the wetlands provide good examples of mature longleaf-slash pine flatwoods. A small percentage of the area is in mixed live oak-pine and is home to gopher tortoises and indigo snakes. Dudley's Hammock, a rare example of a mature broadleaf-evergreen hammock community, is found in the area.

Carolina bays by nature tend to be inaccessible because of their large size (Old Field Bay at Grand Bay WMA is 6,000 acres) and the impenetrable nature of shrub communities surrounding them. A .5-mile boardwalk provides access through a cross section of communities on Grand Bay (a 1,400-acre Carolina bay on the WMA). At the end of the boardwalk is a 54-foot-high observation tower overlooking open prairie and a heron rookery in the bay's center.

How to get there: From Valdosta take US Hwy. 221 north apx. 10 miles and turn left on Knight's Academy Road. Go 1.5 miles to the entrance sign on the right. The entrance road leads 1 mile north to a "T". The boardwalk is to your left, the interpretive center and canoe trail entrance to your right.
Management: Georgia DNR, Wildlife Resources Division, 912-423-2988
Habitat Type: Forested Wetlands, Carolina Bays, Scrub/shrub Wetland
Closest Town: Valdosta, GA

http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/wildlife_viewing/plantation_trace/51.html

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3262

Meet November's Animal Ambassador

Meet Chanco! Chanco is an Juvenile Eastern Hognose (Heterodon platirhinos). Chanco came to us from a family not longer able to take care of him. Eastern Hognose Snakes have a very specialized diet.

Sometimes called puff adders, hog-nosed viper, hissing viper, (mountain) moccasin, North American adder, spread-head viper, (spreading) viper, eastern hognose snakes are thick-bodied snakes that reach about 46 in long. The most distinguishing feature for Eastern Hognose Snakes is the upturned snout, used for digging in sandy soils.

Coloration is highly variable. Its color can be brown, tan, yellowish, grayish, or reddish with brown, black or reddish blotches and tail bands or any combination therein depending on locality. They can be blotched, checkered, or pattern less. The belly tends to be a solid grey, yellow or cream colored. Some herpetologists believe the wide variation in color and high variability throughout its range is due to the relatively recent development of the Eastern hognose. They believe successful coloration and pattern has still not yet developed to ensure the survival of the species. The scales of this snake are keeled and the underside of the tail is usually lighter than the rest of the venter. The females of this species have a tail that has a fine taper to the end of the tail, while the males have a slight bulge near the cloacae and the tail then tapers off drastically.

The Eastern Hognose is most common in and along the margins of fallow and cultivated fields, and in or near forests, especially in dry, relatively open areas where sands or porous loams are the principle soils. Easterns are more likely to be found in drier environments and avoid swampy or marshy areas. Inasmuch as toads are the primary food item, eastern hognoses may be most likely to found in areas where toads frequent, especially loose soils where they burrow. While eastern hognoses are considered fossorial, they are usually found abroad during the morning and afternoon hours, foraging for food.

Chanco Eating a Yummy Toad

Fowlers Toad

Eastern hognosed snakes feed primarily on amphibians with toads and frogs making up the majority of their diet. Due to their slow movement and sluggish behavior, they are most likely ambush predators and opportunistic feeders. They prey on frogs, salamanders, small mammals, birds, and invertebrates; but toads are their favorite and almost exclusive food in most areas. Hognose snakes seem to be immune to poisons produced by toads, and are equipped with large teeth (called rear fangs) in the back of their mouths that are used to puncture inflated toads so that they may be more easily swallowed. Eastern hognose snakes generally became sexually mature at about two years of age. Chanco loves to eat Fowlers Toads.

When disturbed, hognoses flatten their head and neck, spreading their vertebrae much like a cobra, owing to their nickname, "puff adder." The Hognose Snake is renowned for its "death feigning" behavior. This act gives the snake an almost impish grin when viewed from head-on. While spreading its "hood," the hognose emits a loud hissing noise like steam escaping from kettle. Occasionally the bluffing snake will repeatedly strike at the would-be attacker but with its mouth closed. If the hissing, hooding and striking fail to dissuade the attacker, the hognose will writhe with its mouth wide open, tongue lolling. Some snakes will eject blood from their lachrymal glands and emit musk from their cloacae. It may play dead for several minutes before cautiously turning over, looking around to see if it is safe before crawling away. The belief is that a predator will instinctively ignore a dead animal that smells offensive. Of course, if the hognose is righted, it will turn over on its back and again open its mouth.

Hognose snakes are active strictly by day and are often seen crossing roads in the spring and fall. They are oviparous, breed in spring and usually deposit about 15-25 eggs in a depression in sandy soils under rocks or logs. The eggs incubate for about 1 to 2 months.

            Conservation Status: Heterodon platirhinos is currently common in our region and is not protected by any southern states or the federal government.

Sources:

http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/snakes/hetpla.htm

www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/pages/hog.html

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl-guide/heterodonplatirhinos.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodon_platirhinos

www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/ehognos.htm

Record High Loggerhead Nest Count for Georgia Beaches!!

   Awesome article carried by the Brunswick News and GPB News!

  BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - A wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources says loggerhead sea turtles had a record-breaking nesting season this year on Georgia beaches.
   Mark Dodd, senior wildlife biologist for the state DNR, says 1,761 loggerhead nests were reported from May through October. The number surpasses the previous record, set in 2008, by more than 100 nests.
Dodd says it's a a hopeful sign for the endangered species. Dodd says there were several factors that made this season successful.
       Emily Walker, night patrol team leader for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, says a light ordinance that went into effect in May on Jekyll Island improved conditions for the nesting sea turtles. Hotels, beach front homes and businesses facing areas where turtles nested were required to use special lights with short wave lengths during nesting months. This decreased the chance of the turtles becoming disoriented.

     Dodd says “In addition to having a large number of nests, the other thing that made it such a great nesting season was the lack of tropical storm systems. One of the environmental factors that reduce hatchling success is tropical storm activity. Water will wash over the nest and the embryo won’t develop then we get a lot of mortality.” Dodd said there was a statewide hatchling success rate of 68%.

Information from: The Brunswick News, http://www.thebrunswicknews.com 
and Good Weather Helps Sea Turtle Nests By Courtney Ward
http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/11/08/good-weather-helps-sea-turtle-nests