California Goldfield

Posted on February 21, 2025 by tspuckler

It was hard not to notice this wildflower while travelling around the Las Vegas area – in some cases, it was growing right along the edge of the road.

This species is native to a large part of California, Oregon and surrounding areas, where it is a very common member of the flora community in a number of habitats.

Large populations of this species bloom at once in the Spring to produce the carpets of yellow on hillsides and in meadows – this phenomenon gives this plant its common name.

California Goldfield is usually just a few inches tall, with many short, slender, reddish-green stems bearing narrow leaves, mostly near the base.

With a flower no larger than a quarter, it attracts a variety of pollinators, including bees and butterflies.

California Goldfields are variable in appearance as they adapt to their environment. The plants grow taller with more rainfall, whereas the leaves grow smaller and tougher with less rainfall.

This tough species is known to tolerate soil better that is less than optimal for other plants.

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Cliff Chipmunk

Posted on February 14, 2025 by tspuckler

While exploring the Cerbat Mountains in Arizona, I came across my first-ever example of this small, bushy-tailed squirrel that typically lives along cliff walls or boulder fields bordering pinyon-juniper woodlands in the Western United States and Mexico.

Rather than being brown like a typical chipmunk, it instead has a ground color that is mostly smoky gray. This rodent forages for juniper berries, pine seeds, and acorns. It is an opportunistic in its diet and consumes a wide range of plant material. Seeds are gathered during their prime availability and are carried in cheek pouches and to temporary caches.

This delightful little ground squirrel is a cousin of the Eastern Chipmunk, albeit smaller. Unlike many species of chipmunk, the Cliff Chipmunk lacks bold stripes on its back – instead they are rather faded. This animal’s size varies from 8 to 10 inches, and they weigh an average of 2-1⁄2 ounces. They have a remarkably long lifespan for a mammal of their size, with one specimen living 12-1⁄2 years.

It was an unexpectedly fun find to watch this creature easily maneuver about the rocky terrain habitat.

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Plateau Lizard

Posted on February 7, 2025 by tspuckler

I often see this reptile while driving through the Cerbat Mountains in Arizona; I have also encountered it in Zion National Park in Utah.

This is a relatively small lizard with brown to golden-brown coloration and pointed, keeled, overlapping scales. It can sport a range of striped or blotched patterns.

The Plateau Fence Lizard is usually encountered in relatively open, sunlit areas with plenty of basking sites such as rock piles, wood piles, and fallen logs.

This sit-and-wait predator watches for prey and makes occasional forays from perches to capture its food. It feeds on a variety of insects including termites, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, flies, larvae and wasps. It also eats a variety of spiders, snails, and small lizards.

These reptiles are active during the day. During the Summer, they are most active mid-morning and late afternoon. Males will head bob, do push ups, and even puff themselves up to warn-off other individuals. In Spring and Fall they can be active all day long.

Plateau Lizards were formerly considered to be a subspecies of Eastern Fence Lizard, but were elevated to a separate species in 2002.

These lizards, like Fence Lizards, are habitat generalists. They can be found on the ground, on rocks, on logs and even in areas heavily disturbed by people.

It’s nice to have a leisurely drive up the mountains and see these reptiles perched on rocks, catching the sun’s rays and hoping for an insect to come within catching range.

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Barred Owl

Posted on January 31, 2025 by tspuckler

This fine bird has been hanging out on the same tree for the past few Winters at Big Creek Reservation in northeast Ohio. Its call, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” is a classic sound of old forests and swamps. But it can also pass by completely unnoticed as it flies noiselessly through dense canopies or snoozes on tree limbs. Originally a bird of the east, it has spread through the Pacific Northwest and southward into California.

Barred Owls are brown to gray overall, with dark striping on the underside. Their eyes are a dark brown color and may appear intensely black in the field and, although large, they are fairly closely set. This is one of the larger species of owls. Adults measure anywhere from 16 to 25 inches in length, with a wingspan ranging from 38 to 49 inches. Barred Owls don’t migrate, and they don’t even move around very much. In one study of 158 birds that were banded and then found later, none had moved farther than 6 miles away.

Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, but this species is an opportunistic predator and is known to prey upon other small vertebrates such as birds, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as a variety of invertebrates. On the flip side, the Great Horned Owl is the most serious predatory threat to the Barred Owl. Although the two species often live in the same areas, a Barred Owl will move to another part of its territory when a Great Horned Owl is nearby.

This bird tends to raise a relatively small brood often in a tree hollow or snag. Egg laying typically begins in March and runs throughout April. The female alone incubates the eggs, doing so for about 28 days, while the male gathers food for her. Fledging occurs at about 36–39 days. Young Barred Owls can climb trees by grasping the bark with their bill and talons, flapping their wings, and walking their way up the trunk.

In always enjoy hearing this bird’s call. It is adaptable and can sometimes be heard in suburban neighborhoods. The oldest recorded Barred Owl was at least 26-1/2 years old. It was banded in North Carolina in 1993, and caught due to an injury in 2019.

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Pignut Hickory

Posted on January 24, 2025 by tspuckler

This is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the Eastern United States and Canada. The range of this tree covers nearly all of the eastern United States. This particular example lives on my street and I pass it throughout the seasons when I walk my dog.

Pignut Hickory’s pear-shaped nut ripens in September and October, has a sweet maple like smell, and is an important part of the diet of many wild animals. The nuts are quite bitter, and though popular with many mammals, they are not consumed by man.

The nuts represent an estimated 10 to 25 percent of the diet of several species of squirrel. The nuts and flowers are eaten by the Wild Turkey and several species of songbirds. And the nuts and bark are eaten by Black Bears, Foxes, Cottontail Rabbits, and Raccoons.

Pignut Hickory’s bark is gray-brown and smooth when young, developing scaly ridges that are interwoven in a diamond-like pattern with age.

This tree’s wood is heavy, hard, strong, tough, and elastic. It is used for a variety of products. Early uses included broom handles, skis, wagon wheels, and automobile parts. In modern times, sporting goods, agricultural implements, and tool handles are often made from the wood of Pignut Hickory.

Its deciduous, 8- to 12-inch long leaves create a coarse, oval canopy, and the strong but irregularly spaced branches resist breakage in storms, making it useful as a shade tree. Its leaves turn yellow in the Fall.

Other common names for this tree are Pignut, Sweet Pignut, Coast Pignut Hickory, Smoothbark Hickory, Swamp Hickory, and Broom Hickory.

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Milky Slug

Posted on January 17, 2025 by tspuckler

I often find these creatures around the edges of my garden on rainy Winter days. They are most often under rocks, logs or tarps. I suspect that they get flooded out of their burrows and surface for a bit before going back underground.

This species is almost exclusively restricted to cultivated areas, usually in open habitats, meadows, near roadsides, in ruins, gardens and parks – but it is not found in forests.

Also known as the Grey Field Slug or Grey Garden Slug, it is native to northern Europe, North Africa, and the Atlantic Islands. It was introduced into North America and now occurs across the continent. It is most common in southern Canada and the northern United States.

Like many of its relatives, the Milky Slug is active at night. During the day it remains concealed in the ground. It does not burrow, but uses existing crevices and worm holes. After dark, it climbs onto vegetation to feed.

It is wide-ranging in its diet, consuming beans, celery, corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, radish, turnips, pumpkin, squash, lettuce, peas, spinach, and more.

When at rest, its body is contracted and the tentacles are retracted. When disturbed, it exudes white mucus over its entire body, leading to its common name.

Slugs are hermaphrodites; every slug is born with both male and female reproductive parts and any slug is capable of laying eggs; self-fertilization can also occur.

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Spiny Puffball

Posted on January 10, 2025 by tspuckler

While walking across the field of cut grass across the street from where I live, I noticed small white clusters of objects with an interesting texture on the ground. Puffballs are a type of fungus featuring a ball-shaped fruit body that (when mature) bursts on contact or impact, releasing a cloud of dust-like spores into the surrounding area.

Initially white in color, these puffballs turn a dark brown as they mature, at the same time changing from nearly round to somewhat flattened. Puffballs range widely in size and appearance — from tiny species that grow in clusters on wood, to large, terrestrial species growing in fairy rings in meadow.

The fruit bodies are edible when young, when the interior is white and firm and before it has turned into a powdery brown mass of spores. Laboratory tests have shown that extracts of the fruit bodies can inhibit the growth of several types of bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.

Spiny Puffball is usually found growing in tight clusters in grass, often in disturbed-ground areas like ditches – but also sometimes appearing on woodchips in landscaping areas. It is most often seen in late Summer and Fall. This species is widely distributed in North America.

With a Latin Name of Lycoperdon echinatum, the specific epithet echinatum comes from the Greek word echinos meaning “hedgehog” or “sea-urchin.”

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Snapping Turtles Under Ice

Posted on January 3, 2025 by tspuckler

On occasion, while hiking on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath in the Winter, I’ll see a Common Snapping Turtle under the ice. Aquatic turtles and frogs often spend their hibernation months submerged under water.

The Common Snapping Turtle is the largest turtle in Ohio. Large specimens may weigh more than 35 pounds and have a carapace (top shell) more than 14 inches long.

When there are warm spells and the surface ice melts, turtles and amphibians can become active for a bit before the cold weather sets back in and they go back under water – sometimes for weeks.

If approached on land, these reptiles defend themselves with their quick and powerful jaws. If approached in the water, they use their large webbed feet to turn to the deep and propel themselves to safety. Though they are capable of movement when under ice, though they tend to exist in “slow motion.”

Many aquatic turtles have specialized bladders near the cloaca that can facilitate gas exchange; this is called cloacal or enteral respiration. Having access to actual air is therefore not always necessary, especially when the animals are inactive.

This process that involves gas exchange uses a liquid to deliver oxygen to the body through the rectum. The liquid, called a perfluorocarbon, is loaded with more oxygen than water and is absorbed by the lower intestine. This method has been shown to help rodents and pigs survive low-oxygen conditions.

Nature has evolved some fascinating survival strategies and to see herps under ice waiting out the Winter cold is always a neat experience.

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Lesser Angle-winged Katydid

Posted on December 27, 2024 by tspuckler

This was another neat creature that I came across while visiting the Land of Lincoln. It is found in the tops of broad-leaved trees in the eastern United States, from Long Island to southern Illinois and eastern-most Texas.

The Lesser Angle-winged Katydid belongs to a subfamily called False Katydids. It doesn’t sing “Katy did, Katy didn’t,” like similar looking species. Instead, its song consists of two or three short rattles in sequence, often phrased in such a way that each rattle sounds like a comment in response to the preceding one.

The diet of most Katydids includes leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds – but many species are exclusively predatory, feeding on other insects, snails, or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards.

Mainly nocturnal, like its relative the Greater Angle-wings Katydid, it may be attracted to lights. When Katydids go to rest during the day, they enter a roosting posture to maximize their cryptic qualities. This position fools predators into thinking the insect is either dead or just a leaf on the plant.

It was neat to come across this cool and well-camouflaged creature while on my travels.

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Bitter Sneezeweed

Posted on December 20, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking in Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri, I noticed this familiar-looking flower. Though rather than being tall, like the six foot plus Autumn Sneezeweed in my backyard, it was growing low to the ground.

This upper-branching native annual reaches 10 to 20 inches tall. The entire plant has a strong odor and is bitter to the taste. The leaves are narrow and located alternately on the stem.

A member of the Sunflower Family, Bitter Sneezeweed has showy flowers that are noticeable in the late Spring or Summer and are located at the end of each branch. Each bloom has about eight petals that often bend downward at maturity.

This genus is primarily found growing in sandy soils in the southeastern to southcentral United States, from Virginia to Florida west to Missouri, Kansas and Texas.

With a Latin Name of Helenium amarum, the genus name comes from the Greek name helenion, which honors Helen of Troy. It is unclear as to the relevance of Helen of Troy to the within genus of plants which are exclusively native to North and South America.

Bitter Sneezeweed’s species name, amarum means “bitter” in Latin. Also known as “Bitterweed,” this plant is named in reference to it containing a toxic substance which causes milk to taste bitter when cows graze on its foliage.

The common name of “sneezeweed” is reportedly in reference to the former snuff-like use of the dried and powdered flowers of this plant by members of some Native American tribes for treatment of blocked sinuses.

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Tim Spuckler's Blog

Reptile Ramblings and More

California Goldfield

Cliff Chipmunk

Plateau Lizard

Barred Owl

Pignut Hickory

Milky Slug

Spiny Puffball

Snapping Turtles Under Ice

Lesser Angle-winged Katydid

Bitter Sneezeweed