Monthly Archives: October 2023

American Gizzard Shad

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01 American Gizzard Shad_4457

While visiting Illinois this month, I came across a couple examples of this cool fish.

02 American Gizzard Shad_4793

A member of the Herring Family, American Gizzard Shad is native to large swaths of fresh and brackish waters in the United States. Adults have a deep body, with a silvery-green coloration above, which fades to plain silver below. Although they can grow as long as eighteen to even twenty inches long, they are often in the range of eight to fourteen inches.

03 American Gizzard Shad_4784

This fish is so named because it possesses a gizzard-like organ, a sack filled with rocks or sand, that aids the animal in the breakdown of consumed food. The American Gizzard Shad inhabits a variety of quiet-water habitats, including natural lowland lakes and ponds, artificial impoundments, and the pools and backwaters of streams and rivers.

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It is most active at dusk and at night. American Gizzard Shad travel in large, constantly moving schools near the water’s surface and frequently leap clear of the water or skip along the surface on their sides, earning it its other common name “Skipjack.”

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American Gizzard Shad are filter feeders that eat mostly plant material, phytoplankton, and algae. To eat, they take water or mud into their mouths and then strain it though a set of rakes on their gills. Water and sediment are removed, and food is captured and eaten.

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Because of their small size and relatively high abundance, this species has been introduced into many lake and river systems as a source of food for game fish, such as Walleye, Bass, and Trout.

07 American Gizzard Shad_4783

It was cool to net a couple of examples of this neat creature while on my herping adventure.

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American Persimmon

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01 American Persimmon_4943

While visiting southern Illinois this month, I encountered this fine tree and tasted its fruit, which happened to be in season.

02 American Persimmon_4948

American Persimmon is native to most of the eastern half of the United States. It grows in full sun and a wide variety of soils. The dark green leaves are your stereotypical “leaf shape,” so aren’t much help by themselves for identifying the tree. It grows wild, but has been cultivated for its fruit and wood since prehistoric times by Native Americans.

03 American Persimmon_4942

This tree can be 60 feet tall, but normally it doesn’t reach more than 20 feet. The trunk and branches are thin with grey-brown bark that is said to resemble reptile scales. The principal uses of the wood are for golf-club heads, shuttles for textile weaving, and furniture veneer.

04 American Persimmon_4946

American Persimmon is dioecious, which means some trees only produce male flowers and some trees only produce female flowers. The fruit is round, usually orange-yellow, and about two inches in diameter. Both the tree and the fruit are referred to as Persimmons, with the latter appearing in desserts and other cuisine.

05 American Persimmon_4936

During the spring, the flowers provide a rich source of nectar for Honeybees, Bumblebees, Small Carpenter Bees, Digger Bees, Mason Bees, Leaf-cutting Bees and Cuckoo Bees. Raccoons, Foxes, Black Bears, Skunks, Turkeys, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Cedar Waxwings, Catbirds, American Robins, Pileated Woodpeckers and Mockingbirds eat Persimmon fruit. The fruit is high in vitamin C, and extremely astringent when unripe.

06 American Persimmon_4947

Known scientifically as Diospyros virginiana, Diospyros means “divine fruit” in Greek.

07 American Persimmon_4935

American Persimmon is also known as Common Persimmon, Eastern Persimmon, Simmon, Possumwood, Possum Apples, and Sugar Plum.

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Ringed Salamander

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01 Ringed Salamander_8931

While herping in the St. Louis area last weekend, I found a salamander that was definitely a highlight of my week-long herping trip.

02 Ringed Salamander_1557

Above, the ground color ranges from grayish black to black. The belly is normally slate gray to buff yellow. A series of bold, narrow white or yellow rings usually extends over the back but may be broken at the midline. The rings never completely encircle the body. This amphibian is usually 6 to 7 inches in total length.

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The Ringed Salamander is a species of mole salamander native to hardwood and mixed hardwood-pine forested areas in and around the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

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It is found in damp, wooded areas, usually under leaves, rotting logs, or in abandoned ground holes of other organisms – often near shallow ponds. Highly fossorial (adapted to digging), adults are commonly found in subterranean refuges.

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This salamander is increasingly rare and perhaps endangered. This is likely a result of its restricted range and specific breeding habitat needs. In Autumn, stimulated by heavy rains and cool temperatures, they migrate by night to fishless woodland ponds, where they may congregate by the hundreds for breeding.

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It was awesome to encounter this strikingly colored salamander that is mostly cryptic and underground most of the year.

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Prairie Ringneck Snake

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01 Herp Habitat_8104

While exploring a glades habitat in Missouri, I came across a few examples of this fine serpent. Ringneck Snakes are easily recognizable by their small size, uniform dark color on the back, bright yellow-orange belly, and distinct yellow ring around the neck.

02 Prairie Ringneck Snake_8922

The Prairie Ringneck Snake tends to live in open or partially open canopy settings including bluff prairies, open rocky road cuts (usually southerly exposed), old fields with rocky structures at the surface or along railroad grades where access to underground retreats and overwintering habitat is suitable.

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These snakes are highly secretive, spending much of the day under flat rocks, pieces of bark or in and under large woody debris. In the Spring and Fall, they usually remain in open-canopy conditions, but move to more shaded and moist places as Summer approaches.

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When alarmed, this species will coil its tail and expose its brightly colored underside. When captured, it usually does not bite (though this one did), but will discharge a pungent, unpleasant musk from glands at the base of the tail.

05 Prairie Ringneck Snake_8098

These snakes not only take shelter under rocks but also find prey there — primarily earthworms, but also slugs, soft-bodied insects and small salamanders. Although they are completely harmless to humans, these snakes have weak venom in their saliva which they use to subdue their prey.

06 Prairie Ringneck Snake_9283

Prairie Ringneck Snakes are egglayers, with females laying 1-10 eggs and averaging four per clutch. There is evidence that this species may nest communally. Eggs are laid in abandoned small mammal burrows or under large flat rocks and hatch in late August or early September.

Prairie Ringneck Snake_4542

We usually think of snakes as fierce predators, and no doubt that is how earthworms, slugs, and insects view this species. But small snakes like this are equally as important as a food for other predators — including mammals, birds and many more.

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