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EVIDENCE FOR
BREEDING SUCCESS

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

The photo above illustrates just why we keep a telephoto lens mounted on our camera. As we were checking e-mail messages one morning this week, we glanced out the window and noticed a full-grown White-tailed Deer cautiously making her way across a small clearing that lies between the Center's old farmhouse and Hilton Pond itself. Assured there was nothing to fear, the doe turned and pawed the ground once, apparently signaling for her weeks-old fawn to follow--which it did. As we carefully unlatched and opened the patio door beside our desk to provide an unimpeded view, the doe snapped to attention and her fawn simultaneously turned its head in the direction of the sound. We had only a few seconds to raise and focus the camera and make several exposures of the dappled young deer--ears alert and already learning how to survive in a world fraught with potential dangers.

Quite a bit less colorful--and much less distinctive--than the Kentucky Warbler was the small brown bird above; we've included several fingers in the photo to provide a sense of scale. Novice birders--and some experienced ones--might have difficulty identifying this individual, which we also caught this week at Hilton Pond Center. The most useful field marks are the bird's size, its wing color (including buffy wingbars), and shape of the bill. The most misleading characteristics are the striated head and fine streaking on the breast and otherwise grayish rump. Even some field guides do not show this plumage. Rather than give away the identification, we encourage you to ponder it a while and make an educated guess. (We'll reveal the name of this "mystery bird" somewhere below, so please keep reading.)

Some of our most pleasant hours in life have been spent in the saddle of a finely tuned road bicycle, most recently a top-of-the-line carbon-fiber Fuji that is pure delight to ride. On summer mornings--before the heat rises--we often pedal the back roads of York County for an hour or so, taking in the day-to-day changes of the rural countryside. When we return to Hilton Pond, we park the bike on the porch and go inside the old farmhouse to cool off, sometimes forgetting to retrieve the machine until later that day. Such was the case one evening this week when we remembered we had left the bike outside and went to retrieve it at dusk. As we reached for the handlebars we did a double-take; there seemed to be far too much dark mass in the vicinity of the seat and saddlebag. Upon quick inspection we discovered a young, three-foot-long Black Ratsnake had climbed aboard and wrapped its sinewy body around the bag and seatpost. Rather than mess with this harmless snake--we did NOT want it to get excited and spray musk all over the bike--we went back indoors for an hour or so. When we returned the serpent had slithered away, probably content there were no baby birds or mammals nesting atop the Fuji. (We hope the snake--which probably hatched last year and not in 2008--didn't think a folding spare tire under the seat bag was a relative run over and flattened by some inattentive driver.) Moral of the story: ALWAYS check you bicycle before bringing it back indoors.

When schoolchildren and other groups visit Hilton Pond Center for Guided Field Trips, we ask them to follow a few guidelines to minimize impact on our flora and fauna. Our first request is "Don't step on anything green," an attempt to get folks to stay on the trails and to be careful where they walk--lest some small but significant plant get smashed. For the past few weeks, however, we've also said "And don't step on anything brown, either!" This new mndate came about because this summer, for the first time in 26 years, there are dozens of miniature brown toads hopping around the Center. If we walk slowly down the path the tiny creatures see us coming and jump out of the way, but if we move too quickly the little amphibians remain underfoot and become two-dimensional. To illustrate just how small these baby Fowler's Toads really are, we gathered up a trio and placed them in a collecting jar whose bottom is inscribed by a 5mm grid (above). In the English system these are roughly three-sixteenth-inch squares, meaning the smallest individual in the photo above measures barely a half-inch from snout to rump. (The photo below shows the smallest toad's actual size.) Assuming these tiny toadlets aren't squished or eaten by some predator, they will dine on insects and other invertebrates and grow rapidly through the summer, perhaps reaching an inch and a half before hibernating. As mature adults, Fowler's Toads--common across South Carolina above the fall line--can reach a length of 3.25". We almost never see toads this big around Hilton Pond, and we're at a loss as to why this year--all of a sudden--we have such a huge influx of toadlets.

So that's our photo portfolio for the first half of July 2008: A white-tailed Deer fawn, hormonally charged Japanese Beetles, a couple of juvenile songbirds, a bike-riding snake, and the tiniest toads we've ever seen--all signs of breeding success for at least six animal species at Hilton Pond Center.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

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Be sure to scroll down for an account of all
birds banded or recaptured during the period,
plus other nature notes of interest.

Thanks to the following fine folks for recent gifts in support of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History and/or Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Your tax-deductible contributions allow us to continue writing, photographing, and sharing "This Week at Hilton Pond." (Please see Support if you'd like to make a gift of your own.)