Frogs in the Kitchen - and Other Thirsty Critters

Rio Grande Chirping Frog

This is the worst drought in Texas’s weather history.  Along with the drought comes record breaking heat.   During last week’s prairie restoration workday, the Master Naturalists encountered lots of thirsty critters.  Animals that were naturally shy, reclusive, or nocturnal exposed themselves for a chance to reach water. 

Because of the drought, our usual prairie planting activities have halted.  Instead, we water.   John S., Tom B. and I drove into Attwater’s Prairie Chicken territory with a 275 gallon water tank and a bunch of buckets to care for our spring transplants.   Tom B., with his raptor-like vision, noticed that when he poured a gallon of water on a Yellow Indian Grass, little cotton rats would scurry out from deep cracks in the clay.  The usually timid rats would try desperately to lap the water before it vanished into the parched ground. As we filled containers, water sloshed forming a small muddy spot.  Two little sulfur butterflies soon settled on the puddle to sip.  Back at the tractor barn, we saw Texas City Prairie Preserve’s resident family of Crested Caracaras  swooping in to dip their beaks in a cow’s water trough.   Tom observed a swarm of honey bees that clustered briefly on a dripping water tank so the colony could drink. 

In my home, twice this week, I have found frogs in the kitchen.  The tiny Rio Grande Chirping Frogs, Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) cystignathoides,  have come inside searching for water.  This desperate survival measure must be something other local frogs are trying:  Tom B. said he also found a frog in his kitchen this week.  He discovered a Green Treefrog, Hyla cinerea, soaking in the dog’s water bowl. 

Like other folks, I try to help:  I keep four birdbaths filled.  One of those is a dish hanging against the trunk of a shrubby tree.  Hopping from a nearby fence line, the squirrels can reach this sheltered water source without ever touching the ground.   Green anoles climb to sip in the shade.    For frogs, toads and geckos, I put a pan on the ground, near a popular amphibian hang-out.  I placed smooth stones around and inside the pan, so little critters could get in and out easily.      

Using  a critter catcher, a Schwegler Naturschutz, I scooped him up and took him outside. Can you see him? (Rio Grande Chirping Frog.) 

Rio Grande Chirping Frog:  Notice the pointed nose and dark spots,

as well as the dark stripe from eye to nose - all identifying features.

The tangle of dog fuzz from my kitchen floor was quite a handicap.  This frog was tired and easy to rescue.

Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) cystignathoides are tiny, fast and secretive.  They are hard for me to photograph.  Thus I had to get lots of pictures of this one.

Rio Grande Chirping Frog making his exit from the critter catcher

An early-rising anole darted after him here, so I intervened and scooped him up again. (Rio Grande Chirping Frog)

 I put him down near my amphibian watering bowl. (Rio Grande Chirping Frog)

Fox Squirrel

Sciurus niger, the Fox Squirrel

Mama Fox Squirrel has a short tail. The brown glob on the tree is peanut butter.

Mama Fox Squirrel sitting to enjoy her chunky peanut butter.

Fox Squirrel in Burr Oak

I love watching the squirrels at the bird feeders.  We have the russet, amicable fox squirrels as well as smaller, rowdy gray squirrels.   I hung a simple seed feeder from a low branch of a young Nuttall Oak tree which my husband had planted. The branches were about as big around as my finger – just stout enough to support a feeder.

As it turned out, the bird feeder hung opposite one of the other thin branches.  A mama fox squirrel quickly noticed this convenient arrangement.  She regularly came to have breakfast in my garden.  Oh, I knew it was the same fox squirrel because of her unique, acrobatic eating style. 

          Although the feeder was on her branch’s level, it was still about a squirrel’s length away.  She found that she could stretch to reach the feeder with her front paws, while still clinging to the branch with her back paws.  She wrapped her long, bushy tail around the branch for stabilization.  After she grabbed the feeder, she snatched a mouth-full of seeds then swung down and around, 360 degrees, coming  up behind the branch, as though she were a gymnast swinging on the high bar (by her feet).  Back in an upright position, she’d sit comfortably to eat her food.  It was something to watch her do this over and over.  I wondered that she did not get dizzy.

One spring morning the dew was heavy.  The grass was sodden and the tree branches were glistening with moisture.  I saw Mama Squirrel out having her usual breakfast at the bird feeder, swinging circles around the thin branch.

          Later that day I glanced toward the feeder and was disturbed to see a clump of reddish brown fur at the tree branch.  I ran outside to find part of the squirrel’s tail twisted on the branch.  It seemed that with the wet conditions of that morning, something bad had happened.  As she circled the branch, her luxurious tail wrapped around the branch and became wet and tangled.  (Any person who has experienced the misfortune of twirling and tangling a brush in his or her long hair can understand the hopelessness of the situation.)   I do not know, but I think the poor squirrel must have snipped her own tail in the panic to free herself.   I unspun the tail from the branch.  There were seven inches of thick, reddish sable, but beneath the beautiful  hair I could feel  2 inches of boney tail segment.    

Immediately,  I moved the feeder to a better location where squirrels could reach it without gymnastics or injury.  Squirrels use their tails for so many things:  shade, warmth, balance, communication.  Their Genus, Sciurus, means “shade –tail”.  I felt just awful that she had been hurt in my garden.

This distressing episode happened about four years ago.  I am glad to report that Mama Squirrel still comes to my garden to drink from the bird bath and to eat bird seed.  Her bobbed tail is disguised a bit by a growth of longer hair.   Of course, she is still easy to identify. 

Red Admiral

Red Admiral basking on Oak Tree

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta,  nectaring at Salvia, Indigo Spires

The Red Admiral's bold markings are distinctive, even at a distance.

The water in the birdbaths had frozen solid overnight and was slowly melting in the late morning sun.   This had been a cold January by Galveston County standards, so I was surprised to see a butterfly nectaring at the blossoms of the indigo spires salvia.  Of course I had to go see who it was, but the critter startled easily and flew away fast.  I dismayed of ever getting a photo.  Fortunately, it settled comfortably on the sunny side of our Nutall Oak Tree.  Spreading its wings wide, with its head toward the ground,  it basked in the winter sunlight and soaked up some rays.  This battered butterfly needed a sip of nectar and a solar recharge.  After a while, the Red Admiral was flying again.   

For that’s what is was - a Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta,  quite easy to identify once it sat still.  Red Admirals are among the family Nymphalidae, the Brush-Footed Butterflies.   Brush-footed butterflies have tiny, vestigial forelegs.  This is not visible in my Red Admiral photos, but if you look back to my “Fritillary Euthanasia” entry, you may see the reduced front legs.  Another characteristic which you can see are the prominent knobs on the antennae. This species has a huge range - nearly all of North America and parts of Central America. Masses of Red Admirals have been known to migrate south, but adult Red Admirals can hibernate during the winter, as can the pupae.  I am sure in our southern county the temperatures are confusing. Their larval host plants include nettles, Urticaceae,  and other plants in that family.  

Several of my books mention that if you have a Red Admiral in your summer garden, it may regularly rest on your arm or shoulder.  Is this territorial butterfly trying to scare you away from its food source?  Are you a convenient basking spot or it is sipping salt and minerals from your skin?   Either way, how delightful to have a butterfly rest upon you!

Buckeye, Sulphur and Tawny Emperor

I have several pretty visitors to show you.

 

This is the Common Buckeye.  When I spot these, they are often on the ground or pavement, basking in the sun. This one was nectaring on yellow lantana when I photographed him.  Since I just planted some snapdragons, I was pleased to learn that snapdragons are one of their larval foods! 

 

 Yellow Butterflies! There are many different Sulphur butterflies in Galveston County.  Usually they are flying so quickly through my yard that I can only say with certainly, "It's a Sulphur."  This fellow basking on the Juniper was still long enough for a portrait. Some Sulphurs lay eggs on my Senna / Cassia tree.

 

This was a surprise sighting for me!  I looked up one morning (probably scanning for hawks) and saw a brown butterfly way up on the gutter.  This is a hackberry butterfly called a Tawny Emperor.  I do not have a hackberry tree in my yard, but I watched her sip condensation from the gutter, as she warmed in the sun.

Funereal Duskywing

This butterfly, nectaring from cosmos in my August garden, could be in formal attire or dressed in mourning colors with a white petticoat showing under the black dress.  It's the descriptively named  Funereal Duskywing with sooty wings and white fringe along the edges of the hindwing.  This lovely Funereal Duskywing , Erynnis funeralis,  is just one example of the skipper butterflies.  Taxonomists do not consider skippers to be “true” butterflies because they differ in so many ways.  For example, skippers look a little like moths with their stocky, feathery bodies and big, cute eyes.   The tip of a skipper’s  antennae has a curved, pointy club. To me it looks like a sickle or a pointed hockey stick.  True butterflies’ antennae do not curve back.   As this Duskywing demonstrates, skippers are usually cloaked in subdued shades of charcoal, chocolate, amber, copper, or bronze.   Larval host plants for the Funereal Duskywing include alfalfa,  indigo, vetch, and rattlebush.  Remember, if you want butterflies, you have to provide food for the babies and nectar for the adults.