Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Recent visitors


Red phase American Toad, Bufo americanus, in the garden.


Please stay and eat some bugs.


A nice webpage that includes info on how to differentiate similar species by cranial ridge patterns.


Cool red dragonfly: Carolina Saddlebags, Tramea carolina. Thanks again Giff Beaton.


A turtle I haven't identified yet. But now I see why they call it a turtleneck.


She was in a hurry to get somewhere.


Unwelcome visitor. One of the neighbor's cows, again. Tremendous painintherearus.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cows again? (Actually, I can't tell if that is a cow or a bull. I am a little embarrassed by this fact, but there it is.)

Rurality said...

Yep. It's a cow - just claim that the picture is too small to tell! :)

DeeMom said...

Cute Toad
Awesome Dragon Fly
Adorable turtle
The Last pictures looks like dinner…Ground beef ;)

Ericka said...

ooh, neat. i don't think i've ever seen a red bullfrog. ours are all dark olive green.

cow - dinner and a coat on the hoof. :-)

lime said...

i had a finding earlier today that i may post tomorrow. the technical temr for cow was quite funny!

R.Powers said...

People study toad cranial ridge patterns?

Shady Gardener said...

Is it not a painted turtle?

Rurality said...

Deemom, the thought has definitely crossed my mind. (Insert evil grin here...)

Erika, it's a toad rather than a bullfrog. But I'd never seen a red one of those either! They are usually brown.

Lime, yep I got that straight from the book. :)

FC, well I do...

SG, I have no idea. It does not seem to match any of the pictures exactly. I *really* should have looked underneath but it didn't occur to me at the time.

There was no red on his neck BTW.

meresy_g said...

Oh to have turtles! I did see a toad for the first time this year. He seemed intent on living in our garage and we had to remove him several times. Strange. I guess the cold concrete floor was attracting him.

SantaBarbarian said...

ooops. Think I posted a comment on the wrong entry.

(Note to self...stronger coffee)

Ki said...

Really nice toad! I wish we had one in our garden. I saw an advertisement for a toad house once. I think it was just an unglazed red clay pot with a door cut out. You could probably make one out of a planter pot slightly buried on its side and covering the top portion of the opening so it would give the toad more shelter. Maybe it would encourage the toad to stay in your yard.

KFarmer said...

Exactly why I am undecided about getting a bull this fall. Not sure if I'm up to chasing the thing down the street or getting it from someone's yard...They can get kind of testy. Great pics :)

swamp4me said...

Your turtle looks to be a yellow-bellied slider but without seeing the plastron, I can't say for sure.

Anonymous said...

Lovely toad! I have a weakness for redheads...

lisa said...

Although the cows are a pain, they're quite beautiful! (And they make me hungry!) That red phase is way cool on the toad, I've never seen that before!

Susan Gets Native said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. Why have I not discovered your blog until NOW? It's a cryin' shame, that's what it is.
Love that species of cow...but my favorite is the makerofmethaneus species.
:)