Wild Places, Wild Birds

Sheree’s brother took us to nearby Clemson Experimental Forest hoping to find some nice spring warblers and other migrants.  The nice thing about birding, it gets a person outside, into nature, and the discoveries are often unexpected and wonderful.  So it was on this adventure. The birds were relatively quiet but compensated for by spring flowers, reptiles, and amphibians.  We found the Northern Watersnake in a small creek fed by a beautiful natural spring. He never moved the whole time we circled with our cameras. The Central Rat Snake, sitting on a bridge along the side of the road, also was very cooperative. 

We found the Crested Iris plants at the waterfall. 

We had a total of 32 species in the forest over two mornings. Most enjoyable was listening to the Louisiana Waterthrush and Northern Parula. I have added the recordings to my Bird Sounds of NC page. Maybe I need to change the name to NC/SC, and very soon add Michigan bird sounds to the mix.
eBird lists – https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54715837   and  https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54761003

Enjoy the flowers, we sure did!

Central Ratsnakes Pantherophis spiloides are large (record 256.5 cm) common harmless ratsnakes with a multitude of regional color patterns native to eastern and central North America between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River Embayment. Pantherophis ratsnakes are keeled-scaled generalists that eat a variety of prey. They do well in urban environments, and are particularly fond of rodents and birds in these habitats.

Central Ratsnakes P. spiloides are currently recognized as distinct from Eastern Ratsnakes P. alleghaniensis, as well as Western Ratsnakes P. obsoletus. Parts of all three species were once generically labeled “black ratsnakes”. Use the “! blackrat” command without the space for more on these changes.

Ratsnakes can be easily distinguished from racers Coluber by the presence of keeled scales. Racers have smooth scales.

Range Map | Relevant/Recent Phylogeography

This short account was prepared by /u/Phylogenizer.