Canopy Roads of South Georgia

Planted Longleaf, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012

These are the same longleaf planted in 2008, blogged 10 October 2010, burned a second time 16 December 2011, and greening and candling again February 2012.

Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman with the planted longleaf (Pinus palustris)
by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012.

Almost all of them survived the prescribed burn, and many of them are quite tall. The planted little bluestem and big bluestem are also thriving, along with native verbena, and some less savory invasive exotics, including trash along the road. Plus Gretchen's favorite: dog fennel! And along the fence row cedars, pecans, plums, grapes, wild cherry, and a gopher tortoise. Here's a flickr slideshow:

Snake in the wiregrass

Yes, Brown Dog and Yellow Dog found another hog-nosed snake. Hiding:

John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 March 2012.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms.

Boxed:

 

Slider Turtle

In hand:

John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 March 2012.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms.

On ground:

 

Snake in the oak leaves

Yellow Dog and Brown Dog pointing:

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms.

Can you see it there, between the wiregrass and the oak log?

 

Dessicated lizard

I guess it had been there a while:

Pictures of a dried lizard by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 September 2011.

-jsq

Snake on a hoe

How I get the snake in the box:

I pick it up on a hoe. Most snakes it's more like raking them into the box with the hoe, but this one's playing dead:

Gopher across Coppage

Why did the gopher tortoise cross the road?

Video by John S. Quarterman, Coppage Road, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 August 2011.

To find a way through the fence.

-jsq

What's in the fun box?

Well, that looks like fun!

Let's open it up and see:

Snake of the night

The dogs found this, about one foot from the house:

Yep, it's a timber rattler. You can't see the rattles in this picture (although you can in these other ones by Gretchen), but it had three.

So I put it in a box. It didn't like that: it really rattled. We drove it to a better spot in the woods, where it's very happy now.

Good dogs, Yellow Dog and Brown Dog! They notified us but did not try to bite the snake.

Pictures by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 1 June 2011.

-jsq

Update 8:45 AM 3 July 2011: Fixed picture link and added link to flickr set with Gretchen's additional pictures.

Box turtle

Found this in the yard:

It's a box turtle. Presumably either the eastern box turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina, or possibly a Florida box turrtle, Terrapene carolina bauri.

Here's a size comparison: