Joey's notes
This week has been a real scorcher! Hot and dry! We really need some
serious rain.
Monday (7-15-02), Did a "Snake and Lizard" talk for the group
of Irish Children that came to Spartanburg for the summer. GREAT kids!
Always nice to meet new friends (and see some old friends) from distant lands.
Tuesday (7-16-02), Work, Found some Yellowjackets while gathering some
feeder worms. Got one sting. On a better note, we did catch two Brown
Snakes.
Wednesday (7-17-02), My dear sweet wife's birthday, AND, our 19th
wedding anniversary! I have appreciated and loved every day of it!
Thursday (7-18-02), Off work, I had family errands to attend, but ended
up at the Botanical Gardens at Clemson University. I enjoyed seeing Swift
Setwings and Prince Baskettails prowl at a small pond. Dragonflies are wonderful
to watch.
Friday (7-19-02), With a bit of time and a hot day, I darted into
Cherokee County and collected some Cicindela rufiventris (new county
record).
Saturday (7-20-02), My son and I joined a group of Entomologists doing a
survey of insects at a small State Park (Goodale State Park) in Kershaw
County near Camden. We met some wonderful folks and saw some cool insects.
Dragonflies were great but it was nice to collect Tiger Beetles in the
Sandhills. C. abdominalis were common, we found C. punctulata,
but best of all were my first C. gratiosa. Awesome! We also went on
up into Chesterfield County where we easily collected Tiger Beetles (C.
punctulata and C. gratiosa) and Dragonflies. We were home by 4
PM. Later in the evening, I picked up an Eastern Worm Snake while doing
some visiting in-laws down in Laurens County.
Sunday (7-21-02), Picked up another Eastern Worm Snake under debris in
Laurens County.
Not much else to say. Have a good week.
Week Ending 07-14-02:
I am late this week getting this report out, but then, I do not have a lot to report. There are lots of neat insects (Beetles & Moths) available, but Snakes are rather hard to find. Perhaps I should re-phrase that: with the heat of summer on, Snakes are hard to look for. We did brave the heat and found a Red-Bellied Snake one day on campus. Other herps are out. We saw the first baby Skinks and Anoles this week (our Skink eggs in the Classroom hatched). With slightly cooler temps and rains, several Eastern Box Turtles were seen crossing the road on Sunday morning. Found a couple of DOR Ratsnakes also.
Like I said, not much going on.
Joey Holmes
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