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Sunday, March 29, 2026
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Pond
F R E S H W A T E R P O N D
A tight, interdependent little community sharing
a small body of water that doesn't quickly go away.
Each animal is both predator and prey, an unknowing
participant in a self-sustaining cycle of nutrients,
a cycle of life, first by devouring another and then
by becoming a meal for someone else.
This is not survival of the fittest.
This is simply fate for the living.
B L U E D A S H E R w i t h W A T E R M I T E S
This brightly colored male dragonfly should be at
his prime, getting fat eating all the tasty insects
arriving at the pond... as though they were
checking in to a resort for a five star makeover.
Sure, coming right up.
You're gone so quick
you don't know you're gone.
That's dragonfly normal. Just like the training manual
described. But your belly is festooned with a couple
hundred parasitic larvae. You're exhausted. Out of sorts.
And just sluggish enough to be snatched and devoured
by a patrolling perch. Your nutrients are passed along
to another. Crisp on the outside, thick and gooey
on the inside. It has a delightful larval topping.
Like caviar.
Y E L L O W P E R C H
Excellent flavor. We farm them by the tens of thousands.
They aren't going anywhere. They are a fish fry staple.
Gills and scales commercially farmed like chickens.
They aren't exposed to what lurks in the dark, still waters
of a grassland pond. Here the story gets even more
precarious.
Ponds are isolated patches of water that change
with the seasons. They are found where the ground
is too hard for the water to be absorbed or it dips
into the surrounding water table.
Water evaporates and ponds periodically run dry.
It could be months, even years, before rain restores
the ponds and life returns.
Who returns? How could frogs and fish
possibly survive this drought? No water.
No food. No oxygen.
It's amazing what a line of animals can adapt to
given a million years of trying.
B U L L F R O G
Up to eight inches long and over a pound in weight.
That's as big as any native frog gets in North America.
These guys are famous for their deep, resonate croak.
They work together with crickets to create that
good old country, nighttime melody.
This is a male frog. Look at that eardrum behind his ear.
It's huge. The female eardrums are about half this size.
They both sit like buddhas on a lily pad... motionless,
waiting. A dead bluegill floats belly-up nearby.
It's smell of decay is a delicious scent to a passing
fly. It pauses and hovers to investigate. Snap!
The frog's elastic tongue-like appendage snares the fly
in 0.07 of one second. Impossibly fast.
Faster than a speeding bullet.
The bullfrog spends his summer days
at the pool, sunning his pleasant self,
leisurely sweeping up insects as though
they were hors d'oeuvres, featured with
cocktails, in the lobby at four.
N O R T H E R N W A T E R S N A K E
No eggs. They give birth to their young live. A litter of
twenty or more squirming babies is not unusual.
They become hefty with size - big boned thick
as adults. They favor frogs, salamanders and
fish of every description for food.
They aren't poisonous and, unless cornered,
they prefer running over fighting.
You live longer.
It makes sense for a water snake to not lay eggs.
Where's the land? Eggs can't breath in water.
Eggs are food for herons and raccoons.
They wouldn't stand a chance left alone.
No, the strategy for this snake's young
are like that of the jackrabbit. From day one
its basically scatter and hide.
M A R S H W R E N
They kill the young ones of birds that dare to nest
near them. The male is always building new nests,
anywhere from six to over twenty, during the
course of the breeding season. The female choses
one, lining it with something soft and comfortable.
The remaining nests become bachelor pads
and places to strut about.
R A C C O O N
Trash panda. They love your leftovers.
And for greater convenience they can nest
in the attic. Masked bandit. You are a pest
to them. Always getting in their way.
The good news is they prowl around at night
eating mice and insects. They prefer living alone.
Raccoons have been introduced to other habitats
globally. Invasive species generally disrupt
the area as uninvited guests to the table.
They wipe out native species that better
fit the balance of nature.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Desert
J A C K R A B B I T
SURVIVAL BEGINS ON DAY ONE.
They are hares, born fully furred, eyes wide open
and they hop around just minutes after birth.
A rabbit, by contrast, is born blind, hairless and
helpless.
Jackrabbits have eagles, coyotes and bobcats
for neighbors. Everyone of these predators
rely on these hares as a staple of their diet.
The Jackrabbit hides in the spindly shade
of a desert creosote bush, its camouflaged form
difficult to detect, provided the animal doesn't move.
When seen, burst away full throttle for your life.
Adults can run nearly forty miles
an hour and leap twenty feet in a single bound.
Their eyes are positioned to see nearly 360 degrees
without moving their head. Their huge ears provide
keen hearing as well as serving as a radiator,
releasing the body's excess heat into the
surrounding air.
Their extreme environment requires they eat
their own stools, making double sure their
gut didn't miss some bit of nutrient or drop
of water that might have slipped through
their first go around.
It's a hard life having to snack on fecal pellets
like they are some daily probiotic supplement.
K A N G A R O O R A T
METABOLIZE DRY SEEDS INTO WATER. THEY NEVER DRINK.
Common to deserts of the American Southwest -
Sonora and Mojave. It's relatives are gophers,
not rats. They have fur-lined pouches outside
their cheeks to hold the foraged seeds
they will return to their burrow for storage.
Having the cheek pouches outside the mouth
prevents saliva from contacting these seeds,
causing them to later mold while stored.
Its skull appears almost half the size of its body.
Behind each animal's ear is a large, hollow chamber
that amplifies subtle sounds, like the faint whoosh of
an owl's wings in flight or the near silent glide
of a snake closing in. Keen hearing is the
kangaroo rat's best defense against predators
that make them their primary source of food.
R O A D R U N N E R
CAPABLE OF FLIGHT BUT PREFERS RUNNING.
Twenty miles an hour sustained speed,
twenty-five in a burst. And you don't know
whether it's coming or going, judging by the
tracks it leaves. It has two toes in front and
two in back. The footprint is the same either way.
All members of the cuckoo family share the
same curious feet.
They are known to kill rattlesnakes.
They might even eat it if it is small enough.
Mostly their diet is made up of mice,
lizards, insects, tarantulas and scorpions.
All you can eat.
C O Y O T E
POPULATION EXPANDS DESPITE ADVERSITY.
An animal once limited to prairies and desert
has now stretched its population from coast
to coast, New York City to Los Angeles, and
everything in between - forests and mountains
alike, in spite of efforts by ranchers and others
to eliminate them as pests.
Coyotes eat most anything.
Rabbit if they catch one, deer if it's already dead.
Insects will do. They can live on fruit if need be.
They are highly social animals and use a
number of different barks, howls and yips to
keep track of each other's location and to
maintain social bonds as well as mark
their territory.
S A G U A R O
THEY TAKE FOREVER TO GROW - 10 YEARS TO REACH 3 FEET.
Let's say your parents planted a one inch tall
saguaro cactus in the yard to celebrate your
birth. You would probably be middle-aged
and using reading glasses by the time it had
its first flower bloom. The saguaro would sprout
its first arm when you are over 75 and making
frequent doctor visits. Your grandkids will
celebrate the saguaro reaching its mature
height when they are all old enough to vote.
In Arizona, it is a felony to disturb these plants
in any way, shape or form.
G I L A W O O D P E C K E R
APARTMENT LIVING IN A SAGUARO. KNOCK, KNOCK.
If you are a woodpecker in the Sonora Desert
you settle for a saguaro in place of wood.
They excavate a cavity in a living saguaro
to make its home. It takes months of drying
before the pulp hardens to a leathery case,
and becomes suitable for raising a family.
This woodpecker likes to extract insects from
crevices with its sticky tongue, one that wraps
around its brain when retracted because it is
too long for its bill. Seriously.
Gila woodpeckers like cactus fruit, nectar,
berries and pet food left in a bowl out on
the patio.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Yard Friendly
B L U E J A Y
HOW DO YOU GET BLUE FROM A BROWN PIGMENT?
There is no blue pigment in nature. To make
a Blue Jay's feathers blue requires biologically
created microscopic structures that scatter the
sun's light, so that only the color blue is reflected
back to you. The same holds true for blueberries
and hydrangeas, anything living that looks blue.
The Jay is closely related to Crows and Magpies.
Clever birds all; known for problem solving.
Highly adaptable. It's true of every animal you see
making a living about your house. Each of the
animals featured here has its own way of dealing
with you.
A M E R I C A N T O A D
ONE OF THESE IN YOUR YARD RIDS YOUR HOME OF INSECT PESTS.
Each day they swallow about a thousand creepy crawlers
that would like to surprise you and run out from hiding in
your cupboard. And you have guests... over for dinner.
You don't have these problems with Mr. Toad.
Of course, this could easily be the misses.
I can't tell them apart.
You could stuff a lizard in that big mouth.
The thick, gnarly bumped skin slows water evaporation.
Frogs need to be near ponds. All this toad needs
is a log or rock, someplace dark and cool to hide under
during the day. But the toad is an amphibian.
It's eggs have no protective shell, and they must
be laid in standing water or they quickly dry out.
Reptiles lay eggs with shells and they have
no such constraint.
G R A Y S Q U I R R E L
AND YOU THOUGHT THEY WERE VEGAN.
What turns a park squirrel into a murderous carnivore?
Opportunity. A dead bird. A nest of eggs or young ones
momentarily left unguarded. There is no nut and seed
diet that provides the surge in protein, fat and calcium
that animal flesh delivers. Here is the needed
pick me up if you are a pregnant or nursing squirrel.
Have a sudden urge to bite the head off of a baby chick?
Don't worry about it. It's instinct,
and comes with a rational explanation.
B R O W N - H E A D E D C O W B I R D
A YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER FEEDS A SPIDER TO 'BABY'.
The cowbird looks like a black bird with a brown head.
They don't make nests. Cowbirds drop their egg in
the nests of unsuspecting birds because they haven't
the time to raise kids.
For thousands of years the cowbird had made a
good living following the buffalo about as it stirs
insects from the prairie grass. Day after day the
scenery always changed because these large
bison herds were nomadic. If you wanted to make
a living off the buffalo you couldn't take time to build
nests and raise the nestlings.
Most birds take an hour or more to lay one egg.
A cowbird delivers its egg in under forty seconds.
Get in and get out quickly without being seen.
The cowbird young are precocious. They hatch
sooner and grow more quickly than their nest mates.
Consequently they monopolize the food and
push their competitors from the nest.
Is there no justice for the wronged?
E U R O P E A N S T A R L I N G
A CRAZY HIGH METABOLIC RATE REQUIRES INNOVATIVE RESPIRATION.
A bird's airflow system is not like the bellows that are a
mammal's lungs, tidal - first drawing oxygen in then push
out carbon dioxide. An avian respiration has a one way flow
of air, much like that of a wind tunnel. The beauty here is
that even when the animal is exhaling, it is also drawing in
oxygen at the same time, supercharging the metabolism.
The body's intense burning of calories generates a
dangerous amount of heat. Once again, this respiratory
approach provides the solution by efficiently drawing
heat from the body, along side the CO2.
When it comes to flight, birds are jets and mammals
strictly piston engines.
O P O S S U M
HER JOY FROM HEAVEN.
Nocturnal. Highly nomadic. Moving always from
den to den. They are marsupials. Their embryonic
young migrate to a pouch, where they develop into
something survivable.
Possums are surprisingly good climbers. They also
have a high immunity to snake venom. Here's the
problem. Possums prowl for insects, snails, rodents
and the like at night. They have poor vision. They
rustle through leaves where copperhead rattlers like
to rest. Bingo. They get bit, with enough toxin to
quickly kill an animal this size. But the possum
has natural immunity. It may well go on and
eat the snake.
Possums do play dead.
Under extreme stress they involuntarily fall into
a comatose state. To heighten the intensity of the
moment, the possum also releases a death-like odor
to further discourage a predator from making
it a meal.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, March 8, 2026
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