A Rescued Grey Rat Snake

      I passed this tiny 8 inch Grey Rat snake on the road and thought it was a stick. I'm getting better and better at backing my car up or swinging it around to save some snake, turtle or opossum.
     The next day I got it to eat a mouse pinkie (a newborn mouse). This baby snake is not a nice one. Everytime I hold it, it spins around, has a temper tantrum and bites over and over.
     I brought it to work and a few meetings to show everyone. But I didn't take it out of the jar or try to hold it. As harmless as it is, I don't want to leave that image in their minds of this thing going crazy.

10/6/11 Cardboard Recycling

     As we don't have recycling at Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge, staff still seperate recyclables and we all take some home with us. Before putting this pile in my car I check it for things like Black Widow Spider and Green Anoles. I try to keep the wildlife in my car to a minimum.

Big Econlocktachee River Clean Up

     When the river I live on floods all kinds of things from upstream go by. While out collecting Water Hyacinth and Chinese Tallow Trees I also found this small tire and some bottles.

Jay Blanchard Park

5/22/11
Armoured Cat fish
I went to Jay Blanchard Park today to collect Water Hyacinth and Water Lettuce plants. I'll be using these exotic and invasive plants for Turtle food at Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge.

I removed:
48 Water Hyacinths
15 Water Lettuces
20 Cesar Weeds
Several tangled balls of fishing line
I scraped off the egg cases of many exotic/invasive Channel Apple Snails, I bet these eggs would make great food or something.

     I cut down one medium sized Chinese Talllow Tree. I counted ten large exotic/invasive/Armoured Cat Fish in the shallow water. I've got to find a way to caputre them. Some people call these fish Algea Eaters, or Sailfin Catfish.
     The picture above is three Armoured Cat Fish that some guys had captured by hand on another day. The guys didn't know they were exotic/invasives. They walked out into the water beyond the Cat Fish then grabbed them from behind. Armoured Cat Fish cannot live out of water like Walking Catfish. These three died after about ten minutes. If I want to capture them like these guys did, I'd have to come to the park prepared to do some swimming.

Cardboard Recycling

 1/28/11
East Coast Martial Arts Supply Store    
     I redirected this pile of all cardboard from a trip to a non-recycling City of Orlando dumpster to my Orange County recycling bins. My friends who run a Marital Arts Supply store will set aside their cardboard if I call ahead.

My Laundry Mat

1/10/11
     My laundry mat does not have recycling. So I asked them if I could pull the recycling out of their trash cans when I come in to do my laundry. They were happy to let me do this, I was concerned they would think I was crazy. I pulled out the cardboard, water bottles and soap bottles. I took them home and put them out on my weekly recycling day.

1/19/11
     I pulled out a garbadge bag full of soap bottle, newpapers and soda cans. I took them home for recycling.

The Big Econlockhatchee River

                   

1/23/11

     I did a walking clean up of the Big Econlockhatchee River today. I took out a bag of wire, plant pots,beer bottles styrafoam and 18 Cesar Weeds. This was mostly old litter.

1/1/11
     I live half a mile upstream from this "Bridgeout Park". This spot is not really a park it is just where an old road used to cross the river. But people collect there to rope swing, fish, drink and hunt exotic/invasive Wild Boar.
     After new years I went down to Bridgeout Park to pick up some litter and look for exotic plants. I ended up collecting more beer bottles and cans than I could carry. (Top picture). Some little kids joined in on my collecting, often bringing me scary looking pieces of broken beer bottles they had found in the sand while swimming.

     I had to come back the next day to collect the rest (bottom picture). I don't drink alcohol but my recycling bins are full of beer cans. I wonder if my neighbors think I have a serious drinking problem.