Mom's collard lizard

My mother visited one of the lizard release sites with Larry Rizzo this week and took this stunning photo of a Big, bright male! This guy could have been released this season or this time last year, and appears very healthy! ..It was such a cool photo that I had to show it off for her- enjoy!

Collard Lizards Part II.

Following up on last years collared lizard relocation project, I was again invited to capture Missouri-natives with MDC. Larry Rizzo was there in uniform and Ruth and Bill, from lakeside nature center, attended as volunteers. The Conservation Department's leading herpetologist, Jeff Briggler was happy to teach the art of noosing a lizard and wanted to capture about a dozen healthy adults to help establish a new population elsewhere in the state. Fishing rod lizard-nooses where tossed from hand to hand-depending on who was closest to a lizard and who had not had the opportunity to catch one yet. With a short loop hung from the end of the pole, a lizard-hunter must slip the loop around the lizard's neck without startling it. Once the string was wrapped around him, we were to pull up, "...as if you were setting a hook while fishing." The result is a very surprised lizard dangling for as short a' time as possible- no lizards were harmed today so it must work well!

I was successful at lizard-noosing last year, but had no opportunities to try it this year- still it was fun! The Collared lizards were fast and were totally at-home amongst the exposed rock. Once the sun came out, the lizards were abundant- basking on the rocks. More than enough lizards were captured and Jeff took notes and measurements of each lizard before stashing them in the shade or setting them free. We released several juveniles and kept more Females than males- Jeff believes that the increased female:male will be better for starting a healthy colony. There are already lizards at the release site- these were released under the same project last year. Folks dispersed after the group accomplished the 11-or-12-lizard goal and left a handful of us to learn more about the lizards from Jeff.

Upon release, one feisty lizard turned back towards Jeff. He recognized the lizards bold defiance and offered a finger several inches above and in front of the lizard. The bright male did not hesitate to launch at Jeff- and made a mid-air chomp at Jeff's hand. The lizard got him good and hit the ground runnin'; he found his home and may be part of a successful future resident of the release site.

Truman WEEKEND

A few very pleasant days on the lake with my father. The water was high- not so much as to flood any significant part of the campground, but maybe it shrank the size of the park's peninsula by many acres.. Fishing was no good; a few soul-refreshing fires and some beautiful sunsets made the trip instead.

What happened to May?

the month of May will be marked on the Blog this year with only a few posts..My trips and short hikes have been had this month, but without a working camera.

The big digital that died in Yankton was returned to life with A new lens and a lot of delicate cleaning, but was lifted from the back of my car only a week later. The ol'e Minolta monster destroyed it's last roll of film with a faulty shutter and has been put into retirement...
The other (older) ol'e Minolta monster is still down without a light meter..
It seems that I was left camera-less for too many weeks this month. I couldnt collect the money to replace my favorite stolen camera, but was able to find a sweet waterproof point-n-shoot to begin shooting replacement photographs...

Yankton

I started off at the Cabin, near Squaw Creek on Big Lake. We had only sun until late, but the area was constantly under a new Severe storm or tornado watch. Some very cool clouds popped up at dusk- they sat underneath a bright moon. I walked down the the cemetery to take a photo with the old 35mm. The trees are beginning to look very green! Thunder and far-off lightning arrived after sunset, but we got no precipitation. I woke up in a thick, wet fog-mist and drive north under menacing clouds and through several short showers- I met Vicki in Yankton on Friday afternoon- just as the Educational event was coming to a close. I hung with Vicki, John and Alex and helped where I could. Yankton was rainy and rather soggy until hours after I arrived. Blue skies shown bright for an hour or so and I got my things into one of the steel boats; the rest of the crew would arrive later in the day to meet us on our island-camp! I set upstream on my short kayak- The camp was only a half-mile or so from Yankton's ramp.

I paddled and worked to compete with the oncoming flow, and made it to the double-decker bridge before a great, ominous shelf cloud boiled it's way over the city. i saw the thing coming and paced myself carefully to make sure that I would be in a shallow spot under the bridge in case the storm became too wicked. It hit with force- a cold northerly wind blasted at, according to one weather report, 45-60 mph, with damaging gusts exceeding 80mph...

Being on the water quickly became a dangerous idea and I worked against a miserable wind to beach the boat. the dark shelf-cloud passed- I took some dramatic photographs of the storm over the bridge on the city from the water, but the driven rain turned into hail and I sought refuge under my life jacket- removing it from my body meant I would become very cold. The rain slowed and I regrouped and took hold of the kayak's front handle- I wanted to walk to regain my body heat.- I know that I should have been better prepared, but I cant imagine that anyone was prepared for the storm that battered the upstream portion of the city! I wondered how John was doing with the boats.

The wind continued, and formed large white-capped waves that sped downstream with the storm. The persistent stinging rain became miserable pretty quick, but I drug my boat to at least some relief; the shore was all flat sand and mud until I needed to cross a slim, deeper braid in the river. I started to wade across. Already wet, I was not afraid to sink stomach-high in the milky water, but I carried my camera with me and returned to shore to hop in the oat and battle the wind across. About halfway across I caught a good gust and sailed onto a sandbar- I had to get out to launch the kayak again. The rain was gone after another tenth of a mile or so- just as my legs began to tire from towing the kayak. The clouds were obviously breaking up and I got out onto the main channel as winds slowed. I made it to the camp where only one tent stood sideways with a shattered pole. With the kayak secured high on the sand I entered camp- I tried messing with the crippled tent for a second; I stood it up, but did not want to make matters worse and left it. I began collecting firewood- the wind was still intense, but it was surprisingly dry- it felt warm. I stumbled into a pair of juicy Yellow Morels and immediately became distracted...
I jogged back to the kayak and grabbed the camera; it took me the length of the short trek back to the mushrooms to realize that the lens had been temporarily rendered useless by bubbling condensation. I picked the mushrooms and walked another few steps to find one more. I stashed them in the mess kit that I had brought over. Nobody came, and I wandered down the beach -towards the bridges with the wind at my back- Maybe there was a cool stone or fossil to be found? Many fossilized bone fragments sat amongst the largest gravel-

I got to the tip of my island-far downstream of camp, where that deep braid returns to the river. The sharp, shallow point was repeatedly overcome by the wind's largest waves. The slightly-green water is still cold from northern snow melt and cool nights. A large, ancient vertebra sat in the shallows of the point- I stubbed my toe on it while only ankle-deep!

I ignored time and made my way back towards the camp and my boat. The wind whipped at my face kept my hair horizontal. It felt good, but just as I began to feel that I must be close, I caught a glance of my bright orange kayak- rushing over a log and propelled by an unusually gust of dry wind. Immediately I thought of the camera that I had let to dry on the anchored boat, and the thing rolled into a tree not far from me- nearly 30meters from where I had left it! The wind hit me with a blast of stinging, blinding sand- My camera was dead- the lens was lodged under a large drift-wood trunk and the unprotected body was partially cracked and filled with camera-killing sand. I was frustrated and saddened by the loss, but the sun came out again and I couldn't feel bad in such a beautiful place. I still had the 35mm........

Glade Planting

Rocky Point got a makeover today when a small group of volunteers braved the mud to plant a variety of natives; Dozens of flats of flowers were planted- I saw Larkspurs, Blazing stars and Coneflowers among them.
Everybody seemed to have a good time- and the weather, for the most part, cooperated. I'm calling it a success!

Lakeside and the marsh

"Old-Lakeside" caught my eye the other day; I felt a need to visit and check-up-on the old marsh behind the building at Gregory and oldham.
I found a jack-in-the-pulpit and several large patches of bright-pink wild geraniums... the marsh looks clean- it looks good! Smart weed is dense enough to clog out some of the edges and floating accumulations of green duck weed are thick on the surface.
One creek is dammed with bags of sand or cement- they appear to have stopped erosion well!