Monday: South Platte River

[mistressofmuses]

On Monday we met up with a friend who did some pick-ups at a model event for us, and since that meant we were in a different part of town than usual, we decided to take advantage of it to go for a walk somewhere we don't typically.

We picked a spot along the South Platte River (The Splatte River, as I usually call it, because I am very clever.) This was a spot that we half-remembered from a time we stopped here a good decade ago. At that time the water was pretty low, and we were able to wander out and poke around for some cool rocks. Alex found a tiny piece of amazonite! So we had the vague hope of doing the same...

The area has changed a little bit. There are athletic fields there now, as well as a few other "improvements", but there is still a trail that goes down toward the river.


This picture is from the middle of a bridge over the river. It was pretty, despite the smoke haze that was starting to settle over us.

The water levels were definitely higher than the year we'd come here before, which surprised me, because it's been distressingly dry this summer. But I guess there's been more rainfall upstream! That did mean no wandering down to look for rocks, because what wasn't underwater was very much mud.



So hot the squirrels were melting.


The squirrel also had a lot of uncomplimentary things to say about me sitting there with Bella.

There is no way to get a picture to convey the sheer quantity of grasshoppers. It's been a piece of local-interest news this year, about "there sure are a lot of grasshoppers, aren't there?" My mom has been complaining about her garden being devoured.

But there are just... thousands of them. Each step along the trail here would send a good 50+ scattering. Just waves and waves of grasshoppers.


I could NOT get my camera to focus well on them, so I'm sorry they're still blurry, but these are lacewing eggs! (And my hand holding a bird egg shell in the background, trying to provide contrast for the camera to focus on...)

I don't think I've ever actually managed to spot lacewing eggs in the wild, though I've seen pictures of them before (it's a fairly unique look, with each one on a strand like that.) Lacewings are good bugs - they eat aphids and other little pests. And they're lovely green, delicate creatures. So I was delighted to actually spot the eggs!


And a juvenile Woodhouse's toad!

I handed the toad to Alex and it immediately peed all over him.

And then... I gave in to peer pressure. (From Alex.) "You have been looking for a toad..."

Looking for replacements for my beloved fire-bellied toad have gone nowhere.

(The one guy I'd found on Facebook seems cool, but he's focused on breeding rare color morphs, which are really neat, but are also like, $150 plus the extremely high shipping for a live animal. OR he's looking to only sell pairs of toads to other people who want to breed them, because he wants more domestic breeders of the species... which I'm also a fan of, but I don't have the space or time or setup to make sure I can raise tadpoles and house more adults, nor do I want to mess with selling them myself.
The more mainstream source I'd almost purchased from insisted that the yellow color morph of theirs was due to being captive-bred, which I think I mentioned at the time sounded strange to me... and then in talking with the other guy on Facebook, he said that no, that's indicative of them actually being crossbred with different related species... which I would care a lot less about if they were honest about it, but the fact they aren't makes me sideye it a lot.
(And it's also a bigger problem because the species is so hard to find now... for the most common source to be selling crosses as purebreds, it's compounding the issue, and making it even *harder* to find them.) The species it could be crossed with are similar enough that it theoretically shouldn't impact care or lifespan or anything, and if it's just aesthetic wouldn't be a big deal for me, since all I want is a pet, but... they *aren't* the same species, and I don't know for *sure* that all the care/behavior/lifespan expectations are the same.

So. I've kept Woodhouse's toads before. (My mom had one named Sharkbait WooHaHa as her classroom pet when she was a teacher, and the toad far outlived her teaching career. [The teaching career only lasted a year before she decided she hated it, while the toad lived a long and happy life in our care afterwards.]) They are also a common species, with little risk to their population.

And while I dislike wild-caught animals winding up in the pet trade, it's legal in Colorado to keep up to four individuals of most common native species, including Woodhouse's toads.


I think I might name her "Big Mad."



Big Mad has been set up in her habitat; got appropriate substrate for her, an opaque hide in case she wants it, a pond (which isn't quite as big as the picture makes it look) that's the right depth.

She's proven to be an extremely efficient hunter, and has already eaten five (!) small crickets in two meals over the last couple days.

Comments

[soc_puppet]

We've got lacewing eggs on our milkweed for the second year in a row now! Wish I would've just asked you what they were instead of going digging, TBH 😂

I will admit to having a very minor grudge against lacewing larvae after having found one sucking out the contents of some monarch butterfly eggs. (They didn't even get to hatch! 🤬) Aside from that one incident, they're cool bugs 👍

Congrats on Big Mad! I hope she gives you many grumpy years ♥

[mistressofmuses]

Hooray for the lacewing eggs! Milkweed are such an excellent plant for so many creatures!

Oh, that would have given me a (minor) grudge against them, too! Monarchs are wonderful, and in our area relatively uncommon, and I'd be so upset to have their eggs getting slurped up!
(We see at least a couple adult monarchs most years, but despite my mom having cultivated milkweed through my whole childhood, and despite enthusiastically checking every milkweed stand I see when we go on local walks, I have yet to ever see eggs/caterpillars/chrysalises here! We saw caterpillars on milkweed at a rest stop in Indiana on a road trip once, and I was so excited, lol.)

Thank you! I hope to give her a long, grumpy, sheltered life, haha.

[soc_puppet]

Right now ours are mostly an excellent plant for aphids and these weird longhorn beetle things that are red with black spots, like elongated ladybugs 😂

I've seen a couple of eggs this year, but no caterpillars yet ☹ I finally looked up how long it takes the eggs to hatch, and I'm pretty sure I can safely keep a milkweed leaf fresh long enough, so the next time I see an egg, I'm snatching it so it'll be safe.
Last year, Mom and I managed to sneak three monarch caterpillars inside to a makeshift terrarium before some local wildlife gobbled them up. I'm deeply frustrated by the disappearance of multiple monarch caterpillars, because isn't the milkweed supposed to prevent them from getting eaten? But here we are, I guess 🙃 Hopefully, by snatching before the hatching, I'll be able to save a few more this year...

[vriddy]

That squirrel chilling on the table is so funny and relatable haha. Hello, Big Mad!

[galadhir]

Ooh, congrats on Big Mad! Perhaps she'll be less mad once she's settled in - it must have been a very strange day for her. But it looks like she chose you as well as the other way around, and how nice to have a little toad to look after again :)

[spikedluv]

Yay for getting to walk somewhere different! And finding a toad! LOL at Big Mad! Easier to write out than Broccoli Cheddar Bomb (I hope I remembered that right).

[umadoshi]

I think I might name her "Big Mad."

So cute! ^_^

[scarlipswolfwife]

Squirrels are definitely melting all over the place these days. We've had some nasty heat but also a lot of clouds lately with some rain, so it's not AS bad right now, but still. Squirrels. Melting.

Hey Big Mad! I'm sure she was like...wtf I'm in a glass cage now. I'm a villain! LOL

[olivermoss]

Ooh, nice river and splooted squirrel.

You found a friend! Glad she's settled in and vanquishing her enemies.

[mistressofmuses]

I've seen those types of longhorn beetles on ones here (sometimes thistle, too), but I'm not sure specifically what they are beyond... "those longhorn beetles that are red with black spots" lol.

Boo on the caterpillars not happening this year! I'd say definitely rescue those eggs and caterpillars to protect them! The milkweed is supposed to protect them from some predators, I think, but it's sad that other things have decided they're still edible. :(

Grabbing them and raising them in safety is probably the best thing you can do for them!

[mistressofmuses]

The flat table squirrel was very funny. Like, I feel you, buddy.

<3

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you!

She already seems a bit less mad (which may have something to do with how food has magically fallen from the sky twice now.) I am sure she did have the *weirdest* day, but hopefully she settles in.

[mistressofmuses]

It was nice to get to walk somewhere different than usual! And finding the toad was very exciting. (The old toad was Broccoli Cheddar Bomb! We'll see if Big Mad sticks as her best name.)

[mistressofmuses]

She is adorable! I want to make sure I give her a good name, ha.

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah, it's pretty damn hot. It's a drier heat here, but at some point hot is still just hot. I'll take it over cold any day, but I wouldn't turn down some cloudcover and rain!

I'm sure she had a very strange day being abducted like that! What if I am her supervillain origin story? Lol.

[mistressofmuses]

The river was lovely!

And yes, she's proven to be QUITE the hunter. (Unlike Broccoli Cheddar Bomb, RIP, who was very much not a killing machine.)