- Naturalist: studies nature and things in it (spends more time in nature)

- Biologist: studies the same thing but more scientific (how it all works)
- poison: eaten and makes sick
- Venom: put into me and makes me sick
- All spiders have venom
- Snakes are less active during cold times
- Reptiles broomate
- Fault lines are created by collisions of tectonic plates/continent

January 18
- Pond turtles hibernate at the bottom of ponds
- They breathe through bladders
- They also use it when they get out of the pond

January 19
- You can identify a Wax myrtle in the winter by its green leaves and waxy fruit
- button bush has cluster of fruit
- Sweet gum balls (trees), Maples, Sycamore balls, Tulip trees (under the tree)
- You can find acorns and hickory nuts and use them as clues for the plants

January 20
- The pine warbler is a small song bird in the warbler family
- They often appear year round here
- They are here very often
- They live in pine forests
- They don't come to feeders unless its needed, like the winter (seed and suet feeders)
- They are greenish/yellow

January 21
- Mistletoe is attached to a host tree/shrub that they use for water and nutrients
- They are almost like big dark green balls
- It is a parasite (however it does have chlorophyll)
- The male and females are separate
- They stand out in the winter
- To have fruit the male and female must merge(?)
- Dioecious

January 24
- Eastern screech owl is a small owl that is relatively small and common in north America
- Native to wooded environments
- Owls are birds of prey
- Birds of prey have talons which are made for attacking, hunting, and killing
- Claws are much smaller and usually on smaller birds
- Screech owls are reddish brown, but they can be gray which is rare in the south
 - Smallest owl that can be seen year round in SC
- The screech owl has nocturnal habits
- The screech owl eats little birds, rodents, reptiles, and insects
- The red phase is more common than the gray morph phase

January 25
- Wood frogs - live in the woods
- Spring peepers - live in the low country
- Frogs are amphibians
- They make a lot of noise in early winter because of the warm water
- They do not hibernate
- They are cold blooded
- Dimorphic - Systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the
same species
- Male frog is vocal, however the female is not

January 26
- Partridge berry is a plant that quals and other ground dwelling animals like to feed on
- It can also be called a twin berry because of the two flowers that form a berry
- It is a low growing plant all over the state of South Carolina
- Pollinators need this plant
- Plants spread by getting eaten and then the seeds are in the feces which helps the
plants grow

January 27
- Chinese/japanese silver grass is an invasive species
- Invasive species are spread by humans
- Can normally be found in China, Japan, and Korea
- It grows a fruit
- It is an ornamental plant
- They do well in disturbed areas

January 28
- Nine banded armadillo are thought to be an invasive species
- They have a high population here
- They have recently become more of a prominent species here
- They used to not be around here very much
- However fossils were found that indicates that they are native here, but they died off and
are now coming back
- They dig for food because they eat invertebrates (grubs, worms, beatles)
- Beatles have a large population
- Armadillos live in burrows
- Armadillos carry leprosy
January 31
- Snow in south carolina
- It used to be more common
- 5-6 inches in the upstate
- You have to have cold air in place and warm air to cause ice
- Snow is much easier to appreciate when it's less common
- It's more like the winters of the mid 20th century
- Cool air comes from the north and warm air from the south causes a storm

February 1
- Mole salamanders spend most of their lives underground in burrows
- They either make these burrows or, it is made by another animal
- Snakes do not dig their own burrows because they don't have claws/hands
- Snakes use these burrows to hunt prey
- TIGER SALAMANDER
- Tiger salamanders are 6-8 inches in length
- Tiger salamanders are rare
- Mates during the winter time with ice and snow
- The spotted salamander is in the mole salamander family
- They lay their eggs in water (they are amphibians)
- Always in freshwater (vernal pool)
- They lay their eggs in a vernal pool because there are no fish
- Fish eat eggs
- A vernal pool is not connected to a water source (goes between some and no water)

February 2
- Groundhog day
- Groundhogs are also called whistle pigs and woodchucks (because they make a whistle
like noise)
- They hibernate
- They are herbivores
- They burrow
- They are very large rodents
- They climb trees
- They need to chew on hard things overwise their teeth will grow through their skull
- They sit up to look for predators, they don't look for prey because they are herbivores

February 3
- Wild edible (lion's mane mushroom)
- They grow on oak trees/hardwood trees
- They are a fungi and white in color
- It looks like a hedgehog
- You can use the the hedgehog like things for pasta
- Not everyone can eat it because it can cause an allergic reaction
 - Some mushrooms are poisonous
- You cannot absorb poison from a mushroom
- You always want to have two to three ways to identify possibly poisonous/venomous
thing

February 4
- Eastern bluebirds
- When times are hard they eat sunflower seeds and suit feeders
- They usually travel in groups of males
- They feed on insects and invertebrates
- They are dimorphic (systematic difference between male and females)
- Males: they are a vibrant blue color that covers most of their body, the males chest is a
bright reddish color
- Females: they are orange, gray, and blue, they have white around their eyes, they're
chest is a dull brownish color (this is so that females do not get eaten while taking care
of the babies
- DUCKS The females pretend to be wounded if a predator is coming for their babies

February 7
- The tea olives an introduced species
- It is native to asia
- It is a shrub that flowers
- It started flowering in november
- Fragrans is another name for it
- Native to the himalayas
- Flowers in the fall and winter
- Insects like the plants because they flower at an odd time of the year
- Invertebrates are insects that don't have a backbone
- Nectar: It is a liquid full of sugars (insect carbohydrates)
- Pollen: It is a dust/tree sperm (insect protein)

February 8
- Funnel weavers are spiders
- We have them here
- They look like wolf spiders
- It creates a funnel like structure for a web
- The spider hides in the tunnel and comes out when it feels movement on the web
- If you blow on the web they will come out
- Its fuzzy
- Wolf spiders hunt by chasing down their prey (like a wolf)
- Wolf spiders don't build webs
- The linx spider is also similar to the funnel weavers
- The linx spiders are green and also actively hunt
- Funnel weavers are often on the ground
 - In the morning the dew makes the web stand out
- The web created by the funnel weaver is a non stick web
- Spiders can die in their own webs

February 10
- Ladybugs hibernate in the cold
- Ladybugs are invertebrates
- Invertebrates hibernate in the winter
- Ladybugs are beetles
- We have native species and introduced species
- They are good to have in gardens
- The adult and the larvae feed on aphids
- This is when they are in large numbers so they can hibernate in a large group
- An aphid eats plants, often destroying gardens
- Lady beetle
- They are grubs before becoming lady bugs
- They are a natural pesticide
- The coloration wards off predators and it helps them blend in
- The color red usually means poison (you do not want to eat me)
- They have a dimorphic difference
- The female is larger than the make so she can carry eggs
- The males are usually brighter colored than the females

February 11
- Eastern Dobsonfly is a big insect
- They are 5-6 inches
- They are in South Carolina
- Near the southern appalachians
- The eggs are laid over the water
- Usually under bridges
- The larvae spend 2-3 or more on the bottom of the water feeding
- The larvae drops down into the water
- It eats other insects/invertebrates
- The larvae looks like a short centipede
- Dobsonflies drop into fresh water
- Salt water kills them
- Hellgrammite - the larval stage of the dobsonfly, dragonfly, and more.

February 14
- Apple snails are aquatic snails
- Terrestrial = spends life on land
- They are freshwater snails
- They are native to florida
 - They have been introduced to sc
- They lay white eggs
- The snails from the amazon lay pink eggs
- They came here because people will take water from different places (fish tanks) and
dump it here
- They are aquatic gastropods
- Gastropods: stomach foot (are large molluscs which means, they have shells)
- Univalve: having one valve or shell
- Bivalve: having two valves or shells

Univalves
- Apple snails
- Lettered olive
- Pond snails

Bivalves
- Oysters
- Mussels
- Mytilodia

February 15
- Red shouldered hawks are birds of prey (talons)
- It has red shoulders with white speckles on the wings
- Loves to nest
- Loves to eat vertebrates (plus stuff like turtles)
- They like the woods and water
- To know its a juvenile you will find it around people because fear of humans is a learned
fear, and because they are a juvenile they have not yet learned this
- It is illegal to kill a bird of prey (also illegal to own a feather)
- The red tailed hawk has a red tail and has a more shaggy chest
- The red shouldered hawk has red shoulders and a striped chest

February 16
- Paying attention
- The fast food restaurant has rounded pebbles
- They are round because they were in waterways
- He learned a lot about geology while looking at the
- Metamorphic - transformation by heat, pressure, or other natural agencies
- Sedimentary - accumulation of mineral or organic material
- Igneous - cooling of lava
- Erosion
- We do not have a lot of rocks here naturally

February 17
 - The big backyard bird count
- It goes from the 18-21
- You can spend about 20 minutes looking at birds in your yard and send in ina report
- It tell us a lot about migratory birds
- It is advocating for the animals
- I can go to protests to advocate for more hunting restrictions, and I can observe my local
wildlife and see what me and my neighbors could do to make it a better environment for
that local wildlife
- Audubon - stands for birds (john audubon is an ornithologist (he studies birds))
- Cornel - field guide
- Merlin bird app - field guide

February 18
- It was chewed on sacrum
- It is a fusion vertebrate
- It gives power to the back legs of animals
- It is connected to the vertebrate column
- The sacrum connects to pelvis
- It is infused vertebrate that go into the pelvis
- Rat and squirrels

February 22
- White pelicans
- They were on lake moultrie
- They usually go to southern florida in the winter
- The wingspan is 8-9.5 feet
- They have a large bill
- They don't dive in the water they scoop up fish
- White pelicans are larger and white pelicans forage for prey while brown pelicans dive
(their diet is way different)

February 24
- Asiatic Mantis
- They hatch in the warm temperatures and sunlight
- They are about the size of a marshmallow (a brown one)
- Their food is more available during the warm months
- They hatch when they think its time to eat
- They eat hornets, spiders, grasshoppers, katydids, reptiles, amphibians, and sometimes
hummingbirds
- They are an insane predator
- The female eats the male
- The carolina praying mantis is native to sc
- The asiatic mantis is larger than the carolina mantis
- The asiatic mantis is invasive
February 25
- Hummingbird
- It's a western species of hummingbird
- They are being seen more often here
- Either a rufus or an alan
- They are seen more often as of recent at feeders
- To attract them we can hang bird feeders
- Hummingbirds drink nectar from feeders
- The liquid is sugar water
- You have to clean them to prevent mold buildup
- The nectar gets contaminated after drinking after many birds
- It spreads disease
- When sugar rots and furments it can become alcohol that kills them

February 28
- Great blue herons are wading birds
- They have long and skinny legs
- They have spread out toes
- They have long bills and necks
- They have been building and rebuilding nests
- They build nests out of large sticks high up in trees to prepare for mating season
- They head back up north in the warmer seasons to mate
- They like to build their nests over water because of alligators
- They do this because they have a symbiotic relationship with them
- Alligators eat racoons/snake and it stops those animals from steeling eggs and babys
- But if the baby falls out of the tree the alligator eats it
- A group of birds its called a rookery
- Great blue herons eat fish, frogs, and snakes
- Males grow feather during mating season to attract the female

March 1
- A liken is a fungus and an algae
- Fungus and algae are not the same thing but they grow in a symbiotic relationship
- Symbiotic relationship: clownfish and an anemone, and butterflies and flowers
- Rock tripe is a type of liken that likes to grow on rocks
- They attack with a holdfast
- They are black on the bottom and grey on the top
- They are edible
- It was only on the rocks, not branches
- Natural edibles: honeysuckle, dog fennel, and loblolly pine
- Honeysuckle has a long stoma while yellow jessamine is just a short flower
- They are both vines
- There are white and yellow honeysuckle here
 - Yellow jessemine has oposite leaves (they are oposite)
- The leaves are very skinny and they grow on a vine
- Japanese honeysuckle has brouder leaves and it is not blooming
- It is a bad invasive species

March 3
- Snakes are brumating right now, which is the reptile version of hibernation
- Some days in the lowcountry allow snakes to come out of brumation in the
winter sometimes
- Snakes have to molt so that their body can exapand as much as needed
- It was a snake they used to call a yellow rattle snake
- Its now called a rat snake/live oak snake
- There is a sub species of eastern rat snakes, called the yellow rat snake (the four
lined rat snake)
- It has four dark lines running from head to tail
- It costal planes are yellowish
- Corn snakes are red rat snakes
- We have black racers here
- There are no black rat snakes here, but they are in the mountains
- Inland is the greenish rat snake, then more inland is the grey rate snake, then the
black rat snakes live up in the mountains
- Those snakes are mating and creating in bewtween species
- Rat snakes are not venomous
- Rat snakes are constrictors

Extra notes:
- Wading birds
- Frogs, crawfish, rodents, snakes, and other insects are what they eat
- The feet help it stay on top of the water because their toes are spread out
- Wading birds don't have talons because they don't use their feet to hunt
- The sacrum is fused to the spine
- The beak is really long and sharp and aerodynamic
- It just swallows its food like a snake’
- It probably died of disease, they go to the water because they want to drink it
before they die
- Always clean your water because of dead animals (the bacteria makes you sick)

March 8
- Vultures are very common here
 - We have two species, black vulture (small blackhead white tips on wings), the
turkey vulture (bigger and turkey like)
- They recycle roadkill
- Balck vultures like to be in groups while turkey vultures don't
- Black vultures have entirely black wings except for the white wingtips
- The turkey vultures wings are all a lighter color
- They cannot be called buzzards because that is what British people refer to
eagles at
- Black vultures flap their wings more than turkey vultures
- Black vulture has a blackhead
- Turkey vulture has a redhead
- They do not have feathers on their head because they stick their head into dead
matter
- They are very clean birds, they wash often
- Turkey vultures hunt with a sense of smell
- Black vultures see the turkey vultures go to dead matter and then follow them
- They do not fight very often because there is plenty of dead matter around
- They have a V wing shape
- Snakes name was cupcake
- Venomous snakes have cat-eye pupils non-venemous snakes have round pupils
(besides a coral snake)

THE 6 LOCAL VENEMOS SNAKES:

1. VIPER: Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (has a diamond pattern on its back,
that is a dark brown color surrounded by a cream color, and has a mask/line over
the eye)
2. VIPER: Copperhead (They have a dim copper color and a Hershey kiss shape
on its back, and juveniles have yellowish genitals)
3. VIPER: Cottonmouth/Water moccasin (coloration ranging from dark brown and
black to olive drab and yellow-tan with dark parentheses and dots down the
length of the body, they are thick, they have a white mouth, and their head is
almost always healded at 45 degrees)
4. ELAPID: Coral snake (only snake in the USA with fixed fangs, rounded heads,
and rounded pupils) (Have a stripy red, BLACKHEAD, yellow and brown pattern
with black dots in the red section)
5. VIPER: Pigmy rattlesnake (has a dot pattern, almost like a cheetah, along its
back and it is a charcoal grey, to light grey, to pink color)
6. VIPER: Canebrake/timber rattlesnake (has a zebra-like pattern that is a cream,
can be light orange to pink and brown color)
Only 5-6 out of 7,000-8,000 per year die of snake bites
VIPERS: give birth to live babies
ELAPID: gives birth to eggs

March 17
- Dekay's snake
- They are small and like to live in garbage
- They are called brown snakes
- Nonvenomous
- Rarely getting within a foot of length
- They eat slugs and barely bother people
- They eat slugs, and the slugs eat plants in our garden

EXTRA NOTES
- Snakes have a forked tongue so they can tell where the smell is coming from
- Snakes smell and taste at the same time
- When a snake sticks its tongue out and shakes it collects air particles and then
they have an organ in their mouth that they stick the tongue into and can tell
which direction the smell/taste coming from
- They eat from head to tail
- Black racers suffocate or wear down their prey, they do not constrict it
- They eat stuff twice the size of their head (me swallowing a basketball)
- They have to dislocate their jaw to eat
- Black racers have teeth that hook backward
- Eastern ringneck snake is non-venomous
- It eats invertebrates like the black racer
- Its distinguishing marks are: it is mostly black on top and then yellow/red/orange
underneath, it has an oval head, and it doesn't have the markings of a coral
snake, no rattle, only gets up to 1 foot long, it has a ring around its neck

Snake behavior:
- They try to camouflage themselves (so that prey does not see them)
- If the snake feels like it has been spotted, it will try to retreat
- Snakes do not like to be around ants
- They like to be under metal because they absorb heat
- They also hide under there so they can find something to eat
- Instead of retreating a snake may stand its ground