Insects, Plants, Fungi and Animals

Stalking Dinner

June 4, 2020 /
Everything is on something else’s menu here, and that weird green horsefly had been making me nervous all morning as I watered the plants. I thought they were exclusively nocturnal, but this one was patient in its objective and had been up all night waiting for me to come back out. Not to worry, chickens later enjoyed it. Some of these things are comical, others less. The green tree frog sneaking up on moths is what you get when you leave the kitchen light on late at night, or while tidying up the odd nursery nooks and one leaps onto your chest.

I spouted some pointed words when almost backing into this viper-mimic snake earlier this week. The Eastern hognose snake showed me its true hand of cards when it played dead. I went in for a closer look and confirmed what it was from previous encounters on the AT. For a split second I thought it was a copperhead or light moccasin using the lace pool. I captured and relocated it to the far West pasture where it won’t give Mom a heart attack – I’m on thin ice as it is for the growling bear prank.

James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.

4 Comments

  • Catherine M Nagel

    June 5, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    Ha snakes alive! Can’t believe you pranked Sharon lol
    Honestly, our son lives in Tampa and I was trying to get used to THOSE simple critters for a bit.
    i can handle mice, bats are fine, a FEW (and I mean very few) spiders but snakes…are a big challange for me.

    The blog is seems to be going great!

  • James V Freeman

    June 5, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    Florida is heaven. We’re having fun with this thing. If I can get my giant shower wolf spider to make a full appearance, she’ll show up here too.

    • Catherine M Nagel

      June 5, 2020 at 11:22 pm

      Uh Ohhhh. Actually, I grew up with spike-legged wolf spiders (native to Illinois??). I was equally terrorized by those “Banana” field spiders. They took up residence in tall grasses near the horse pasture behind our house where I’d randomly almost run into their amazing giant webs.
      I secretly admired their ability to “stand their ground” unhindered by my high-pitched…”AHHHHHHHHH!!” while my arms flailed uselessly lol
      Have you run into their equivalent at Cactus Island?

  • James V Freeman

    June 6, 2020 at 12:41 am

    Yes, we have actually a larger, orangier species of that giant argiope, and they set up shop in the nursery mid-June last year. I watched one get larger and larger, then get killed by smaller rivals. The Panhandle gets one even bigger, a golden silk argiope the size of your hand. Gnarly to have them crawl on your neck after walking into an orb web in shaded forest. Black widow, brown widow and brown recluse are here but I haven’t found any yet.

Cactus Island Nursery