A Few Birds From Huntington Beach State Park

Two weeks ago I had a break from work and decided to head to Huntington Beach State Park, SC, only a short two hours away. Huntington Beach State Park is a phenomenal and well-known birding (and tourist) location along the Atlantic Coast of South Carolina. The park features a long (typically busy) beach and extensive salt marsh and lagoon nestled behind the beach dunes. While birding around the park, I was able to grab a few photos of some of the hundreds and hundreds of birds taking up residence throughout the park that day.

I first ventured out to the beach, which was rather dead at the time. Other than Laughing Gulls and Brown Pelicans, the little sandpiper pictured above was the only bird patrolling the beach. This is the Sanderling, an incredibly common shorebird found along the beaches of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf Coasts during the winter. A small, but massively charismatic shorebird, the Sanderling is well known for its wave-chasing foraging. When the leftovers of a wave begin to recede after hitting the beach, individuals or flocks of Sanderlings will run out onto the freshly-exposed sand and probe for any sort of invertebrate that the wave either uncovered or left stranded on the sand. As the next wave comes rushing in, the Sanderling will quickly dart away from the water. This running back and forth as the waves come in and out is rather entertaining to watch. And just a random fun fact: The Sanderling recently garnered non-birder fame after being the focus of the Pixar Animation short "Piper," which debuted in 2016 before Finding Dory 2. Although the short strays from the biology a tad for artistic sake, it's a beautifully animated, and fun, short film. Here's a link to watch the 6-minute short: "Piper"

I left the beach and headed to the salt marsh, and the bird diversity instantly picked up. Patrolling the low-tide waters in the salt marsh were several wading birds, including this Great Egret. The Great Egret is a common species throughout much of the east, especially along the coast. Like other wading birds, the Great Egret is never found far from water, whether it be salt marshes, rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, or the like. The Great Egret is the largest of the egrets—an "egret" is nothing more than a common name given to herons which happen to be white—in the United States. Standing at over 3 feet tall, the Great Egret is also the second tallest of the herons in the US, only second to the Great Blue Heron.

A Great Egret stretches out his neck to get a better view of the water.

Fish are the preferred food for the Great Egret. The lanky Great Egret spends most of its time slowly and carefully moving through the water, looking for fish swimming about. When a potential meal is spotted, the Great Egret will pull its long neck back into a compacted "S" shape and take aim. Their long neck essentially acts as a spring. When the egret is ready, it will shoot its neck and beak forward into the water, spearing the fish. Once the fish is speared, the Great Egret will deftly maneuver the fish with its beak in order to swallow it whole. 

Hanging out on a mudflat near the Great Egret were several Double-Crested Cormorants. The Double-Crested Cormorant can be found throughout pretty much all of the US at some point during the year, and the coast of South Carolina is one of their overwintering grounds. The Double-Crested Cormorant is another fish-eating and water-loving bird. Like other cormorants, the Double-Crested Cormorant is a diving bird, and they typically dive to depths up to 25 feet in order find, chase, and catch fish. You might also see individuals of this species sitting somewhere with their wings spread as they face the Sun. They do this in order to dry their feathers after a dive. Unlike most water-dwelling birds, the structure of a cormorant's feathers make it to where they do not shed water. This is an adaptation which allows cormorants to more easily dive, but it comes at a cost. After a Double-Crested Cormorant dives, its feathers are soaked. Dripping wet feathers make it hard to fly, so the cormorant is forced to stand in the Sun and let its feathers air dry if it wants to fly to another location.

The highlight of the day was a much-awaited lifer, the Roseate Spoonbill (two of which are pictured in the foreground). I'll get to the Spoonbills in a moment. First, let's talk about that bald-faced bird in the back.

Meet the Wood Stork. The Wood Stork is a resident of the marshes and swamps of the Gulf Coast and southern Atlantic Coasts here in the US, but is also found throughout Central and South America. Although you wouldn't guess it when visiting Huntington Beach State Park—where there can be hundreds and hundreds of Wood Storks at a time—the Wood Stork is actually Federally Threatened in the United States. Habitat degradation, invasive species, disruptions to the historical food web, and other factors led to the decrease of the population here in the United States during the 1900's. Originally listed as Federally Endangered, Wood Stork populations have been on a slight rebound over the past decade or so, prompting the listing to be moved down to "Threatened" in 2014. A good sign for now, but the species is by no means out of trouble.

As I mentioned, the highlight of the day personally were the Roseate Spoonbills. I've been wanting to see this strange wader ever since I was a young kid flipping through my Sibley's field guide, and I finally got my chance! As becomes quite obvious upon seeing one, their name stems from their pinkish color and their spatulate bill. They owe their pinkish color to their diet, much in the way flamingos do. Roseate Spoonbills feed on shrimp and other organisms which contain a type of pigment called Canthaxanthin. This pigment is reddish-pink in color. As a Roseate Spoonbill consumes more and more Canthaxanthin, it sequesters the pigment in its feathers, giving its plumage a pink coloration. This also means that the intensity of pink and the exact hue can is different from individual to individual, and location to location, depending on the available food and the individual's specific diet.

Of course, the most attention-grabbing feature of the Roseate Spoonbill is its spatulate, i.e. spoon-like, bill. The widened-tip of their bill is actually a foraging adaptation. When the Roseate Spoonbill feeds, it waves its bill back and forth through the water with its mouth slightly open. The widened tip of the bill allows the Spoonbill to better grab onto various prey items—fish, crustaceans, worms, etc.—as the beak offers more surface area. Imagine that you had to catch an insect that was moving around quickly. Would you rather use two chopsticks to catch the insect, or two large spatulas? The spatulas would be much more effective at grabbing the insect, for the same reason that the Spoonbill's beak is better than a sharp, pointed beak.

Of course, birds weren't the only reptilians (as birds are nothing more than an offshoot of dinosaurs) patrolling the waters for food. Huntington Beach State Park is also extremely well known for its American Alligator population, and I saw around a dozen that day either swimming in the lagoon or basking on the land. Several people regaled me with a story of earlier in the day, when a particularly large Alligator shut down traffic as it crossed the main road. Apparently this is a rather common occurrence at the park, and one that I would love to see!

My new job has kept me busy, and it's been difficult to find time to blog. I've got some more downtime this month, so hopefully I will be able to find time to photograph some things and pump out a few blog posts. Thanks for reading!

Blog Name Change and Update!

Hello All,

I have some exciting news. On September 23, 2017, I will be leaving Athens, Ohio, and moving down to South Carolina. I have accepted a seasonal position as an outdoor education field instructor at Clemson University's Camp Bob Cooper.

As such, "Ohio Nature" will soon not make much sense as my blog name. If you have been a long-time follower of this blog, you might remember when I changed my URL from "www.ohionature.blogspot.com" to the current "www.kylefromohio.blogspot.com." As I mentioned in my 2015 post about the URL change, that was done in preparation for the likely outcome that I would be leaving Ohio upon graduation. I chose to retain "Ohio Nature" as my blog name at that point because I was still living in Ohio and still writing about Ohio nature.

Now the time has come that I won't be writing strictly about Ohio nature, and I felt the need to change my blog name to reflect this. This blog will now be entitled "On the Subject of Nature." I will still be blogging the same type of material, but now I won't be tied down to a geographic location. And although the specific places and species I will be covering will change as I move from seasonal job to seasonal job—and location to location—the core mission of this blog will remain the same: highlight interesting subjects in nature and talk about the science and the issues surrounding them.

The full image of my new blog background. This is an abstract shot of blooming trees from A.W. Marion State Park in Central Ohio.

In addition, I decided to change up the looks of this blog just a tiny bit. I changed the background image from an open source image from the Blogger library to a photo I personally took. I also slightly widened the text boxes, and increased the size of my post titles.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for reading and supporting this blog! I recently surpassed 150,000 page views, which is way more than I thought this blog would hit. Your continued readership pushes me to find more interesting subjects to talk about, take better photos, and write more compelling posts. 

Caterpillar Extravaganza

This past weekend I attended the third annual "Caterwauling for Caterpillars" night. Despite the strange name, this event is a yearly gathering of insect-loving Ohio University students who have one goal in mind: find cool caterpillars. Although the overall diversity wasn't too great this year, we still saw some interesting "cats," and I wanted to highlight a few of them here.

First up is the Saddled Prominent (Heterocampa guttivitta). This wide-ranging species is quite variable in appearance, and it took me awhile to figure out just what species of prominent (Family Notodontidae) this individual was. The main identifying features are the saddle on the top of the 3rd and 4th abdominal segments (the two segments which have the first and second prolegs), the white line running down the body near the back (subdorsal line), and the brown and white band on the head. The Saddled Prominent is a generalist when it comes to host plant preference. Unlike some caterpillar species which feed on only one or a few species of plants, the caterpillar of the Saddled Prominent feeds on pretty much any woody plants, including American Beech, birches, buckeyes, dogwood, hickories, maples, oaks, sumacs, and many other trees and shrubs.

A relatively common species in southeast Ohio—yet one that I always enjoy seeing—is the Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia). Although you can't really tell from the photo, Giant Leopard Moth caterpillars are large. They're also extremely easy to identify; if you see a large black caterpillar covered in black bristles, with red rings where each abdominal segment meets, you've got yourself a Giant Leopard Moth. The caterpillars of this species feed only at night, spending most of the daylight hours hiding out on the forest floor. Although the black bristles (which are technically called "setae") look formidable, the Giant Leopard Moth does not actually sting. Instead, they will simply roll up into a ball if threatened and hope that they look scary enough for the threat to leave them alone. If you want to read about the adult Giant Leopard Moth, check out my previous post "Mothing at Clear Creek: The Showy."

A few minutes after seeing the Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar, another strikingly-similar caterpillar crossed our paths. This is the caterpillar of the Agreeable Tiger Moth (Spilosoma congrua). Like many other species of insects, the Agreeable Tiger Moth is able to sequester toxins found in the plants that they eat in order to become toxic themselves. In the case of this species, these caterpillars sequester iridoid glycosides. Although the levels of iridoid glycosides aren't very dangerous to most potential predators of the Agreeable Tiger Moth, they do make the caterpillar taste pretty nasty, which would hopefully deter any predators from eating this species. Caterpillars of the Agreeable Tiger Moth come in two color morphs: one with colored rings, and one with red dots down the side of the body. Although I couldn't find any information about the two morphs, it would be interesting to see if there are any differences between the two—whether they occur in different geographic locations, or if they have differences in the iridoid glycoside sequestration, or the likes. 

By far the most abundant type of caterpillar of the night were the geometers. Geometers—better known as "inch worms"—are moths belonging to the family Geometridae. The geometer family is huge, with over 1,400 species in North America (and several hundred in Ohio alone). Identifying geometer caterpillars can be incredibly difficult, especially since many of them are incredibly camouflaged and lack much in the way of obvious identifying characteristics. Although I couldn't identify the one pictured above to species, it was my favorite geometer of the night. This caterpillar is a perfect twig mimic. I would have never seen him had I not had a UV flashlight. UV flashlights are indispensable tools when searching for caterpillars. Most "caterpillaring" occurs under the cover of night, when caterpillars are most active. It just so happens that most caterpillar species fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. If you walk around the forest with a hand-held UV flashlight—which you can easily find on Amazon—the caterpillars will quite literally light up, making it much easier to find cryptic species. 

One of the most peculiar species of the night was the Black-Waved Flannel Moth (Lagoa crispata). The caterpillar of the Black-Waved Flannel Moth is rather ridiculous looking in my opinion, appearing like a frizzy toupée. But don't let its appearance fool you—flannel moth caterpillars are not one to mess with. This caterpillar has two lines of defense. First, all those long hairs you see are urticating setae, which are essentially bristles which can break off into your skin causing irritation (like dozens and dozens of tiny splinters). But hidden within the urticating setae is the second line of defense: short, venomous spines. Being stung by the caterpillar of any flannel moth species is not a pleasant experience, but the Black-Waved Flannel Moth is one of the least painful of the bunch (the Southern Flannel Moth, Megalopyge opercularis, wins the pain contest).

I couldn't talk about the Black-Waved Flannel Moth without at least showing what an adult looks like. The adult Black-Waved Flannel Moth is one of the most fuzzy moths out there. Unlike the caterpillars, the adults are completely harmless. This individual was found in Ross County earlier in the summer.

The last three species I want to highlight are all slug caterpillars from the family Limacodidae. The "slugs" are almost always a favorite of anyone into Lepidopterans (moths and butterflies). Slug caterpillars are called such due to their rounded, slug-like appearance. They hug whatever surface they are clinging too, and move around in a manner more like a slug than a caterpillar. Some slugs—like this Jeweled Tailed Slug (Packardia geminata)—can be rather dull in appearance. Others can be stunningly beautiful.

Many slugs are tiny (quarter sized or less) and mostly green. However, many species are adorned with stinging hairs, such as this is Nason's Slug (Natada nasoni). The spines of the Nason's Slug are unique compared to many other slug caterpillars. These spines are actually retractable, and most of the time the caterpillar will only have the tips of the spines exposed. If the caterpillar feels threatened, it will extend its spines and hopefully scare the threat away. If not, the threat (whether it be a bird, human, or whatever) will receive a painful sting. This was a good species to find for the night, as the Nason's Slug is restricted to only the southern and southeastern portions of the state.

The highlight of the night—at least in my opinion—was this Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea). The Saddleback is one of the most well-known slug caterpillars, and it's easy to see why. Even someone who doesn't care about insects would be hard-pressed to ignore one of these cats. As you can tell from the photo above, the common name for this species is due to the circular "saddle" on its back. But if any feature is grabbing your attention, it's most surely all the protruding appendages covered in spines. These spines pack quite a punch. Each spine is rigid, incredibly sharp, and most importantly hollow. At the base of each spine is a venom gland. If a spine comes in contact with exposed skin, it breaks off into the skin and begins releasing venom. The Saddleback's venom is both vesicating and hemolytic, meaning that it causes your skin to blister while also breaking down your red blood cells and damaging your tissue. A sting from one of these caterpillars will cause immediate localized pain (fellow blogger Andrew Gibson likened it to "burning knives"), and in extreme cases can also cause nausea, migraines, and a host of other symptoms. The effects of the venom can last upwards of 5 hours. 

On the front end of the Saddleback are two large white spots. These are thought to mimicking eyes. Fake eyes are common in insects—especially in Lepidopterans—and these eye-spots serve to scare away potential predators by either startling the predators or conveying that the animal in question is dangerous.

Like always, this year's Caterwauling for Caterpillars event was fantastic. If you want to read about some of the caterpillars from the first Caterwauling for Caterpillars night, please check out my post entitled "Caterpillars, Caterpillars, and More Caterpillars." And if you are interested in seeing some caterpillars yourself, mid-September is the best time for that in Ohio! Get out and see what you can find!

Wayne National Forest Internship

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Wayne National Forest, Ohio's only national forest. This internship was focused on wildlife biology, and was part of a larger joint venture between Ohio University and the United States Forest Service out of Wayne National Forest. The main project that I worked on was an environmental impact assessment for a proposed mountain bike trail system.

Beginning in early May, I and another wildlife intern from Ohio University were tasked with surveying the wildlife along an approximate 30 mile section of the proposed trail route. We found many interesting animals and plants over the course of the summer, including discovering two new populations of a state-endangered dragonfly and documenting the first-ever Brown Creeper breeding attempt in the southeastern portion of Ohio.

In addition to assisting with the wildlife portion of the environmental impact assessment, I was given the opportunity to do some guest blogging about my internship experience on the Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences Forum. I wanted to share the four posts that I wrote for the Arts and Sciences Forum on my personal blog for anyone that was interested in reading them. Simply click on the links on the titles of the posts below.

First Post: Working on the Wayne | ‘I Wanted to Get My Boots Dirty’

This first post gives an introduction to the project I worked on, and goes over a few of the initial findings of note.

Second Post: Working on the Wayne | Awesome Arthropods Abound

Arthropods are cool, and I saw many an awesome arthropod this summer. This post explores a few of the stand-out species, including the Camouflaged Looper, Luna Moth, and the rare Northern Metalmark (pictured above).

Third Post: Working on the Wayne | Snazzy Snakes

What's cooler than arthropods? Snakes. This post goes over a few of the common snakes of southeastern Ohio, and attempts to dispel some of the common misconceptions about them.

Fourth Post: Working on the Wayne | An Ending Note

In my final post, I summarize the findings of the wildlife surveys, talk about the potential impacts of the trail, and offer a few musings on the importance of hands-on experiences in the field in addition to a classroom education.

Your blogger in his surveying gear. Yes, I had to wear a hard hat.

This internship was an amazing experience. Not only did I see amazing wildlife and plants, but I also learned a lot (which is really the main goal for any internship). The biggest takeaway for me, however, was that there is always something new to discover if you just take a walk in the woods and keep your eyes open. You never know what you might come across.

As for now, I am in the midst of searching for another job. Wish me luck, and thanks for reading!

Day Tripping to Adams County

If you have ever spent time with me, you probably know that I love Adams County in southern Ohio. Adams County has some of the most fantastic and unique nature in the state of Ohio. Last week I traveled to Adams County with two fellow naturalists from Ohio University—Olivia Brooks and Alayna Tokash—in order to do some botanizing, herping, and birding.

Out of the several places we traveled to, the favorite was Lynx Prairie. Lynx Prairie is a public preserve that is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and is a location I've written about extensively on this blog. To get a general overview about the nature and history of this famous preserve, check out this link: Lynx Prairie Posts. Lynx Prairie is a system of 10 xeric short grass prairies that are of varying sizes. There is a whole host of interesting and rare species that call these "pocket prairies" home, and so I wanted to share a few of the highlights from my most recent trip!

I'll begin with this inconspicuous flower. This is Slender Ladies'-Tresses (Spiranthes lacera). The ladies'-tresses is a group of orchids with a white inflorescence that typically inhabit prairies or prairie-like habitats. There are 9 species that can be found in Ohio, with 3 of those species being state-listed. The Slender Ladies'-Tresses is one of the more common of the Spiranthes species in Ohio.

The ladies'-tresses can be a difficult group to identify down to species. To identify a ladies'-tresses, you should first see if the flowers are arranged in a single-spiral (such as the Slender Ladies'-Tresses), or a double spiral (like the Great Plains Ladies'-Tresses). After that, you have to carefully inspect the flowers. There are several single-spiral species that can be found in Adams County, but the flowers of each species differ slightly. The Slender Ladies'-Tresses has a characteristic green labellum (or lip), which can be seen above. If you want to read about some of the other species of ladies'-tresses that can be found in the prairies in Adams County, check out my previous post: Spiranthes Orchids at Blue Jay Barrens.

The most exciting plant find of the day—and a lifer for yours truly—was the unassuming succulent pictured above. This is False Aloe (Manfreda virginica). Although common in the southern US, False Aloe is extremely rare in Ohio, where it can currently only be found in Adams and Highland Counties. False Aloe has an extremely interesting history in this part of the state. False Aloe thrives in dry prairie openings, which is currently a rare habitat in Ohio. But between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago, the world entered a very warm period called the Hypsithermal. Ohio became very dry and hot, resulting in the prairies of the west extending into Ohio. False Aloe—a plant of the south-central part of the United States—is thought to have invaded northward into these new Ohio prairies during this time, where it thrived. 

When this hot, dry period ended around 4,000 years ago, the forests began to recolonize Ohio. False Aloe found itself suddenly restricted to the dry limestone barrens of southwest Ohio, which were already thousands of years old. Originally kept open during the last ice age by megafauna like the Mastodon, these barrens were now being kept open as a result of fires set by the early Native Americans in the region. False Aloe became the dominant plant in some of these limestone barrens, and one European settler from the early 1800's even made reference to an "agave desert" in the Adams County region. Once the European settlers killed and pushed the Native Americans out of this region, the human-set fires in the prairies and forests of this region ceased and became a thing of the past.

As the 1900's approached, the people living in this region allowed the forest—which had been all but clearcut in the mid 1800's—to come back. The remaining limestone barrens of Adams County that had not been developed or otherwise destroyed began experiencing the effects of natural succession. Red Cedars and Tuliptrees—which had previously been kept at bay by the fires the Native Americans had set for thousands of years—began pushing their way into the barrens. As many of these barrens became forested, the False Aloe found itself dying out in Ohio. Nowadays this species is found in only a few of the protected barrens which are managed with prescribed burns. Sadly, a recent study found that many of the remaining populations of False Aloe in Adams County are reproductively  isolated and inbred. This will only lead to a further decrease in numbers over the next century, as the seeds of inbred False Aloe tend not to thrive. At its current state, the future of the False Aloe in Ohio seems rather grim...

Moving aside from the doom and gloom to something more upbeat, here is a recently-hatched Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) that Alayna found hiding under a loose rock. Learning that Ohio has lizards may come as a surprise to many, but Ohio is indeed home to 5 species (Eastern Fence Lizard, Common Five-Lined Skink, Broad-Headed Skink, Little Brown Skink, and the non-native Common Wall Lizard). The Eastern Fence Lizard belongs to the genus Sceloporus, which are collectively known as the "spiny lizards." The Eastern Fence Lizard is the only spiny lizard that can be found in Ohio, where it inhabits the southern and southeastern portions of the state.

Alayna Tokash (Master's student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Ohio University) studies the tiny Eastern Fence Lizard as it perches on Olivia Brooks's (Undergraduate majoring in Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Ohio University) thumb.

Eastern Fence Lizards begin mating as early as late April here in Ohio, and the first round of eggs begin hatching in June. The individual we found probably hatched out in either June or July. Although Eastern Fence Lizards can live 3-4+ years, most don't make it past their first year due to depredation or other such life-ending circumstances. Hopefully this individual makes it past the initial first year, as chances of survivorship greatly increases in year two. If you want to see what a grown-up Eastern Fence Lizard looks like, take a peek back at my previous "Eastern Fence Lizards" post.

Only an hour later, I came across another baby lizard that was hanging out in a patch of forest between two of the pocket prairies. This is a recently-hatched Common Five-Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus). The Five-Lined Skink is the most widespread and common lizard in Ohio, but isn't commonly seen due to its secretive nature. Five-Lined Skinks can be incredibly skittish, and they will often dart up a tree, under a log, or under the leaf litter upon seeing a human or other potential threat approach. The Five-Lined Skink, along with most other species of lizards, has another line of defense in addition to great evasion skills. The Five-Lined Skink is able to detach its tail in times of danger. If a predator gets too close, or if a predator grabs onto the skink's tail, the skink is able to willingly detach its tail at one of the several breakage points along the tail. 

When the tail becomes detached, it begins to wildly thrash about, which—if all goes according to plan—will surprise and distract the predator, giving enough time for the skink to run away. The Five-Lined Skink that I caught had already used this defense earlier in the summer, as can be told by the healing stub of a tail. Amazingly, Five-Lined Skinks, and other tail-dropping lizards, are able to regrow their tail over time. The catch: they aren't able to regrow the bones in the tail, and are only able to grow a rod of cartilage that takes the place of the bones.

Lynx Prairie is a great location for Five-Lined Skinks. The Five-Lined Skink exploits edge habitats, which are areas where two different types of habitats meet. They prefer edge habitats in which a forest meets some sort of disturbed open habitat, especially if such an area offers plenty of rock and log objects to bask on and to hide underneath. There are copious amounts of edge habitat at Lynx Prairie, offering plenty of appropriate areas for Five-Lined Skinks to inhabit.

One of the most unexpected finds at Lynx occurred when Alayna flipped a small piece of wood. Underneath this tiny piece of wood were two Long-Tailed Salamanders (Eurycea longicauda). The Long-Tailed Salamander was something of a nemesis species of mine for the longest time. They can be found throughout Ohio, except for the northwest quarter of the state. They can be relatively common in near streams in moist forests, but they tend to hide pretty well under rocks and logs, and in crevices in the ground. Despite looking for them for several years, the Long-Tailed Salamander evaded me—until this year, that is. This summer I've seen several Long-Tailed Salamanders, with these being number 3 and 4. As their name implies, the Long-Tailed Salamander has an abnormally long tail when compared to other Plethodontid (lungless) salamanders. In fact, a Long-Tailed Salamander's tail makes up approximately ~60% of its entire body length.

Visiting Lynx Prairie always makes for a fantastic day. However, this trip decided to give me two rather unpleasant surprises. Somehow while in the cedar barrens, I managed to pick up dozens and dozens of tick nymphs. In fact, I ended up pulling 87 tick nymphs off my body that day, and also got 40+ chigger bites as well. I guess that's the price you have to pay to see neat things?