Thread: What's in your garden?

Originally Posted by Mendip

^^ That is a perfect hole to stick your finger in and give it a waggle.

Good suggestion. I'll report back.

BTW, I think your toads are Black-spined toad คางคกบ้าน

Duttaphrynus melanostictus, commonly called the Asian Common Toad



Only because I was looking into more information about the Rice-field Crab and found remarkably little, then I strayed into amphibians. (It's an exciting life here.)

Black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)

Originally Posted by strigils

Landreth, i take it that wasn't in Thailand? I have never heard of them being a problem there........

No it wasn't Thailand. But I've seen them there on many occasion. In fact I have crushed a few.

Nesting biology of an Oriental carpenter bee, Xylocopa (Biluna) nasalis Westwood, in Thailand

Another one has just shown up and started eating its way into the bamboo pole. Big thing, a good 2 inches I guess. I was recently admiring a neighbour's new bamboo fence, right now I am pleased to have used concrete.
The phone's camera struggles with different shades of black and it is high up so difficult to get close up.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

My dog was making some noise at 6am so I went out to investigate and he had a snake there. He was keeping his distance but I backed him off a bit more. The snake was unhurt so I got the garden hose and and tried so squirt it out of the garden. This is my preferred approach but he got himself round the other way and took cover under my work bench. I don't like to kill them if necessary but 2 kids waking up soon and 2 dogs, I decided to get the air rifle out and shoot him while I still had eyes on him. He didn't move too fast, which I worried that maybe that's because he doesn't have to.

I took some pics then checked up some internet pics. I can't be sure but I think it was maybe a Reticulated Python, which is a shame because not poisonous.

The reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) is a python species native to South and Southeast Asia. It is the world's longest snake, and listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List because of its wide distribution.

Just a nipper

About 20 years ago, a friend of the missus told us about a python that got into her grandma's village house while she was sleeping. It had the whole lower part of her leg in its body before she woke up screaming for help.
My sister in law told us that while she was sleeping in our old house up here in northern Thai, she woke up in the night feeling something moving around the bed, she got out and turned the light on, and called out for the brother, It was a ten foot Cobra, as thick as your arm she said. They pushed the bed against the wall to try to jam it in, but ended up having to shoo it out of the house with bamboo pokers.

It's not only our toads that get more action than me... these two millipedes were writhing about for ages this morning.

With the weather so hot and humid and little chance of the wife venturing more than 12 feet from the TV, I've developed the habit of saying I've got a few jobs to do in the garden, and then sitting in my chair by the pond for an afternoon snooze. With no-one but the dogs for company it's a wonderful time of day.



Today I thought I felt something move under my back, and a bit of investigation revealed this...



No worries, it was just a golden tree snake but I decided to sit elsewhere.



There was one very nervous snake when I packed up and left.

How about these two birds?



Not a great picture, the best I can manage with the phone.

These birds are the size and shape of a small thrush. Brown, darker on top and lighter below, no very clear distinctive features. They are very active and noisy, rarely still and almost continuously chattering at each other. They are also very shy, this is as close as I have been able to get.

I have browsed websites, still not been able to positively identify them. I need to get myself a field guide book.

It's hard to tell from your pic, but do they have a dark stripe on their eyes?

Maybe a yellow vented bulbul?

The one on the right looks as though it may have a yellow patch around it's 'vent' area.

Originally Posted by Mendip

It's hard to tell from your pic, but do they have a dark stripe on their eyes?

Maybe a yellow vented bulbul?

The one on the right looks as though it may have a yellow patch around it's 'vent' area.

A good suggestion. The bulbul pictures look to have more distinctive features with the dark stripe and the yellow bum. These birds are more uniformly brown, I think. They are difficult to watch, they are mostly on the far side of the mango tree. The wall was a momentary stop after they saw me and before they took off. Perhaps their most distinctive feature is how noisy they are, at it like two Isan girls chatting from opposite sides of the street.

^ Wow!

As noisy as that.

Had this guy at the window yesterday. Wasn't bothered by me in the slightest.

SO it turns out that snake I shot was a pit viper.

Thailand is home to a large variety of vipers. The majority are pit vipers that are easily recognized by the presence of a heat-sensing pit on each cheek.
At this point, the Siamese Russell’s Viper, Daboia siamensis, is the only viper in Thailand that lacks those heat-sensing pits. At the same time it is also arguably the most dangerous of all the vipers. Being terrestrial, very well camouflaged, equipped with a highly potent venom, and living mostly in farm lands, it is like a living landmine.

Originally Posted by Shutree

A good suggestion. The bulbul pictures look to have more distinctive features with the dark stripe and the yellow bum. These birds are more uniformly brown, I think. They are difficult to watch, they are mostly on the far side of the mango tree. The wall was a momentary stop after they saw me and before they took off. Perhaps their most distinctive feature is how noisy they are, at it like two Isan girls chatting from opposite sides of the street.

Probably streak-eared bulbuls, the most common bulbul in Thailand, IMO. They also have a yellow vent.

Originally Posted by Neverna

Probably streak-eared bulbuls, the most common bulbul in Thailand, IMO. They also have a yellow vent.

After Mendip's suggestion I looked through all the bulbuls. The pictures left me unsure.

Streak-eared bulbul (Pycnonotus blanfordi)

I wasn't sure about the yellow vent, it does look to be so in the photo even though I haven't really noticed it on the birds and I thought it might just be a trick of the light. I shall look for it when they come back.

Now I see your picture, I am confident that it is the Streak-eared bulbul. Thanks.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

SO it turns out that snake I shot was a pit viper.

I did wonder from the shape of the head, although it wasn't very clear. One snake I hope never to meet, the pit viper.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Today I thought I felt something move under my back, and a bit of investigation revealed this..

That would have freaked me out.
I think some snakes are beautiful animals and I know many of the are beneficial to have in the yard, But I just cant get over my instinctive negative reaction to them.

There are a good many froglets about the place at the moment. Yesterday I spotted this one, noticeably different from others. Only about 2cm long. I am putting it down as a baby Banded Bullfrog.
According to Wiki:
The banded bullfrog (Kaloula pulchra) is a type of frog in the microhylid (narrow-mouthed frog) family. It is also known as the Asian painted frog, Malaysian painted frog, Burmese painted frog, rice frog, and bubble frog. In the pet trade, it is sometimes called the chubby frog. They have round bodies with mahogany brown backs and cream stomachs. The distinctive stripes down the side can range from copper-brown to salmon pink in color. Males have darker throats than females. Frogs grow to about 8 cm (3 in) with females generally being larger than males. They may live for as long as 10 years. Although prevalent in the pet trade, very little is known regarding its behaviour in the wild.

I have to often fish out this kind of creature, mainly morning after the rain.
Wondering why the poor guy takes the troubles to cross 1.5 m walkway with rough concrete and climb up 20 cm the bordering curb, then to jump from desperation into the maintained swimming pool water?

^^ They often live in burrows in the soft soil of our plant pots.

We have lots, so they can't be edible. The wife calls them 'ung an' or something similar.

^Yes, I know, I seeing them when digging at the fence wall.
But what forced him to take the journey into the pool?

Cos I was curious...


They can live underwater for at least 48 hours. They can go for as long as a year without food. The reason your scorpion could live underwater and then while sealed up in a baggie is that they have something called book lungs. These aren't lungs in the sense of inhaling or exhaling like ours. They are layers of membranes - like the pages of a book - in the exoskeletons of scorpions and spiders and the like. These membranes trap and hold oxygen. And since scorpions don't need that much oxygen to begin with, they can store enough to get by for a few days.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

But what forced him to take the journey into the pool?

Just rubbing it in for Sausages, even lowly flogs can take a dip.

The scorpion, not the frog.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

They can live underwater for at least 48 hours. They can go for as long as a year without food. The reason your scorpion could live underwater

I do not think my scorpions are alive, whether at the bottom of the pool or after I fish them out. Leaving him laying there the whole day for show, finally sending him packing...