Nature Photo Challenge #20: Black

July 17, 2023

Denzil started off his current photo challenge with a picture of a coot, so I will too! 🙂 We have had American Coots visit at our farm, but my favorite coot picture is this one because it shows those unbelievable white feet!

An American Coot, seen at South Padre Birding Center.

Another black bird that I see often is a Black Vulture. This one was delicately creeping down the fallen tree to get a drink from the pond. He looked like a conductor taking a bow.

Black Vulture.

We see a lot of beautiful black insects on our farm. You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger, sharper version.

Ebony Jewelwing damselfly, Calopteryx maculata

Juvenile Eastern Lubber grasshopper, Romalea microptera.

A myriad of Eastern Lubbers.

Black Saddlebags dragonfly, Tramea lacerata.

Pipevine Swallowtail, ventral view.

Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor, dorsal view.

Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, female, ventral.

Tiger Swallowtail female, dorsal.

Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio troilus, dorsal.

Spicebush Swallowtail, ventral view.

Eastern Giant Swallowtail, Heraclides cresphontes.

The wildlife cameras at our family place in Central Texas occasionally capture a skunk. There are three species living there, Striped, Eastern Hog-nosed, and Spotted (I believe Western Spotted, Spilogale gracilis, but I could be wrong).

Striped Skunk, Mephitis mephitis.

American Hog-nosed Skunk, Conepatus leuconotos

Here is my favorite skunk video where the Striped Skunks prove they are afraid of no one!

The rarest black creature I have been privileged to see is the Texas Indigo Snake, Drymarchon corais erebennus. Its range is South Texas. They are fascinating snakes, nonvenomous, but able to eat venomous snakes, apparently immune to venom if its prey bites them before being swallowed. They also eat rodents, frogs, and nonvenomous snakes.

Its status is threatened, and it is protected in Texas, but as Alan Tennant explains in his book Texas Snakes, its population is declining due to habitat loss. “For every adult, hundreds of acres of hunting territory are necessary to support enough food animals to support its high metabolism, while males cover even more terrain in search of receptive females.” The South Texas border is getting more urbanized all the time, with huge warehouses to store Texas citrus, produce, and products from Mexico, and large RV parks where “winter Texans” live for part of the year, so their habitat is fractured.

I saw this beautiful snake at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. My husband and I had taken a trip to the Rio Grande Valley to see wildlife, and this was one of the creatures we were on the lookout for. We saw one just after we started walking the trail, but I was too slow to get my camera out and it quickly disappeared in the brush.

I was so happy when my husband spotted this second one and I could get a few pictures!