An Easy Weekday BIG Salad with Fresh Mustard Vinaigrette
A good salad is memorable, satisfying and delicious! Not only is a good salad delicious, but it’s nourishing and packed with fiber. Living in Europe, the UK and Japan has taught me that the world eats a lot of vegetables than most Americans. One of the reasons why non-Americans eat so many vegetables is because they shop almost daily. It’s easy to remember to eat vegetables when you’re browsing…
I was so, so lucky to meet a very special trio of snakes for a class I'm taking on methods in field ecology. One of my two professors is a specialist in garter snakes and was kind enough to bring three different species in for us to compare in person and observe up close. The first was the gorgeous common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, pictures above. She was so calm and well-mannered!
Next was this tiny (by comparison) T. elegans dude, a western garter snake, who was wary of the camera but very patient about being passed around by a group of excited college students. He matched my classmate's sweater perfectly!
Finally, an endangered and incredibly precious T. gigas, the giant garter snake. She's about half of her maximum adult size, so a giant indeed! She musked and peed a bit but for the most part this gojira-faced beauty was pretty chill. We got to observe a full work-up for her including documenting records and microchipping.
She's one of the last of her species. Despite Herculean efforts by her protectors and conservation experts (mostly just one man and his dedicated team), this is a very difficult species to observe in the wild and their habitats are disappearing faster than their need for prioritization of protection in a given area can be assessed. These snakes rely on riparian habitat near rivers, which is also unfortunately a favorite for human development. At this time we don't know how exactly many giant garter snakes are left or whether their current populations are stable.
Today we got to visit their marshland habitat and watch these three go back to the place where they were caught. It was a huge honor and something I'll carry with me forever.
The whumpee watches the whumper walk past their hiding location. With every step, their heart jumps in their chest. It takes everything in their power to keep their breathing shallow and quiet.