♪♪ >> [ Laughing ] You can see.

So, this is a little American alligator.

It's not a crocodile.

Okay.

Here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

♪♪ O0 C1 ♪♪ >> MILLS: One of the great things about my job is I get to be outside a lot.

And even during these days of social distancing, I'm able to carry on my research and my exploration of local habitats, but it's been really difficult to get the whole team together to do our traditional filming.

So what we decided to do is to film a series of video field note segments.

And these are shot almost entirely on a cellphone.

In this episode, we're gonna get a chance to see some really cool animals and continue our ecological studies of the Low Country.

One of my favorite things to do is to walk down a dirt road and discover something interesting like this.

And if you look down here, there's a bunch of little hymenopterans -- bees or wasps -- buzzing around.

These look like bees.

And I'll bet you they're hibiscus bees.

Some of these tunnels have little collars around them, and I think that's indicative of that group.

Boy, there are [Chuckles] a bunch of them in there.

And what these guys are doing, I think, is they're digging holes in the ground, little chambers -- they're pupal chambers -- and what they're doing is collecting a ball of pollen and nectar, and they're sticking it down in the hole, and then they're laying an egg on it.

And then what can happen is the egg can hatch, and the larva can then feed on the pollen till it gets big enough to pupate and emerge.

Really, really neat stuff.

Boy, they're good diggers.

[ Bee buzzes ] And I love that wonderful buzzing sound.

You can see all the excavation here.

Of course, these chambers are pretty deep.

So, what they're having to do is bring water.

This is very hard, so I think what they're doing is bringing water with them and softening up the dirt so that they can dig.

♪♪ [ Wings flapping ] You know, these are pretty big bees.

They look about the size of a small bumblebee.

They're even bigger than a honeybee.

Pretty big for some of these burrowing bees.

Boy, must be a big one that lives in that hole.

They're really inoffensive.

They don't seem like they're interested in me at all.

Now, I think I know why these hibiscus bees are here.

Very close to here is something I want you guys to see.

So I walked right down the road and into the woods a little bit, into this little wetland, and, man, look at the hibiscus flowers.

There are a bunch of them in here.

I love that association.

Of course, we find the hibiscus bee, but you can't have the hibiscus bee if you don't have the native hibiscus plant that it needs for pollen.

I know you guys think of me as more of an animal guy, but I like plants too, especially if they're carnivorous.

Guys, I'm here at a really neat spot in South Carolina in the Francis Marion National Forest, and I'm surrounded by pitcher plants.

They're just everywhere here.

And for that matter, there's lots of other kinds of carnivorous plants as well.

Let's look around a little bit so I can show you what's here.

And these are pitcher plants.

And, man, there are a bunch of them here.

And this is one of the tall pitcher plants.

This is, I think, Sarracenia flava.

And they are really big.

To give you an idea, I'm gonna come up a little bit closer.

And this shows you just how big they actually are.

I mean, some of these, I would think, are probably, you know, three feet tall or so.

They're quite big.

And so I think most of know how these things work.

There are these pitcher-type cylinders, and what happens is a fly or other insect crawls inside here and then goes down inside that little pitcher.

And then there are downward-facing hairs, and the animal has trouble getting back out, and eventually it falls down into the base down here.

And there's some liquid in it, and that liquid digests the insect.

Now, these guys live in nutrient-poor bogs, and so they need some extra nutrients, and that's how they get it.

Now, here's a nice little grove of hooded pitcher plants.

And they're up a little bit higher and drier than those others are.

But anyway, a slightly different-shaped vessel here.

And you can see these guys have a little top on them.

Same deal -- Insect crawls in, gets kind of caught inside this vessel, tries to climb back out through those downward-facing hairs.

They can't get out, they get tired, and eventually they fall into the liquid and are slowly digested.

♪♪ Guys, I don't know about you, but I love rotten logs because it gives me a chance to look for beetles and beetle larvae and all kinds of cool stuff.

But I was going through this log looking for a particular type of beetle, and look what I found.

I'm gonna very carefully turn this over.

And look what's underneath -- eggs.

And these are skink eggs, and I can tell by their size.

And also [Laughs] to be honest with you, I just saw a mother skink run off, so that's a dead giveaway too.

And skink eggs are very, very small.

You can see how tiny they are compared to my finger.

And you don't have to worry about moving skink eggs.

They're not like snake eggs.

They don't have to remain in one position like a turtle egg or a snake egg.

So the mother will actually move them around and brood the eggs, which is kind of interesting -- protect them from all kinds of predators.

Man, there's a bunch of them in here.

I think this clutch probably has about 20 or so.

Okay, well, I'm gonna leave these eggs right where they are, but I actually have some others that are back at the house incubating.

Thought you guys might get a real kick out of these little skinks.

Look at the head sticking out.

So these are getting ready to hatch from their eggs.

Looks like two are out.

Here's the other one.

And the rest of them are still incubating and should hatch anytime.

And I'm gonna zero in on this guy right here.

I think he's gonna crawl out here in just a minute.

And he's out.

Look at that beautiful tail.

So, of course, when they're little, they have bright blue tails, and that's what probably protects them against certain predators.

That blue tail is a warning that they're toxic and potentially they they taste better.

In the case of baby skinks, they're actually poisonous.

Not venomous, but poisonous.

So if you were to ingest a skink -- or if certain predators ingest them, they get sick from it.

Anyway, really neat.

Looks like this one on the right's getting ready to go here in just a second too.

So it looks like everybody's hatched.

Boy, there's a bunch of skinks in here.

So I think it's time to take these guys out and let them go.

Okay, I'm gonna release these little skinks.

And the eggs were found very, very close to here.

But this looks like a particularly good spot.

You can see this big live oak tree.

And broad-headed skinks love live oak trees.

And then just a little mound of debris and stuff right here.

So I think this is gonna be about perfect for these guys.

I'll get them started here.

I don't know exactly how I'm gonna do this, 'cause these guys are gonna really want to scamper out.

Most of them are underneath all the vermiculite, so I think what I'm gonna do is just kind of fish through here.

There they all are.

[ Laughs ] Looks like maybe if I kind of just scare, some of them will go right -- there went one.

There goes another one over the side.

So we can help him across.

Off he goes.

Lots more of them in here.

This is kind of fun.

I'm gonna grab one of them and put him just like right here.

Boy, this is neat.

Boy, these guys have a lot of growing to do.

They're pretty vulnerable at this size.

Of course, that bright blue tail and their toxic secretions probably protect them real well.

♪♪ During this pandemic I've had an opportunity to look at some of the smaller stuff that lives around us.

But sometimes you have get really close to see what's actually going on.

So here's a millipede.

Now, I know it's a millipede 'cause it has two pairs of legs per segment.

A centipede would only have one pair of legs per segment.

This particular one I happen to know -- I counted them one time -- has 186 legs.

I know it sounds like I have a lot of time on my hands, but this is one called -- I think -- called Narceus.

One of the round millipedes.

And if we look at this guy, get a little bit closer, you can see it's got lots and lots of segments.

And you'll hear people say millipedes have a thousand legs or a hundred legs.

Well, it varies between species.

And typically millipedes have more legs than centipedes do.

That's one way to look at it.

The other thing is millipedes move slowly and don't bite.

Centipedes move quickly and do bite.

♪♪ So I'm out here at the great salt pond.

I'm at this little burrow pit, and I set a trap.

You should be able to see it right through there.

And it's a minnow trap.

What I'm gonna do is check this.

Let's see if there's anything in it.

And sure enough, looks like there's -- I baited this, and it looks like there's some crayfish in there.

So I have this apart, and there are a bunch of little crayfish in here.

And I'm trying to think what I'm gonna put these in so you can see them.

The only thing I can think of that I have is the container that I brought my lunch in.

I guess that'll work.

Okay, you see, so I'm set up on the tailgate of the truck here.

And I'm just gonna put -- so there are a whole bunch of these.

But I just held on a couple of them.

And so, looking at these, I'm pretty sure they're a Procambarus.

That's what it looks like.

And that's a common genus of crayfish.

And just the shape of the claws and also the shape of the body as well.

I think that's probably a Procambarus of some sort.

Anyway, this is a decapod, and decapods have 10 legs.

And crab, shrimp, lobsters are all decapods.

And so this fits in that group.

But, wow, this has got a pretty good pinch.

You know, they use those claws to tear apart all kinds of dead fish and things like that.

[ Laughing ] He's really got... Got me in kind of a bad spot.

Ooh, and there goes another one.

Now, that's a worse spot, is right on the edge of my fingernail there.

I'm gonna see if I can get a better grip.

[ Laughs ] Anyway, this isn't working out quite the way I had planned.

But anyway, the idea for collecting these is to figure out exactly what they are.

Now, the tough thing about crayfish is you got to have a first form male, and you really got to know what you're doing to identify them.

So I'm gonna send these to a friend of mine in Florida, and hopefully he will know exactly what they are, at least be able to figure it out.

Anyway, they're really neat.

Man, it's a lot of fun just trap in a little wetland like this and seeing what's in it.

Now, a while back I was talking to you guys about an egg an baby box turtle that I found in the yard.

And that was really cool, but I'll tell you what's even neater -- here's one that's not a baby, not an adult.

I think this is a three- or four-year-old.

And so I just walked out to the backyard, and here it was.

I'm gonna pick it up so you can see what size it is.

So you can see -- beautiful humped shell.

You know, the babies are flat like a slider turtle, but this has already developed that box turtle shape.

And what I can do is flip it over and look at those growth rings, or annuli, and it looks like one, two -- yeah, looks like a three-year-old.

So this has done well.

So pleased to see not only we have adults and babies, but we actually have ones that are growing up and gonna reach adult size in just a few more years.

Of course, this is a species that we know can live a hundred years or more.

♪♪ Anytime I'm out driving around, I'm always keeping an eye out for animals because if conditions are just right, you might just see a snake cross the road.

Okay, I just stopped, and I'm gonna jump out.

And sure enough, there's a corn snake sitting right -- looks like a corn snake -- sitting right in the middle of the road.

I think he saw the car.

I drove up to him real slowly.

And you can see him vibrating his tail.

And, boy, this is gorgeous corn snake.

But he would probably strike if given the opportunity, I'm sure.

Look at that tail vibrate.

Boy, they're beautiful.

You can see why people sometimes think they're copperheads.

Because he's acting pretty fierce, for sure.

But nonvenomous corn snake.

Really, really neat snake.

Of course it's rained a bunch, and I think it's just a good time to be out moving around if you're a snake.

I'm gonna kind of shoo him off the road very carefully 'cause I don't -- let me just see if I can take my foot and just slowly move him.

There he goes.

Looks like he's gonna do it kind of on his own terms.

And off he goes.

Okay, here's another neat one.

And this one, it's coiled up and is ready to fight, and that's what they sometimes do.

They feel cornered.

This particular one looks a little bit like a cottonmouth, but what it is is a banded water snake.

And, boy, they are feisty.

Super feisty.

But again, nonvenomous, and he's just trying to protect himself.

The sun popped out, so this animal looked like it was crossing the road and maybe stopped just to warm up a little bit.

So a banded water snake.

And I'm gonna let it just cross the road and leave it alone.

Neat.

Guys, I just jumped out of the car, and I managed to track this guy down.

And look right here.

[ Snake hissing ] You can probably hear it.

There it is.

So this is a hognose snake.

And it was crossing the road in front of me, and I managed to catch it just as it crossed the road.

So now it's gonna try a different defensive strategy.

It can't run away from me like a black racer, so what it's doing is spreading its head out like a cobra.

Sorry, it's kind of hard to hear over the car running and that.

Anyway, fabulous, fabulous animal.

Spreads its head, looks like -- not trying to look like a cobra.

Just trying to make itself look bigger.

Hissing.

And all this looks pretty serious, but this snake isn't gonna hurt anybody.

In fact, they don't even bite.

[ Hissing continues ] I'm gonna reach in and move this guy, and I'll show you some other kind of neat things that it does.

Look at that beautiful hood.

So eastern hognose snake.

And it gets that name because the nose is upturned.

The next step is they do this, which is roll over and play dead -- although this one [Laughs] doesn't really look like he's gonna play dead like some of them do.

There we go.

This one seems to play dead for a little while, and then it kind of crawls off.

But this death-feigning behavior is something that must work on certain predators, because they sure do it, but... See, it looks like he's completely dead, but obviously it's not.

This is just an attempt to scare away a predator or maybe hope that the predator just kind of crawls off.

Look at him turning over.

So he's gonna turn over and just crawl off.

Hognose snakes are so cool.

Man, I love these guys.

♪♪ Okay, guys, so we have a real treat today.

We have a peregrine falcon.

And you can see the container, it's shaking a little bit.

So this is a peregrine falcon that's ready for release.

But just real quick I want to talk about how this all happened.

This is Mary Whiteman, and Mary actually found this bird on the side of the road -- actually in the middle of the road -- and rescued it during driving rain and a lot of traffic.

So she brought it to us at the nature center, and we knew what to do.

We contacted the Center for Birds of Prey, and they got us in touch with Barbara Holmes.

And Barbara deals with these birds quite a bit and was willing to take the bird to the clinic in Awendaw from Beaufort.

It's been about two weeks or so?

>> HOLMES: Two weeks.

>> MILLS: And it is ready to -- it's back, and we're ready to release it.

So I guess this is something you guys have been doing -- you've been doing this for quite a while, right?

>> HOLMES: Absolutely.

We have a network of transport volunteers of about 200 people, and we all get the message when an injured bird has been found and maybe even needs to be captured.

And then we all work together to get the bird to the clinic so that it can be treated.

>> MILLS: I'm just glad that Mary was -- she was actually headed home from work on Spring Island, found it, and brought it back to us.

Okay, so we're gonna let this bird go.

This is a perfect spot.

In fact, the bird was found right that way a ways.

And so falcons can cover a lot of distance very, very quickly, so I'm sure it's gonna get up, figure out where it is, and off it'll go.

You want to... Hey, guys, this is -- the first time I ever handled a peregrine falcon was when this one came in two weeks ago, so we don't know exactly what's gonna happen here.

We know we want to get the bird back out there, but... Let's see exactly how this works.

Okay, I'm gonna grab the wings and kind of tuck the... Whoa.

See if I can get right... Let's see if I can get this wing underneath.

Okay, there we go.

And just for a minute, let's take just a minute to look at this incredible bird.

Boy, they are beautiful, aren't they?

This bird's really ready to go, you can tell.

Tremendous vision.

Certainly one of the fastest birds in the world, maybe the fastest bird in the world.

Talons, feet that it uses for knocking birds out of the air.

Oh, they're awesome.

And you said you think this one's on its way south, probably?

So it's in migration.

>> HOLMES: Yes.

>> MILLS: Wow, this is an honor, isn't it?

>> HOLMES: It is.

>> MILLS: Isn't this cool?

Okay, well, I'm gonna turn around and release this.

And as they say at the Center for Birds of Prey, we need to wish him well, or wish her well, right?

Well, here goes.

♪♪ That was awesome.

[ Woman laughs ] [ Clapping ] Okay, well, guys, that was awesome.

That was really, really good.

And, Mary, thank you so much for being willing to stop and help that bird.

And you said there was another guy that helped you, that you didn't have his name.

>> WHITEMAN: A guy that stopped traffic.

I never got his name.

>> MILLS: Well, thank you to him as well.

And, Barbara, thank you so much for not only helping this bird but helping all these birds.

>> HOLMES: Oh, you're welcome, Tony.

>> MILLS: And thank you to the Center for Birds of Prey as well for all the great work that they do.

As part of our research and education programs, we often hatch out a bunch of reptile eggs.

This was a really good year for baby snakes.

Man, this is so cool.

Look at this.

This is one of our corn snakes from the nature center, and it's laid an egg, and I think it's probably gonna lay a bunch more.

Let's zoom in on that egg a little bit.

I don't want to disturb her too much.

Here is a scarlet kingsnake that is laying.

So it looks like she's laid about four or five eggs and has another one that's about to come out.

[ Snake hissing ] So here is a pine snake, and you listen to the hissing.

And let me tell you why she's hissing.

Look right here.

These are her eggs.

Now, I put a dollar bill there to give you an idea how big these actually are.

Pine snake eggs are huge.

I mean, look at that.

So this is really cool.

I just came in to check on this snake, and look what's happening.

She's laying an egg right in front of us.

I'm trying not to get too close 'cause I don't want to spook her while she's laying.

Boy, this is a big clutch for a relatively small female kingsnake.

So, guys, I'm back, and it looks like she's laid five eggs.

And, oh, my gosh, here comes one right now.

So she's about to lay an egg.

And she kind of has contractions, and she's just pushing that egg out of one of her oviducts.

>> Okay, so I'm back, and it looks like she has laid one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine eggs.

Boy, that's incredible.

What a big clutch.

Anyway, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna reach down and get these eggs.

I'm gonna put them in this vermiculite.

And then what I'm gonna do is cover them up.

♪♪ And then I'm gonna put them in a warm spot, and we're gonna come back in about two months and see what they look like.

It's kind of like a cooking show, when you think about it.

We'll let them cook at about 80 degrees for two months, and then we'll come back and watch them hatch.

Okay, so we're back to check on our kingsnakes.

I brought them outside.

And they've been cooking, so to speak, for about 55 days.

And you can see some movement there.

The eggs are slit open.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Look at that little guy.

That's a hognose snake.

Here's another one hatching.

See how the nose is kind of upturned?

That's where they get the name "hognose."

Boy, that head is huge for the egg, isn't it?

It's hard to believe that whole little hognose snake fits in that little tiny egg.

Looks like we got one maybe coming out.

Look at that.

He's hatching right in front of us.

Crawling right out of the egg.

Boy, that is really cool.

And that's it.

He pipped the egg.

And he's completely out.

Oh, that's really cool.

So here are some scarlet kings.

You can see a couple of them pipping eggs right in front of us.

And there's a couple that are out already, and they're already crawling around.

These are beautiful little snakes.

Wow.

Look at how many corn snakes have hatched.

Boy, I missed some hatching I think.

Looks like one of them's trying to crawl out here.

You know, some snakes pip the egg and then sit there for a long period of time, but hognose snakes seem to just pip it and come out just after a few hours.

♪♪ Okay, it looks like everybody's out.

Boy, this is a nice collection of little snakes.

I can't wait to go release these little guys.

Now, look what happened, guys.

I grabbed him as he was crawling out of the container, put him back in, and he's playing dead.

So even baby hognose snakes will play dead.

[ Laughs ] So he hatched, and the first thing that happened is he played dead.

Of course, guess he's tired of playing dead, and now he's starting to tongue-flick.

He's turning around, looking around to see if the coast is clear.

And now I think he's gonna crawl off.

Looks like he thinks the danger has passed.

But looks like these guys are ready to take and release.

So let's take them out there.

So I'm really excited.

We're gonna release some snakes today.

And the adults that produced these snakes come from right here.

But I've enlisted the help of the Mattson family and the Lewis family, and they're gonna help let these little guys go.

Hey, guys.

How's it going?

>> CHILD: Good.

>> MILLS: So we have three different types of snakes to look at.

I'm gonna start with this one.

Here are the kingsnakes.

And look at these guys.

They are beautiful, aren't they?

>> CHILD: They're crawling out.

>> MILLS: So these are gonna grow.

They're little guys now, but they're gonna grow to be about this long and look pretty much the same.

Okay, let's see if you guys know what the next ones are.

What are those?

>> CHILD: Hognose.

>> MILLS: Yeah, these are eastern hognose snakes.

>> CHILD: The ones that are at the bottom are even... >> MILLS: There's a bunch of these, aren't there?

Yeah, you notice, like Maddie said, these guys have pink heads.

Now, what's gonna happen is these guys are gonna be, when they're adults, they're gonna be solid dark gray or black.

So they're gonna lose all that pretty color that they have when they're babies.

Okay, let me show you one more kind.

Let's see if you guys know what these are.

>> CHILD: Corn snakes.

>> MILLS: They are corn snakes.

And look how pretty some of these guys are.

Now, as adults, these guys are gonna be bright orange, and they are going to be a lot bigger.

>> CHILD: They're gonna fall out!

>> MILLS: Okay, we'll get them back in.

But remember, we're letting them go here, so even if one got loose it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Okay, when we release these, guys, what we're gonna do is make sure that we let them go underneath something.

As long as they crawl -- yeah, maybe under a log or just kind of into the grass.

Someplace where they can real quickly hide, okay?

♪♪ ♪♪ So we released these snakes as part of some research we're doing.

And one of the things that's of concern is certain species have declined throughout much of their range.

So we're hoping that these snakes we released are gonna grow into big, beautiful adults like this eastern kingsnake.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

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