DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706270293

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: COASTAL JOURNAL 

SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

IN REAL WORLD, MOTHER NATURE IS NOT ALWAYS KIND AND GENTLE

I watched, horrified and fascinated, as nature at its most real played out in Jennie and Jay Johnson's back yard last week.

A small graceful garter snake, or so I had always described the critter in the past, had snagged a hapless toad and was slowly devouring it in full view of my neighbors and myself. The toad struggled valiantly but was unable to break the grip of the snake's little needle sharp teeth.

Nonpoisonous snakes, unless they constrict their prey before eating, swallow their prey alive and whole. They use their teeth only to hold on, not to chew.

The slender garter snake's toad was at least three times as big around as the snake was. Still, the garter's flexible jaws were able to open wide enough to allow it to gradually swallow the toad.

Within about an hour the only visible reminder of the poor toad was a big lump in the middle of the snake's body well beyond the neck and head. I told the story to snake expert Gary Williamson, chief ranger at False Cape State Park, and said how queasy it made me feel.

``It's a rough world for the critters out there,'' Williamson said. ``They don't die of old age. Just about everything out there experiences a violent death.''

AN EASTER LILY in The Cutty Sark motel parking lot has been ladened down with more than 60 buds and blooms, said Darlene Thurman, who runs the motel on Atlantic Avenue. Last year a guest left the lily behind in the room after staying at the Cutty Sark for the Easter holiday. On a lark, Thurman planted it in the parking lot border, not knowing whether it would come back or not.

But the lily did - in a grand way. In fact, the plant is doing much better than anything else in the border, she said.

JUNE AND JOHN KEARLEY and family are sharing their big back yard in Green Hill Farms with two other families this summer. Two pairs of green herons have taken up residence in two trees beside the Kearley swimming pool and two to three babies were born in each nest.

Green herons like to nest near water and it appeared that the swimming pool initially may have attracted the first pair to the yard last summer. Last year the birds would walk around the swimming pool deck on a regular basis, June Kearley said.

``Once someone left a raft in the pool,'' she said, ``and I looked out the window and there was a bird on the raft sailing across the pool!''

The herons seemed to eventually catch on that the pool was no place to find a meal. Since they were joined by another couple this spring, they must have thought the Kearley hospitality was just fine otherwise.

DICK JONES OF SANDBRIDGE has an unusually good of view of the eagle's nest in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. But recently he hasn't needed binoculars to see one of the beautiful birds.

One of this year's youngsters has taken to flying into Jones' yard in the morning, landing right on the lawn where it sits for awhile. Then it spends time on a swing arch on the dock and then up on the boat house roof.

The bird's presence gets the gulls in an uproar and they fly at it over and over. ``But he just ignores them,'' Jones said.

Jones doesn't even have to see the immature eagle's brown and white coloring to know the bird is a juvenile. ``You can tell he's a baby,'' Jones said, ``because he acts so innocent.''

SPEAKING OF ANGRY BIRDS, Howie Collins was boating out on the Lynnhaven river recently when he saw a cormorant make the mistake of landing in the water at the base of a piling that had an osprey nest on top.

``The male swooped down with his talons extended,'' Collins wrote in an e mail, ``and the cormorant dove below the surface. When he surfaced again, the osprey repeated his `warning.' ''

The cormorant did not surface again until it was well out of harm's way, Collins said.

GOOD PARENTING like that must have caused the surge in osprey babies on the Lynnhaven River this year. Reese Lukei, who bands and counts osprey in Virginia Beach, said there were at least 34 youngsters in the Lynnhaven watershed last week. Last year, Lukei counted 22 babies on the river.

P.S. Identification of Cindy Meier and Melissa McCanna in the photo with last week's column was unclear. Meier with the short dark hair was on the right. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW

An Easter lily in the Cutty Sark motel parking lot border came back

this year with at least 60 blooms.

A garter snake uses its flexible jaws to get started on a fresh meal

in Jennie and Jay Johnson's back yard.

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