-Funding for "Coastal Kingdom" is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, which proudly supports this program.

Through the generosity of our members and donors, the ETV Endowment has funded educational and entertaining programming like "Coastal Kingdom" for more than 40 years.

-Additional funding provided by... ♪♪ -So, this is a scene you don't see in the Lowcountry very often, but we just had a big ice and snow storm, and it looks like it's just finally started to melt.

But I want to show you something that's just right through these woods right here.

♪♪ ♪♪ How's this for beautiful?

A lot of the trees have lost their leaves, and there's not a ton of vegetation in here.

You can still tell it's a wetland.

And this is one of the most critical habitats in the Lowcountry.

It's home to fish and reptiles, small mammals, birds, and it's a critical breeding ground for amphibians.

In this episode, we're gonna visit this very same wetland in the winter, spring, summer and fall, and we're gonna see what lives here.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, look at that little guy.

Okay, we got something big on.

There we go.

We've got the bird, and there's already a chick in there.

♪♪ ♪♪ So obviously it's -- Man, the water is freezing and you can see there's all kinds of ice here.

In fact, much of this wetland, the top of it is frozen solid.

Look at these pieces of ice breaking off.

So a lot of stuff is dormant.

I mean, there's a lot of things like reptiles that are just not gonna be active in this.

But there's a lot of life in here.

It's just all down kind of in the mud or hiding under the bank or someplace that it can keep from freezing.

But just for the heck of it, I brought a net along so we could just give it a try.

♪♪ Believe it or not, there's a little tadpole right here... a couple of tadpoles.

There's -- There's ice in the net, and there's still tadpoles right here.

Looks like a little -- a very young crayfish.

A very, very tiny crayfish.

It's surprising how much stuff is really in here.

There's some -- some little mosquitofish, like this one.

Little tiny mosquitofish.

So there is some life in here, and everything else is probably down in the mud or hiding under the bank or someplace where it can keep from getting too cold and potentially freezing.

♪♪ So I tell you what's kinda neat.

We're gonna install this time lapse camera, and we're gonna just put it right on this tree right here and then hook it up, and this will allow us to kinda record the seasons.

So this -- this is gonna record for a whole year, and we're gonna be able to see how different the wetland looks throughout the days, weeks, months, and even a year.

♪♪ Hey, guys, we're on our way to the wetland, but I just pulled off the side.

There's something in the road right here, and I wanna go check this out.

Okay, so if you look right here, this is a legless lizard, a glass lizard.

It looks like an eastern glass lizard, and you notice it looks an awful lot like a snake.

But it's a lizard.

It has external ear openings, and it has eyelids -- two things that snakes do not have.

And I'm going to pick it up very gently.

Now, I want to be careful because these animals have the ability to break the tail off.

In fact, from here down it's all tail.

So they're mostly tail.

Actually, this one looks like it has already lost the tip of the tail at some point from a predator or something like that.

But if you look really closely, you can see those ear openings and those eyelids -- two things that are lizard, not snake.

So these live in areas like this near wetlands.

They're not gonna be in the water in a wetland, but they often live around the perimeter of wetlands.

Unfortunately, you know, crossing roads, not so much ones like this, but they cross roads quite a bit, and they do get hit by cars.

So, kinda neat.

Kinda neat to see this on the way in.

But let's let this little guy go.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Bird calling ] ♪♪ It's a beautiful spring day, and we're walking along the edge of this wetland.

And I just saw something fly into this -- this snag right here.

In fact, it's got these perfect little holes.

I mean, they're perfectly round.

They look like they've almost been machined.

Nuthatches, specifically brown-headed nuthatches, keep flying in and out of those holes.

The other thing they're doing is stopping and kind of chattering in the branches.

Now, it's time for eggs and, you know, little baby birds, so I'm sure that's what's happening.

So these guys will excavate a nest, and that's a safe place where they can lay their eggs and raise their young.

It's protected from all sorts of things.

Now, there are still some predators that could get them, things like snakes and things like that.

In fact, I hear one.

[ Bird calling ] In fact, there's one.

They sound like a squeaky toy.

They've got a wonderful, wonderful call.

[ Bird calling ] I -- I would argue this is one of the cutest birds in the world.

I mean, they have a cute noise.

They're very attractive.

They're little short guys, almost round in shape.

So, brown-headed nuthatches will lay somewhere between three and seven eggs.

And you know what's really cool about -- Some other birds are like this, too, but with brown-headed nuthatches, not only does the breeding pair take care of the nest and the babies, but there may be some helpers, as well, and those helpers may come in and help to feed the female while she's incubating.

And also they probably just help with the chores and things like that.

So that's really kind of community nesting of sorts.

[ Birds calling ] Boy, they're just making noise like crazy behind me.

I hope you guys can hear this because there's a whole bunch of them.

We've seen four come out of that one hole, and there's lots of others just kind of calling from the trees.

It's an adorable noise, for sure.

Now, remember, this is a brown-headed nuthatch.

We also have a white-breasted nuthatch that has a different call.

It's also very dapper, but I think this is the best of the nuthatches that we have around here.

These birds are likely going out and catching insects for young.

That's what -- That's just my guess.

And even though they eat a lot of seeds, they need to feed the babies insects, so they're probably catching little grasshoppers and caterpillars and things like that and taking them inside and feeding the babies because they need protein as they're growing.

So I don't know if you can see it, but some of these birds are actually walking upside down down the trunk of a tree.

Think how much athleticism that takes to do that.

But, of course, if you spend your life picking away bark on a vertical tree trunk, looking for insects and seeds and things like that, that's a good adaptation to have.

So when you see a snag like this, it reminds you that even after a tree dies, it's still really valuable habitat.

And so this snag may stay standing for years and years and years and provide habitat for all kinds of things -- nuthatches, snakes, lizards, insects, and all kinds of things like that.

So even when the tree is dead, it's still really good habitat.

Anyway, this is fun, but I think -- I think we better give 'em some space.

So you can see this wetland is completely surrounded by a thick wall of switch cane.

So this isn't bamboo.

It's a native species called switch cane.

And the water is just on the other side of this.

So let's -- let's get in there.

♪♪ So look at this wonderful wetland.

Of course, a lot of water around.

You can look at the trees.

There's tupelo trees and all kinds of things that indicate that it's wet, at least part of the year, for sure.

But all this grass has come up, and it's just beautiful in here.

Okay.

Let's see what's in here.

This isn't a real deep spot, but... Wow.

Look at that.

Lots of tadpoles.

Little crayfish.

Nothing real big.

These look like they could be leopard-frog tadpoles.

Look at all the vegetation, too.

A lot of rotting vegetation in here.

And something really cool.

A dragonfly naiad.

So this looks like one of the skimmers possibly.

So there's a lot to eat in here.

Tadpoles, crayfish, and then lots of insects.

Let's see what else we can find.

Oh, there's something good!

A little tadpole, but look at this dude right here!

Now, that's a tadpole!

In fact, looks like a bullfrog tadpole.

And it's metamorphosing.

So this is changing into a frog.

And you can see the back legs right there that are starting to form.

So this is gonna go from a tadpole to a frog it looks like in a very short period of time.

But, man, that's a big tadpole.

I mean, most tadpoles are quite a bit smaller than this.

The only one that really rivals this around here is the river frog, which gets this big, at least.

I'm gonna give it another dip.

Man, what a treat.

So I have seen bullfrogs in here.

I've seen adult bullfrogs in here before.

So it's not surprising at all that we see these tadpoles.

Now, these overwinter.

So this is one that would have been here all winter.

And now it's metamorphosing, and it's gonna work its way onto land.

It's not that they become terrestrial.

They become kind of semi-terrestrial and live on the edge of the ponds.

And, of course, they're good swimmers and spend a lot of time in the wetland itself.

A couple days ago, I set some traps here, and so we're gonna check those.

I can already tell we have a problem with our first trap.

And if you look right here, there's a very conspicuous hole.

And this is something I've dealt with before.

And, of course, a lot of things can get in the traps and kind of chew their ways out.

You know, otters and things like that.

I think that's a great blue heron.

And sometimes you'll get great blue herons and great egrets.

They see something in the trap, and they just punch a hole right through it to try and catch it.

So probably not anything too exciting in this trap, but we'll check it just to be sure.

♪♪ And, yeah, nothing big.

Lots of little mosquitofish, but certainly any thing bigger would get right out.

You notice what I have on these?

So, not only do I have a stick to hold them in place so that something doesn't drag them off, I also have this bobber right here.

And, that way, if a trap does roll into deeper water or something, I can find it.

♪♪ There's more crayfish and mosquitofish.

Now, you'll notice all these traps are set, so only about two thirds of them are underwater.

We're trying to catch aquatic creatures, but what we don't want to do is put them completely underwater so that air breathers would drown.

♪♪ Lots of crayfish and lots of little fish.

But this is a fishless wetland.

But that means we just have things like mosquitofish.

We don't have any big predacious fish.

♪♪ Boy, the son is really coming in and out.

It's a beautiful day, but sometimes it's sunny and sometimes it gets really overcast like it looks like it's gonna rain or something.

Oh, so we have a bigger crayfish in this one.

Wow!

That is a big one, for sure.

Look at that.

Yeah, this is a big adult of this species.

Looks like maybe one of the procambarus.

Looks a little bit like one of the red swamp crayfish.

But that's a major predator in these wetlands.

I mean, you can imagine.

They can eat tadpoles.

They can eat little fish and smaller crayfish, aquatic insects, things like that.

♪♪ Wow!

There we go!

There's something!

So this one, you can tell.

The other ones, I baited with gator chow.

This one, I baited with sardines.

It seems like that made a difference because there's a big old water snake in this one.

First thing I'm gonna do is make sure it's not a cottonmouth, which it's not, but, you know, water snakes look remarkably like cottonmouth, so you got to be careful.

And these do bite, but it's not -- They're not venomous, of course.

One of the things about water snakes, they have a musk, and it is not pleasant.

So Rob and I are gonna ride home together in the truck, and I'm gonna smell like water snake the whole way.

Look at the beautiful belly on this snake!

So, banded water snakes are extremely variable.

They can be very drab or they can be kind of colorful like this one.

And they typically have these kind of little chevrons or little bands that come up on the side that give them color.

It's a pretty snake.

Oh, now, this is cool!

Oh, a couple things in here.

So I got my bucket.

Well, first of all, let's look at this first.

Something kind of neat in here.

A mud turtle!

Mud turtles are great.

I mean, this is one of those animals that we sort of take for granted.

They're, you know, not real showy or anything like that, but they're a beautiful color, actually, and they live a long time.

I mean, we think mud turtles can live 50 years or more.

I can just glance at this and tell it's a male.

It's kind of scooped out right here, and it also has a big tail.

Female would have a flatter plastron and a smaller tail.

So eastern mud turtle.

So I'm gonna just put it in the bucket for a minute.

This is really an interesting animal.

And this is one called an amphiuma.

So it looks kind of like a snake, but it's actually a big salamander, and these bite pretty hard, so I'm gonna be careful to not get bit by it.

There we go.

This is called a two -- Whoa!

[ Chuckles ] Man.

This is kind of an athletic one.

But look at this creature!

Two-toed amphiuma.

Look at the little front legs.

It has front legs and back legs.

And each one of those has two little toes on it.

This is an amazing creature.

This is one of those animals that you sort of think about being in other parts of the world.

It's just hard to imagine that we have these very commonly in a lot of our freshwater wetlands.

And, of course, they eat crayfish.

And you can see there's lots to eat in here, lots of crayfish.

And I don't think it's gonna mess with the turtle, that mud turtle.

And these breathe air, so it just came up and took a breath.

As a larva, one of these would have gills, but as they grow up into adults, they just gulp air.

Another reason to leave those traps kind of partially out of the water.

♪♪ As you guys know, it gets so hot in the Lowcountry in the summer that you have to kind of change your plans a little bit, and so we've decided to switch up and go to more of a nocturnal field trip.

So we're gonna go check out this wetland, but we have to do it when the animals are most active.

We've had a lot of rain.

It's been really warm.

And so a lot of vegetation has grown up around the wetland, so we're actually gonna chop our way in.

This is unreal, isn't it?

♪♪ Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to find your way out of a wetland and to find the truck when it gets really dark, so these light sticks will help us to do that.

It's really impressive how thick this is, isn't it?

[ Cicadas chirping ] Can you hear that?

That's cicadas.

And as it gets darker, they get more active.

And that's one of the things that we'll do.

Even if we don't see animals in the dark, there's a good chance we'll hear them, so we need to listen for insect calls and frog calls and all kinds of other things.

Man, it is really mucky in here, and I'm really watching where I'm stepping because these wetlands are home to cottonmouths.

And might even be a canebrake rattlesnake in here, but certainly a cottonmouth is a possibility, so I want to be careful where I step.

♪♪ [ Frogs croaking ] So I hear a couple frogs warming up.

Some green tree frogs.

Hear that?

[ Frogs croaking ] There's a couple of them.

Remember, those are males that are all trying to call louder than the male next to them.

Females typically don't vocalize.

Males do.

But what you want to do is be the loudest frog in the pond so the females can hear you.

Those are cricket frogs.

The clicking.

Sounds like hitting marbles together.

[ Frogs clicking ] It's really fun just... So we haven't really seen them yet, but we can hear them.

♪♪ So if you look right here, there's a wonderful fishing spider.

This is Dolomedes.

Looks like one of the spotted fishing spiders.

The name "fishing spider" comes from the fact that they actually catch mosquitofish and other small species of fish and envenomate them and then just kind of suck the insides out.

So a major predator.

They don't get very big.

But a major predator if you're a mosquitofish or something like that.

I'll tell you what.

Wading through this is treacherous, even without the snakes and alligators and things like that.

And if you look at this plant, those are sharp.

They're like enormous sand spurs.

But...gotta be careful.

♪♪ Okay.

Here's something kind of neat.

So this is a red-bellied water snake.

Actually sometimes called plain-bellied water snake.

But, of course, when they're bright red like this, the name "red water snake" really fits.

Nonvenomous, of course.

A wonderful, wonderful, beautiful snake, for one thing.

And they're usually kind of feisty.

This one isn't too bad.

Uh, it looks like this is a female, probably.

It's got a slender tail.

But I'm kind of surprised I haven't been bit yet, because normally they will -- they will bite pretty hard.

Females get even bigger than this.

A foot longer, certainly.

And these eat frogs, and they'll eat fish, as well, but what they really like is frogs and other amphibians, salamanders and things like that.

In fact, that green frog that we just heard call, that's the kind of thing this would like to eat.

In fact, this one's got -- Feels like it may even have something in it right now.

Neat snake.

And just -- just one of the prettier species that we have around here.

And, of course, they light up really good in the dark when we have these lights.

I'm gonna let this one take off.

Off it goes.

Look at how good a swimmer that animal is.

So I think things have calmed down a little bit.

You can hear a few frogs calling, but I'll tell you what.

During the heat of the summer, it's about the only way to see what's out here.

Because during the hot of the day, those animals are gonna be kind of hiding under logs, in the mud, underwater.

Anything they can do to stay cool.

♪♪ So look at all this fall color.

You know, we don't get much in the Lowcountry, but things like these persimmons.

This is pretty good for the Lowcountry.

But what I really wanted you to see is actually right back here.

And this looks like fall webworm caterpillars.

In fact, I'm sure that's what it is.

It looks like somebody just put a net over the top of this.

It's just a young tree, actually.

And that's exactly what happened.

The caterpillars will feed on the leaves that are under this -- this tent of sorts.

In fact, this is one of the tenting caterpillars.

This is one that's more common in the fall.

But think how protective this is against birds and things.

I mean, a bird is not gonna get into this.

This is tough stuff.

So if a bird was to get in that, it might get its feathers tangled and cause all kinds of problems.

And the caterpillars can feed on the leaves, and you can see they've done a lot of that.

Now, there's not much here.

It looks like there may be a caterpillar or two, but this is -- this is old.

So, obviously, this was more active earlier on.

Man, it's just a fascinating tactic when you think about it that allows the animals to feed without being eaten by certain birds.

Things like yellow-billed cuckoos and other birds will eat these.

So this is -- this is an old one, for sure.

Most of the caterpillars are gone.

But I want to look inside and see... see if we can find something.

I'll tell you what's interesting about these.

People get very, very concerned about these, that they're damaging the tree.

And, yes, they're eating the leaves, but by the time you get to this point, it probably does no good to pull the caterpillars out or anything like that.

This is not a big, big problem.

It happens to a lot of hardwoods like this persimmon, but it's probably not something you need to treat with chemicals or anything like that.

So these little caterpillars will pupate and then turn into little moths.

And I've heard them called, like, snow moths and stuff like that.

It is a kind of nondescript white moth about this big.

So they're not real big animals, but they're -- they're kind of attractive moths, for sure.

I'll tell you what there is a lot of, is frass.

And frass is caterpillar droppings.

And so there's a lot of that.

And you can see it just kind of hanging in the web.

And it kind of rains down.

A lot of times, you can see a lot of stuff at the base of the plant, as well.

So you start to see these fall webworms towards the end of the summer and into the fall, and you don't always see them around a wetland like this.

A lot of times, they're just gonna be on any hardwood.

In fact, they can be in your yard.

But, again, not a big problem, not something you need to treat with chemicals.

Probably just leave it alone.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, guys, you won't believe what's in this bag.

So, a friend of mine called me, and he caught this just right over here next to this wetland.

And this is one of my favorite snakes of all.

And it's one that's relatively common, but you don't see them very often.

They're really secretive.

And this is a mud snake.

And mud snakes get huge.

This one -- A little bit of musk coming out with this -- of this one.

But, anyway, mud snakes eat almost exclusively these giant aquatic salamanders, sirens and amphiumas.

And they've got this really wonderful appendage on the tip of the tail that they can actually use to -- People used to call this a horned snake or a stinging snake because they can poke you with the tip of the tail.

And there's a modified scale on the end that's very sharp.

This is probably used to poke the salamanders into swallowing position, so obviously it doesn't sting or hurt you in any way.

And these typically do not bite.

So this is undoubtedly a female.

I can tell for a couple ways.

One is I can look at the tail.

It's got a very short tail, and it tapers very rapidly.

And also it's too big to be a male.

I've never seen a male this big.

Females tend to be much, much bigger.

But it is a magnificent animal and one that I just get really psyched every time I see one.

This is in really good shape.

I mean, the scales are perfect.

And it's got this wonderful shine to it and kind of a glossy appearance to it.

But, anyway, mud snakes are common in wetlands like this, and they spend a lot of their time in the water trying to catch amphibians, especially those salamanders, but they also will occasionally move up on land when they go to lay eggs.

But I think I know what this was doing when my friend caught it.

I think it was looking for a place to spend the winter.

So winter's coming, and it needs to find a place where it can get on the edge of the wetland and protect itself from very cold temperatures and probably from flooding.

So I'm sure that's what it's doing.

This animal is in such good shape.

I think what's gonna happen is we're gonna let it go right where we found it, and it's gonna emerge in the spring, it's gonna find a mate, and then it's gonna lay eggs.

And those eggs are gonna hatch in a couple of months into these gorgeous little baby mud snakes.

And those baby snakes are gonna grow up in this same wetland, probably.

There's plenty of food here.

It's great habitat.

I'll tell you what's been really fun.

We've been able to visit this same wetland in all four seasons of the year and see how it changes.

What's gonna be really neat is if we get a chance to come back and see this snake or one of its babies.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Funding for "Coastal Kingdom" is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, which proudly supports this program.

Through the generosity of our members and donors, the ETV endowment has funded educational and entertaining programming like "Coastal Kingdom" for more than 40 years.

-Additional funding provided by...