Mammal merriment, misery and markings

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Maria dB

Lately, many of my blogs have been about birds, mostly because they have been the easiest wildlife to photograph during the colder months. The mammals – and insects, reptiles and amphibians – have not been around much and likely have often visited when I’m not watching. I’m fairly certain that raccoons (Procyon lotor) and opossums (Didelphis virginiana) come to my yard after dark; perhaps the odd fox or coyote does as well. Nevertheless, after she stopped weaning her young and since summer ended, I haven’t seen Raquel raccoon all winter.

There a couple mammals, however, that I can count on to see every day because they have grown accustomed to having a food source at my house. Fallen bird seed (and seed and apples put out deliberately for ground feeders) does not get entirely gobbled up by the avian visitors, leaving pickings for the Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

The squirrels keep a watch from the trees and underbrush and appear very quickly after the bird seed is replenished. My combined squirrel and raccoon baffles – and placing the feeder poles at least 10 feet away from any structures from which they launch themselves onto the poles – have proved successful in keeping them from the feeders. But they continue to look for vantage points from which they can attempt a jump to the feeders.

Before I learned how to thwart them, they made off with plenty of seed and suet – one squirrel even carrying off the entire suet feeder when s/he couldn’t get it open. I saw it happening and chased that squirrel, but they were faster than me!

They will share space happily with birds but don’t always want to share with other squirrels or chipmunks.

The chipmunks don’t let that selfish attitude deter them; they just keep a sharp eye out for when a squirrel might turn on them. They wolf down seed after seed, giving themselves a very fat-cheeked countenance!

The past few days, the squirrels have continued their chasing, but now it is not always in rivalry or play. Instead, their romantic side is showing and the merriment goes on for a good length of time. They appear to have designated a particular tree stump/snag in my back yard as their trysting spot.

The white-tailed deer carry on their mating elsewhere but I know it’s happening as the males are evidence. Usually, one small family group comes to my home – mom, her one-year-old daughter and one-year-old son (a button buck, so-called for his tiny little antler nubs). They were occasionally accompanied by a couple second-year bucks with little antlers – I suspect mama’s sons from the previous year.

One of them lost one of his antlers early, but whether this was the result of a fight or accident is unknown to me. It seems that mama has allowed an orphaned button buck to join their group occasionally, too.

A couple weeks ago, two of the older males came down from the woods in search of does and food in the cold weather. This pair was traveling together but that didn’t stop some rivalry where first-access to the available food was concerned.

Then one day about a week ago when we had some very icy weather, I was surprised by a new and unfamiliar family group for a day. I didn’t mind them eating some seed and the resident family wasn’t around to chase them away. But then I felt immensely sad as I saw that one of them had been injured. Her tongue was lolling out but it was only when she came into the yard that I saw she must have been in an accident.

I felt miserable for her, seeing her face had been smashed in but after watching for a while, I realized the accident must have happened some time ago as she had no open wounds.

It must have been terribly painful though. I decided to call her Camelia as her profile reminded me of a camel.

I put out some soft bread for her because I don’t know how easily she can eat. She does seem well-fed, however, so perhaps her disability is not hampering her nutritional intake. I haven’t seen her or her family again and don’t know if they will ever return, but it reminded me of how many deer are hurt and killed in accidents. I continue to think it would be worthwhile for research to continue on reducing deer populations through contraceptive use.

Outside my yard, I’ve been seeing many signs of beavers (Castor canadensis) in the parks and reserves I visit. Their teeth are strong and I recently learned why their teeth are reddish brown – the enamel contains iron!

They have left tree stumps, half-gnawed trees and detached trees that they have apparently not yet been able to drag over to their dams and dens.

One downed tree in particular looked to me like they had been working on a bird sculpture!

I’m guessing that some of the other animals will be coming out in the daytime soon around my home – at the very least, the frogs and rabbits, whom I have seen only very occasionally. Spring is coming and while I enjoy seasonal variety, I will welcome it with open arms!

A morning at Cane Creek Reservoir

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Maria dB

The Orange County water authority maintains two recreational areas where it manages water supplies for our area’s drinking and sewage water. One is the Cane Creek Reservoir, where people can boat, fish, bird and relax. When my morning began yesterday with a distressing family situation, for which I would need to wait for news, I decided to visit the reservoir since getting out into nature always helps me handle stress. My foray was rewarding, both in terms of handling the emotional tension and appreciating the marvelous diversity that nature offers for our appreciation.

My walk began with a need to wipe spider webs from my face as our arachnid brethren were busy spinning their webs across walking paths. The marbled orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus) was in the process of building a web, climbing up and down and leaving new silken strands behind as they emerged from the spinneret.

The walking path also held evidence of the passing of a young white-tailed fawn (Odocoileus virginianus). A Carolina satyr butterfly (Hermeuptychia sosybius) was moving from grass blade to grass stem as I proceeded up a hill.

First birds of the day as I left the woods — a pair of Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) that were roosting on a wire. When a pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) wanted to join them, he was given to understand that his proximity was not appreciated.

Next, I caught sight of a Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos polyglottos), very busy grooming near the top of a small tree.

A nearby Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) was mostly laden with rose-colored fruit but one large bloom was still vibrant and visited by smaller and larger bees.

A number of birds were singing but I didn’t recognize their calls and I saw some birds flit from one tree to another but then I caught sight of one that was dipping into the grass to pick up insects and then sitting still on a branch for a while. It was a lovely Eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), a type of flycatcher with a yellow hue.

This bird flew around a bit, perching in trees, on ropes and barbed wire, providing some nice views of its lovely self.

A blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), busy as these small birds always seem to be, was gleaning insects from twigs and branches.

Coming up on the shoreline of the reservoir, I first spotted some least sandpipers (Calidris minutilla) foraging at the water’s edge. This is the smallest species of sandpiper and they are also the smallest shorebirds in North America. They looked very pretty in flight.

The sandpipers landed near some killdeer (Charadrius vociferous), who looked very large next to them.

A red-spotted purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) was mud-puddling on the shore, as was a Sachem skipper butterfly (Atalopedes campestris). A trio of American goldfinches (Spinus tristis) also dropped onto the wet mud for a brief time.

Several flocks of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) came in to the little lake. One group surprised me by suddenly veering in my direction and flying right in front of me, so close that they more than filled the screen of my zoom lens.

Near the end of my visit, a fellow birder kindly pointed out two green herons (Butorides virescens) to me. (Having binoculars is a definite advantage for this pursuit!). One was rather far away but another within walking distance so I snuck up on it in stages.

In the left-hand photo, you can imagine the dinosaur ancestor of this stalker.

At one point, the bird stretched and stared at the sky, moving its head from side to side obviously watching something – it turned out to be a juvenile red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).

My sneaking ever closer to the heron was rewarded when I saw the short bird catch and eat a rather large frog for its brunch. It was sad for the frog, but that is the cycle of life.

And when I returned home a short while later, I learned that the family emergency had been handled for the time being. Like the fauna, our own cycles of life are also unpredictable.

Backyard citizen science – take 2

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Maria dB

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, as part of an eMammal citizen science project, a motion trap camera was placed in my yard for three weeks. I am used to a variety of wildlife passing through and living here, including: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), Eastern chipmunks, Eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), opossums, raccoons, Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), field and house mice and the occasional vole. My hope was that the camera would capture the gray fox that has been wandering our neighborhood lately or maybe even a coyote visiting at night.

The project started with the placement of a camera at knee level on a crepe myrtle tree facing a path through which animals enter and leave my back yard. The objective was to record all the mammal species that visit (or at least those passing in front of the camera) for three weeks.

As neighborhood cats come to the yard, I was sure to get some photos of them, if nothing else. My senior deaf cat, who is now suffering from some dementia, only goes out when I accompany him (the other two family cats must stay inside). He checked out the camera right away and I wondered if he was going to pee on it to mark it as a new part of his territory. Instead, he went off to mark another part of the yard.

It was with great anticipation that I looked at the photos on the card after it was taken down, only to discover that the camera may have been aimed too high.

It seems that a squirrel may have been captured one evening, and in another case, it seems an opossum was entering the yard. However, the main captures (and there were not that many) were glimpses of deer.

A rabbit had decided to have a lie-down in front of the camera one day, perhaps 1½ feet away. It was not photographed and the project coordinator told me that the camera has a large blind spot right in front of it extending out roughly 3 feet.

Staring at the night shots made me think in a few instances that some creature had been photographed but I wasn’t really sure if that was it or just my imagination running amok.

A few times a deer stopped and the camera got a portrait shot, occasionally with a gesture that in humans might equate to thumbing their noses at something.

A few shots were close-ups.

Other times, we see an ear or the deer’s behind as she moves out of range.

One day, I caught a doe giving the camera a good look; this led to a few blank photos as her face or tongue covered the lens area.

Despite the paucity of cool camera captures, I enjoyed participating in the project and will consider taking their 30-minute course so I can have a camera placed here for a longer period. And if it is aimed lower, who knows what we may see then!

A bedraggled sort of day

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Maria dB

First, let this lovely Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) and me wish you – fellow nature lovers and blog readers – all the best as we look to the future in this year of 2015! May your minor disappointments (life is not always rosy) be compensated by love, laughter, health and happiness in abundance!

Yesterday may have been a minor disappointment for the wildlife here. On Sunday, it was very cold for North Carolina standards. Together with two other Audubon Society volunteers, I was standing at a local lake in 15°F (-9.4°C) weather waiting to see if any bald eagles flew by for inclusion in the quarterly Eagle Count. We didn’t see any, although this lovely hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) was nearby eating berries.

Monday was warmer but EXTREMELY wet! Two of my cats awakened me at 5 a.m. and I could hear the rain coming down in a veritable deluge. I wondered if I would be able to see the road to drive for an appointment later that morning (it did let up, thank goodness) and also wondered how the birds and animals were keeping in this unpleasant weather.

When it’s cold, the birds fluff up their feathers to trap air pockets by their bodies; this helps they retain body heat and stay warmer. Heavier wet feathers don’t seem to fluff well, though. On the other hand, birds’ feathers are covered with an oily or waxy substance that helps water run off, thereby keeping their bodies drier. Those feathers don’t necessarily look pretty though. Many of the birds were indeed looking bedraggled, some to a greater degree and others just a bit like these Northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis).

It didn’t seem that many birds were hiding in vegetation to get out from under the downpour. Nope – they all appeared to be very hungry and anxious for a meal like this red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), who was scolding me for being so close to the feeders!

A few white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were also wet and hungry, including two visitors to my yard that I had not seen before. They were two bucks, one of whom must have been hit by a car. One of his antlers was broken off and he was hopping along holding up his left hind leg, which had obviously been injured.

A young doe, who visits regularly, stopped for some bird seed, as did the other buck whose antlers had been shed. Their thick hair was coated in raindrops.

The Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) can curl their tails up over their backs as a kind of natural umbrella, both on the ground and in trees. This individual, who may have been injured by a predator and escaped, enjoyed some apple – first on the ground and then later in the tree away from the blue jays that were hopping around it.

Some of the birds definitely looked more presentable than other. The three visiting mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) were sleek and beautiful, one using its long tail tobalance as it plucked meal worms from a feeder designed for somewhat smaller birds.

The dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), Eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) and chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina) looked in fine shape, too.

The bluebirds (Sialia sialis) varied in appearance; a couple looked groomed but wet, while a couple others looked a bit disheveled.

The pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) – usually among the more handsome garden birds – unfortunately looked a sorry sight. Fortunately, when the rain ends, he’ll be able to shake that water off and get back to looking like one of the handsome fellas of the avian neighborhood!

The ruby-crowned kinglet’s (Regulus calendula) oily feather covering seemed to do well in keeping the rainwater at bay, while the brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) looked a bit more water-logged.

The tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) and Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) join me in looking forward to dryer and sunnier weather in a few days’ time!

Plenty of persimmon pleasure!

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Maria dB

My side- and backyards are both blessed with a persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana) but the one out back only produces small hard fruit for some reason. The large persimmon at the side of my house, however, is the exact opposite. Each year it is laden with fruit; much of it begins falling while the persimmons are still unripe or only half-ripe but plenty remains on the tree through the first frost. You need to have both male and female plants for the fruit to grow, but I don’t know where the male trees are – likely in a neighbor’s yard.

I’d been warned that an unripe or only partly ripe persimmon would not be tasty and, when I tried one, that advice turned out to be very true. I later tried a really ripe persimmon as so many North Carolinians find it a wonderful fruit, especially in pudding, but I can’t say that it is much to my liking. You won’t find me using persimmons to make tea, wine, beer or bread.

It is, however, VERY popular with the wildlife that is around my house. The first fallen persimmons are gobbled up by the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), who don’t seem to mind a bit of astringent fruit. Our neighborhood has opossums, raccoons, coyotes and gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) , but I haven’t seen their persimmon seed-filled scat – I think the deer get the fruit before they have a chance. (Too bad the stem was in front of the fox’s face; I don’t use Photoshop, but you can still see its beauty.)

When the large orange berries begin falling on the ground in an ever riper state, the first diners include the bald-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculata), whose beautiful large nest must be in a neighbor’s tree.

Eastern yellowjacket wasps (Vespula maculifrons), which can deliver a very nasty sting, show no interest in a human hovering over the persimmons to get a shot – they are totally engrossed in getting a piece of juicy fruit.

Southern yellowjackets (Vespula squamosa), also painful stingers, act likewise – their focus is entirely on the orange pulp.

The paper wasps (Polistes metricus) dig deep into the persimmon to extract some sweetness.

The red wasps (either Polistes carolina or rubiginosus; entomologists can only tell by examining the insect) also enjoy flitting from one fallen fruit to another in search of the sweetest bits. Sometimes they and the paper wasps challenge one another for territory.

The next group of persimmon pickers are the birds. Some birds only visit the tree to rest or look for insects, like the downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) and the white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis).

A few birds just rest in the tree and others rest and occasionally peck at a berry, like the house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus).

The yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) though is a woodpecker that is highly attracted by the fruit. A few of these attractive birds – both adults and juveniles – have been visiting the tree every day for weeks now to enjoy a sweet treat.

The American robin (Turdus migratorius) will not turn up its beak at a piece of persimmon either. Perhaps next year I should take a leaf from their books and collect a few fruits to try a pudding??

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My beautiful world

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Tag Archives: Odocoileus virginianus

Mammal merriment, misery and markings

A morning at Cane Creek Reservoir

Backyard citizen science – take 2

A bedraggled sort of day

Plenty of persimmon pleasure!

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