Found a great blog called Rural Path. Terrific pictures of wildlife, the kind I wish I could take. Keep up the good work.
Wrens and Animal Tracks
On a short walk New Years Day I came across the tracks of an Opossum also taking a short walk. Opossum don’t like deep snow and this one did not spend much time in it, coming out only to circle around the pile of construction debris it seems to be wintering under.
The picture above shows a good front foot track.
While looking at the tracks I heard what at first sounded a lot like a tree frog, a loud twittering call coming closer. I am not an experienced birder so was eager to see who the sound was attached to. This little Carolina Wren (or so I identified it as, please correct me if I am wrong) came right up to me singing away. It changed its song from the twitter to several other call like sounds which may have been alarms or scolding calls at me.
I had been scolded before by a pair of wrens at my old sit spot so was expecting this one’s partner to come along to check me out as before. When the bird pictured below showed up seconds after the first one left I assumed in my ignorance it was the mate of the first. It had a different call but I assumed that it was the female and had a less flashy vocalization.
Turns out it was a different species altogether, Winter Wren. They were the only birds I saw that day.
In the woods were some Bobcat tracks.
And these turkey tracks.
They are quite “K” shaped. That shape is usually ascribed to Zygodactyl footed birds like Owl’s and (at least some) Woodpeckers. This created some doubt for me but shortly I found long strides over a great distance, something only a ground bird would leave behind.
Bobcat and Coyote Tracks
The sun a snow were great again yesterday. I saw many tracks of coyote and bobcat as well as mice and squirrels. Most were older. Above and below is a coyote’s scent mark on a raised area of snow.
Below a bobcat trail moving from above. The animal moved from boulder to boulder exploring under and around them. I have seen bobcat sign here many times, once a spot where the animal laid up among the boulders of this ridge.
Porcupine Under the Garage
Deneen and her nephew Jace put our camera trap behind her parents house in Maine where we had seen tracks going in and out from under the neighbors garage. While they were out they saw the culprit in person trudging through the snow. The porky was well known to her family, its trails are visible year round as well as the damage it caused the trees as it feeds.
The camera did good work and captured many more pictures than I put here. The animal seemed to come and go from its den under the garage multiple times a night.
A couple winters ago we saw Grey Fox tracks going under the garage as well as the Porcupine. I don’t know if they were sharing winter quarters (Grey Fox, unlike other canines, will use dens year round to sleep in) or if the fox merely went under there several times looking for mice. No sign of grey fox yet this winter.
Tracking Peoples State Forest
Went out tracking today. The snow was good, a layer of powder several inches deep on a layer of crust, then more loose snow. Forgot my snowshoes so it was a bit of work to get around. In the end I walked several miles. Here’s what I saw.
Trailed this deer and the others with it. Not far from the road where I picked up the trail I found them but not before they found me.
I spooked them out of there day beds and watched the last one leave. It moved away slowly, stopping and looking back before bounding away. I did not have the camera out so no picture. It wouldnt have looked like much anyway. The deer were bedded in the laurel on a flat bit of ground on a hillside. As I approached I knew it could be a bedding area and even thought to crawl but felt that if I crawled over every rise I would never see anything. Hard to be patient.
Beaver Brook Pond, sunny and beautiful.
Little mammal tracks. Some others showed a fairly short tail. They are small enough to consider shrew or the smallest mice. They were on the swamp ice. I went through several times and retreated.
Upstream on Beaver Brook a Mink slide. It was the only sign of Mink all day.
On the way out found these older Otter slides. They went on for a couple hundred yards.
Above is where they eventually went into Beaver Brook. Below is as far as I went in the other direction, about 200 yards. I ran out of steam and headed home. The next body of water in that direction is the Farmington River more than half a mile away.
A Little Snake and a Beaver in its Lodge.
Deneen and I went to Roraback Preserve a couple weeks ago where we came across this little Brown Snake. I have never seen one before but read they are rather common.
We sat down for a break by this beaver lodge and quickly heard a beaver slap its tail on the water. It swam around for a couple minutes then dove under the water and went into the lodge right in front of us. We listened to it shake off and have a snack while it was in there. It was a very cool experience.
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Bobcats and Coyote Share a Meal
In this video I compiled all the pictures from the night the two bobcats and the coyote were on the deer carcass together.
Day at the Boardwalk
Deneen and I went to the boardwalk at White Memorial last weekend. Among a lot of other cool stuff we saw this huge snapping turtle making its way to some open water right next to the boardwalk.
Just after the sun set we located a woodcock doing its mating display. As it flew up, in order to flutter back to earth making a twittering whistle with its wings, we snuck up closer and closer to its landing place. It buzzed away as I got these pictures while lying on the ground about 10 feet away.
Red Bellied Woodpecker Tongue
A neighbor of Deneen’s folks found this road-killed Red Bellied Woodpecker. It was very beautiful.
The woodpecker’s tongue had a barbed spearlike tip for retrieving insect larva from trees.
More Camera Trap Pictures From the Deer Carcass
More pictures from the game camera. This Eastern Coyote came. Seems to be a different individual than the other coyote in previous photos. Neither coyote fed.
It started to snow around 5 am while the Coyote was there. Then this Bobcat (which I later determined to be a male, both bigger and lighter colored than the other Bobcat) came to the carcass. It immediately covered the carcass with leaves and eventually fed from it.
We had removed the hide in order to take some meat for ourselves and then placed the rest of it here with the hide back on. Our manipulation of the hide may have effected the way the animals feed from the carcass. The Bobcat started here at the shoulder then moved to the rear end.
He looked over his shoulder many times toward the field.
Early that night and again the next morning the first Coyote came back. I have the pictures in opposite order here because it’s a pain to change it.
On the thirteenth both male and female Bobcats are on the carcass when one of the Coyotes come in. I wonder why it waited until now to eat from the carcass? There were plenty of opportunities when no one else was around.
The female was much less comfortable with the Coyote and was never in the picture when the Coyote was close. The male however would not leave the carcass. I have many more pictures of the Coyote and male Bobcat together like this.
Here are the two Bobcats eating peacefully together.
More to come.