We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
North American Porcupines are not rare in the northeastern US woodlands. The topic comes up because Mrs. BD and I watched one on his tedious climb up a Hemlock tree last week in Mohonk. Lots of fun to see one of these goofy critters.
Not only are they slow and short-sighted, they also often fall out of trees.
They are mostly nocturnal, and I rarely see them. One nailed one of our dogs (lightly) years ago in the Berkshires. We pulled the quills out of his face. As with skunks, a dog only has to be taught once.
They are the smallest of our warblers, but their call (at the link) is distinctive even if you can't see them foraging high in the forest canopy.
A factoid about these birds is that they breed in southern forests (in Spanish moss nests) and in northern forests (where conifers have Old Man's Beard lichen), but pass over a band across the middle of the US where there are neither of those tree parasites.
In warbler migration season (right now, in the US) you will quite likely hear one in the woods in the morning.
I wish my memory for warbler songs were better. I forget them every time May comes along.
In the US and Canada during these weeks, go outside in the morning where there are brush areas and some tall Oak trees, and listen to the migrating warblers singing. Experts don't bother with binoculars. Warblers do not really warble, but they do sing.
The pigeon of cities and barns is actually the European Rock Dove. It's been introduced all around the world. In its natural wild state it was partial to cliffs and mountains so urban settings are comfortable for the species.
The Rock Dove has been domesticated and bred for thousands of years, so today there is much variety in feral pigeons. People raised them in dovecotes.
Perhaps the best use of pigeons is for shooting practice. I've done that. Good fun. Second best, raising them for squab. Squab is delicious. I recommend it if you can find it on a menu. A colleague of mine used to raise pigeons. He would serve rare squab breast on top of a sauteed squab liver, on a bed of lentils. Wonderful.
Pigeons are a favored food of Peregrine Falcons. They knock the stuffing out of them in the air, then catch them on their way down.
Jamie Oliver has a recipe for adult pigeon.Nobody wants to dine on a city pigeon, but I suspect country pigeons could be good.
- The Eastern Chipmunk supposedly hibernates, but I see them venture out on warmer winter days in the 40s (F). Their extensive burrows have bathrooms and food storage rooms. We have lots of them around probably because we have few big snakes here. Yes, they take bites out of my tomatoes but I like the little buggers.
- What is the home range of the Common Crow? It depends on whether they live in urban, suburban, agricultural, forest, or plains habitats. Crows are adaptive. According to one study, their home turf in urban areas can be under a half square mile, and in more open areas up to 15 square miles. Crow tribes' home turfs overlap somewhat, and many tribes often travel to share winter roosts.
When they want to, they will wander far from their home turf but might run into trouble from other Crow tribes defending their turf.
Over the years, the 800-acre Plum Island in the outer part of Long Island Sound has been the site of several forts, and in recent decades, the site of the federal Animal Disease Center.
The latter is moving to Kansas, and for ten years the feds have wanted to sell the mostly-wild island to the highest bidder (most likely developers). Perfect place for a high-end resort with a helicopter pad and a links golf course - but...
There are very few precious plots of undeveloped coastal land in southern New England, and most of those are so frequented by people that they are unsuited for nesting shorebirds or breeding seals, etc.
The feds just want the $, and NY State seems uninterested. My preference would for the island to become a NWR or something like that. Or for the Nature Conservancy to buy it (but they aren't buying much land outright any more).
My other choice would be for somebody conservation-minded to buy it as a private preserve as Louis Bacon did with Robin's Island and as Hank Paulson did with Little St Simon's Island in Georgia (11,000 acres, 32 guests). We love to visit LSS.
My Mom, who was a vigorous and athletic woman into her 80s and a big hiker, instructed me that the best way to observe nature was to find a good spot on the edge of a meadow, at the edge of a marsh, along a stone wall, in the woods at the edge of a ridge or hill, and to sit alone. Ideally, on an edge so there is a mixed habitat.
To sit in dull, non-synthetic clothing, and just to watch and look around for an hour in an relaxed, meditative, but alert state. For hunters, this is normal in a deer stand or in a duck blind, but it can be done without a firearm too.
Do not move much except to scratch your nose. Compose yourself. No camera, no binoculars, no firearm, no dog, no friend. An hour sitting quietly, especially at dawn or dusk, can be an education.
The pink of the Flamingo comes from the pink crustaceans it eats, but the red of the male Eastern Cardinal just comes from its regular foods - bugs and seeds.
I get a kick out of winter bird-feeding. It gives me an idea of what things are around, and it makes a winter garden lively and interesting.
One rule: If you start, you have to keep doing it through the winter. Like people, they will develop a dependency on your generosity, and can starve without it because they have not had to develop or find other resources.
The Southern Flying Squirrel is found throughout the eastern US and southeastern Canada. They inhabit good-sized mature deciduous woodlands.
Because they are entirely nocturnal, you probably don't know whether you have them around or not but if you are neither in, nor on the edge of a forest, you likely do not. Big eyes, to see in the dark.
Owls eat them.
Cute little buggers. They use their tails as rudders. I have never seen one in the wild. Have you?
Nature likes wildfires.Wildfire is natural, and many species benefit from it. It was great for the Indians - more deer, more elk, more bears, more buffalo, more beavers, more grouse. In fact, they liked to set fires themselves so there would be more game.
A so-called "climax forest" is just a forest waiting for the next disruption. In Ecology, it's termed "succession." In economics, it's called creative destruction.
We've seen flocks like this in Manitoba. When a thousand come down into your field decoys at dawn it can be quite a slaughter Unlike Canada Geese, Snows go down, as they say, like a prom dress.
AVI reminded us that the Cape Cod National Seashore turned 50 this week. That Sponge-headed Science Man loves the Cape as much as we do. The Farm is wonderful, but being inland has always made me feel a little claustrophobic. I like access to sea and sky.
Pic above of a stretch of South Beach, with our group of intrepid birders. We hopped down from Wellfleet to Chatham last week to catch a Mass. Audubon birding trip out to Monomoy Island (about which we posted recently). Monomoy is designated a National Wilderness. The size and shape of Monomoy is constantly in flux, as is its intermittent connection with Chatham's South Beach (which is an extension of Nauset Beach - the Cape's southern barrier island group which now reaches down towards Nantucket.
We ended up boating down to lower South Beach instead of Monomoy proper, due to tidal water depth. Our guide du jour, Ellison, an expert birder, led us on an arduous 4 mile barefoot (watch for sharp shells) hike through mud flats, soft sand, and sharp-edged marsh cordgrass - and non-stop biting marsh bugs - to check out the early migrants and the breeding shorebirds. Ya gotta be tough to be a birder.
The Monomoy Islands are where the the ocean longshore currents are taking the land of "lower" Cape Cod (ie, the upper part), at an average of 3' of shoreline per year. This is post-glacial shaping. Cape Cod, like Long Island, is a glacial construction - a moraine. Like all land, a permanent work in progress.
Just south of Chatham on the elbow of the Cape, reaching south towards Nantucket, the Monomoy islands are a National Wildlife Refuge. They are full of seals, nesting shorebirds, and are a busy migration resting place. Also, the fishing there is wonderful. You can even do flats-style fishing for Stripers.
You can visit these (relatively) new islands by boat from Chatham. Nice little trip. You can stay at the Chatham Bars Inn which, I admit, has gotten fancier over the years. There are plenty of B&Bs. Chatham is pleasant.
The Atlantic Cod population of the western Atlantic was essentially extinct from overfishing. With a moratorium, it has recovered a bit but I have not seen a Cod from Cape Cod in many years.
The Eastern Bluebird is always a sight for sore eyes, and apparently their numbers are recovering from a decline. Their recovery is in part because of human assistance with Bluebird houses.
In New England, you can put up Bluebird houses in early summer because they often have two broods per season.
You won't see Bluebirds in suburbia because they are partial to good-sized fields, large lawns (ie over 4 acres), orchards, and forest edges. They like open country.
At the farm, we have about 15 Bluebird houses up on snake-proof poles. Half the houses are usually taken over by Tree Swallows, some are filled with sticks by House Wrens, and our cheerful Bluebirds use the rest of them. In meadows, the nest poles are good markers for large rocks - for mowing.
In New England, Bluebirds are semi-migratory, and can sometimes be seen in winter flocks foraging widely for fruits and berries.
While you have to count man's habitat changes and destruction as the primary driver of decreasing songbird populations, let's just look at direct kills. The top two are windows and outdoor cats.
Neither are "natural" in North America. Ornithologists say the best thing you can do for wildlife is to keep your cat, if you must have one, indoors. Cats are native to Egypt and nowhere else. They have an instinct to kill for fun, so letting your cat roam is a more destructive act than taking your gun and shooting songbirds (which is illegal).
An update from our occasional contributor Black Dog:
Your intrepid scribe returned this past Sunday from San Antonio, TX, where I attended the Ducks Unlimited Convention, which celebrated our 80th year. I’ve been a volunteer since 1984, so I remember the 50th Anniversary celebrations well.
My notes from the Convention indicate since DU’s inception in 1937, DU has conserved almost 14 million acres of wetlands across North America. We are in the middle of a five-year capital campaign, Rescue Our Wetlands. The goal is $2 billion and I can tell you we are somewhere around $1.8 billion with 18 months to go, so I’m pretty sure we’ll meet our goal early and hopefully exceed it.
We’ve had to increase our emphasis on public policy efforts in Washington, DC, where we opened a new office on Capitol Hill last year. As you know, we partner with the Federal and State governments here in the US, as well as the Provincial governments in Canada on our wetlands and water conservation missions. I attended the DU Mexico BOD meeting and was amazed to learn how far our donor’s dollars go in Mexico. A number of the DU Mexico staff were in San Antonio and gave presentations on their efforts in the Yucatan, as well as Mexico’s Central Highlands.
North American Porcupines are not rare in the northeastern US woodlands. The topic comes up because Mrs. BD and I watched one on his tedious climb up a Hemlock tree last week in Mohonk. Lots of fun to see one of these goofy critters.
They are the smallest of our warblers, but their call (at the link) is distinctive even if you can't see them foraging high in the forest canopy.
A
The pigeon of cities and barns is actually the European 
Two things I've been wondering about: 
The pink of the Flamingo comes from the pink crustaceans it eats, but the red of the male Eastern Cardinal just comes from its regular foods - bugs and seeds.
The 
The Atlantic Cod population of the western Atlantic was essentially extinct from overfishing. With a moratorium, it has recovered a bit but I have not seen a Cod from Cape Cod in many years.
The 
Your intrepid scribe returned this past Sunday from San Antonio, TX, where I attended the Ducks Unlimited Convention, which celebrated our 80th year. I’ve been a volunteer since 1984, so I remember the 50th Anniversary celebrations well.