Tag: nature

Early Snowbird Gets the Berry

We got our first snowfall that stuck around yesterday. We didn’t have to shovel because it melted off our sidewalk and driveway shortly past noon.

On the other hand, the snow drew the birds out for the berries in the trees. Cedar Waxwings and other small birds feasted in the early morning. Whether they got the winterberries low to the ground or the ones high up in the trees—they got them.

It snowed the better part of the morning. It caught some Iowa drivers off guard. There were pictures in the news of cars rolled over on their roofs in the ditches.

But the birds made out like bandits.

Music Credit for YouTube Video:

Eternal Hope by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100238

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Bucks Throw Down But Does Decide

I caught sight of some buck deer contending for some does out in the clearing behind our house. This is probably what you might call the rut for white tail deer. The bucks do a lot of jousting for access to the does. But clearly, the does decide.

We have never caught them mating on film. In fact, the does never display any interest in the bucks as they trot around and fight each other. The only way we know mating eventually happens is when the spotted, frail-looking fawns appear in the spring.

The Fox Gets Breakfast

We again caught sight of the fox. It was hunting for breakfast, and this time it caught a mouthful of—mouse or mole, but whatever it was the hunter gulped it down in a hurry.

It got pretty close to our neighbor’s fence while circling the outlot. Just like the tabby cat, it switches its tail when it’s about to catch a meal.

We think this is a red fox rather than a gray, but we’re not naturalists. The web reference I read says both red and gray foxes don’t chew their food, but swallow it whole, which is what this one did.

Foxes walk on their toes (called digitigrade), which is probably why I thought this one had a funny-looking gait. I thought at first it was lame when it was walking in the tall grass.

Day of The Fox Hunt

Yesterday, Sena called me to the window in the sun room to see the “tabby cat.” When I got there, it looked a lot more like a fox. It was hunting in the outlot and it may have caught a rodent. It also seemed to be flea bitten.

When we first moved in to this house a few years ago, I saw a fox moving her kits from the outlot way off north somewhere, probably to another part of the woods. I guess she didn’t like the neighborhood. It was beginning to get a bit noisy from all the construction on the new neighborhood.

This was not the same fox. It looked quite at home.

Autumn Miracles

We saw the miracles of autumn the other day, out on the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. It was quiet, only a light breeze set the flowers and grasses swaying.

There were almost no birds out. No ducks were out on Sand Lake.

On the other hand, I guess there were birds, sort of. We greeted other walkers, an older couple who turned out to be snowbirds. They’ll be heading to Florida soon for the winter. They had no worries about the weather down there. They’ll be in the middle of the state, presumably far away from storm surges. They stay in an RV park over the winter months. It’s not far from a place called The Villages, which is a famous planned retirement community, which got a reputation for being a haven for older but wilder swingers. They have a very large Homeowners Association (HOA), which is sort of a very large and expensive Disney World for older retirees. It’s often called a golf cart community because that’s how most residents get around the place. While there are no HOA fees per se, there is a community development district fee of around $120-220 a month. Dave Barry wrote a chapter about The Villages in his book “Best State Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland.” I told the couple about Dave Barry’s take on The Villages. I don’t think they ever heard of him. They’re excited about returning to the RV park soon.

I was a little alarmed by a loud voice, calling out like a policeman, “Get on the ground!” I looked up ahead and didn’t see a policeman. But occasionally, we heard the barking order, “Get on the ground!” Eventually we saw a young man on a walk, apparently under someone’s supervision. This was the man who was yelling “Get on the ground!” He greeted us politely. As he passed by, every so often he blurted out, “Get on the ground!” I wondered if he might be someone with a form of Tourette’s Disorder, compelled to blurt out something every few minutes. The supervisor was walking side by side with a man who seemed uncomfortable, holding his hands up to his eyes which appeared sunken in the sockets. He made no sound at all. I wondered if, peaceful as we thought the day was, whether he found it difficult to bear what might have been a sensory storm for him. The supervisor was polite to us and paid close attention to the other two men.

Mostly we watched the breeze blowing the grasses and the flowers–and were grateful.

Terry Trueblood Garden of Natural and Not So Natural Things

On a balmy day we went for a walk on the Terry Trueblood trail. There was a cool breeze in contrast to the brutal humidity lately. There was a mix of natural beauty and some not so natural sights.

The flowers were gorgeous as usual. But we also saw stacked stones close to the shore of the lake. I should say there were a couple of stacked stones and one which was made of tree branches that reminded me of the Eiffel Tower.

That was the first time we’ve ever seen stacked stones there. I looked up the topic of stacking stones on the web and there’s disagreement about whether it’s a good thing or not. Some say it disturbs the natural order of things while others say it pays homage to nature.

We saw a couple of people out on the shore and one of them kicked over one of the piles. I guess that’s one person who doesn’t like rock stacking.

We also saw a pair of black hands stamped on the sidewalk. What’s that about? Some say that black hands are about death, criminality, or even the Black Lives Matter movement. I don’t know what it means.

And a couple of the large stones along the edges of the parking lot were shoved out of place. Who knows why. They looked very heavy. It probably took a lot of work to move them, and for no apparent reason. It reminded me of the rocks, some of which weigh several hundred pounds, that seem to move by themselves across the desert in Death Valley Park, leaving trails behind. There’s a natural explanation for it, involving the interplay of ice, wind, and water. I’m pretty sure humans moved them.

Anyway, there was plenty of natural beauty along the trail. They were the only source of wonder we cared about that day.

Wings in the Garden

We’ve got more videos of birds and a butterfly (which I think is a swallowtail) in our garden. The catbirds and oddly, song sparrows (I thought they were rare in our part of the country?) are turning out to be regular visitors. They like the mulberries and spend a lot of time preening. They visit every day and they’re always a welcome sight.

Look at Us Back on the Scott Blvd Trek!

The weather was pretty good for a walk on Scot Blvd the other day. Right away I got a video clip of an Indigo Bunting, a bird I haven’t seen in over 20 years! It was sitting on a thin grass stem which couldn’t hold its weight. It looked like it was sinking lower and lower on a slow elevator.

The people we passed along the way were friendly. Just looking at the landscape while sitting next to the Sitting Man was relaxing.

The video of the song “Then You Look At Me” by Celine Dion also fits, depending on your mood. Looking at nature puts you in the mood. Try not to think of robots.

Video of the Raccoon in the Mulberry Tree

Sena said I should use the short video of that big raccoon I filmed in lumbering around and eating breakfast in our mulberry tree the other day. I didn’t include it in the original post, but when Sena and I looked at it together, she persuaded me that it was worth posting.

Raccoon in the Mulberry Tree

I was not sure what exactly I saw this between 6:30 and 7:00 this morning shaking the mulberry tree branches in our backyard. It seemed too big to be a squirrel and I dismissed the thought, telling myself that it was most likely the usual squirrel getting its mulberry breakfast.

Just prior to this incident, I had seen and heard what I thought was a blue jay in the mulberry tree. It gave a series of short whistles while bobbing up and down on the branch. I had never heard a blue jay make whistle notes, just the usual screeches. I doubted what I saw and heard. I checked my bird book, “Birds of Iowa: Field Guide” by Stan Tekiela. It didn’t mention anything about blue jays making short whistling notes and bobbing up and down as they did so. I didn’t bother to get up and try to get a video of it. It would have been through the window of our sun room and the jay didn’t sit for more than a few seconds.

So, I looked it up on the web. It turns out blue jays make a variety of noises besides the jeer. They bob up and down as a part of a courtship ritual. They make what is termed a “pump handle call” and I found a video which duplicates what I saw and heard.

Anyhow, getting back to the critter in the mulberry tree, it turned out to be a large raccoon. It was eating mulberries and I tried to take video of it as it was climbing down the tree. This reminded me of an essay by E.B. White entitled “Coon Tree.” If you’ve ever read essays by E.B. White, you probably know already that this one is about a lot more than raccoons.

It’s basically about the conflict between nature and technology. The main essay was published in 1956 and a post script was added in 1962. The coon represents nature which White idealizes and contrasts with references to new inventions, including nuclear devices which represent the destructive side of technology.

I guess we can forget for the moment that raccoons can carry diseases like rabies and roundworm. I’m also reminded of an old TV commercial in the 1970s about margarine (an alternative to butter) in which an actor says angrily, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” The idea was that margarine (which was a new invention in the late 19th century) was healthier than the natural spread, butter—although the trans fat in it makes the comparison a bit more complicated.

White also says something interesting about unsanitary homes, claiming that children who live in them become more resistant to certain diseases like polio than the kids who grow up in clean homes. The polio scourge raised its ugly head recently in New York, which renewed the recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control recently that people who didn’t get vaccinated against polio should get vaccinated—regardless of how dirty your home was.

And then there is the artificial intelligence (AI) technology. I wonder what E.B. White would say about that? AI can improve detection of some diseases and assist in medical research. On the other hand, AI can still make mistakes and it needs human surveillance.

I read you can sometimes use loud noises to keep raccoons out of your yard. For example, you could try recordings of blue jays.