Discovering the world around me.
There’s an amazing, sophisticated, and unwelcome creature who has made its way into the house. It’s not very big—only about half an inch long. It’s sitting on the kitchen counter. It’s looking around with its astonishing set of optical tools, contemplating its universe. Without warning, a giant dome comes from nowhere and traps the creature. […]
Continue reading Audacious Hunter
Throughout the year, I’ve heard a distinctive bird call that sounds like a loud, nasal “yank” repeated several times in a row. This tells me that at least one pair of white-breasted nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) live on Owl Acres year-round. They have mated for life, and have established a territory in the woods. We’ll hear […]
Continue reading A Tidy Housekeeper
One day while we were driving along a county road, a wild turkey shot out of the ditch just in time to collide with the mirror on the car. Needless to say, that was the turkey’s last flight. Instantly, it seemed, a buzzard dropped out of the sky to claim his thanksgiving dinner. Nature’s efficiency […]
Continue reading Turkey Day
They’re creepy-looking, really. They have a narrow, whiskery, tapering snout filled with fifty large, pointed teeth, and they drool. They also have a long, naked, scaly tail. People see that pointy face and naked tail and think rat. They’re not rats, though. They are opossums (Didelphis virginiana). Sometimes called “living fossils,” their history traces directly […]
Continue reading Living Fossils
Mice. Did I mention that they are not my favorite inhabitants of Owl Acres? Along with the field mice, we have that ubiquitous invader from Europe; those little gray mice with naked tails—the house mouse (Mus musculus). They’re not living in the house, but they have been in the shed where they literally destroyed the […]
Continue reading Mighty Mouse, or Bryan’s Walnuts
Mice! Not my favorite inhabitants of Owl Acres. They have been scampering about all summer, avoiding the owls, raising their broods. And now they’re looking for a warm place to move into for the winter. They can get in just about everywhere, and can chew through wires when they want to. Several times I have […]
Continue reading Little Troublemakers
On a bright Indian summer day, we took our tandem bicycle to a nearby rail trail for a 20-mile bike ride. The trees had begun to turn, and the combines were out in the fields harvesting the corn. Along the trail we saw squirrels on personal business, a snake basking in the sun, a confused […]
Continue reading The Weather Forecast
White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) He stands beside the highway, uncomprehending, as predators flash past at unbelievable speeds. The predators’ eyes are huge and brilliant, shining into the crepuscular darkness, confusing him. 50, 60, 70 miles an hour—a meaningless datum. He has evolved over ten thousand years or more to run and leap, to avoid or […]
Continue reading Wildlife Management?
It’s a sunny day in late October. There’s no breeze to speak of, and most of the leaves have fallen from the trees. A flock of several hundred black birds have landed in the trees in the woods on Owl Acres, and are chattering in a cacophony of sounds. They’re working on the bare twigs, […]
Continue reading A Plague of Visitors
Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) As we walked through the woods on a cold January day, we came upon a cedar tree with a huge vine taking over one side of the tree. The gray, four-inch thick woody vine climbed up the tree, supporting itself on hairy, dark-brown holdfast growths that anchored it to the cedar. […]
Continue reading Pretty Poison