When Bandits Strike

Do you ever get the feeling you’re being robbed?  I got it twice this past week and both times flicked on the back light to see a raccoon trying to abscond with my suet.  Last evening I managed to take a photo of the charming culprit just before it ran into the woods, leaving the fresh suet  ball swinging from the tree branch.  But it must have returned later in the evening.  This morning, the mesh bag was still there, but the suet was gone. 

Ten to 25 raccoons are typically found in Canadian urban centres.  I don’t imagine there are fewer present in rural areas.  In Nova Scotia, they’re classed as furbearers and receive legal protection.

Raccoons are opportunistic omnivores that can quickly become pests if they come to rely too heavily on a single food source in your yard.  One left its paw prints on my back steps back in November after knocking over my garbage container.  Securing the container’s lid more tightly prevented future visits.

One of my former neighbors had some tear up her lawn a few years ago while probably looking for grubs.  The raccoons were trapped and relocated. 

Raccoons can acquire both canine and feline distemper as well as rabies and should be kept away from warm blooded pets. 

I don’t think I’ll be putting out any more suet balls.  All that saturated fat can’t be good for the poor raccoons anyhow.  Instead, I’ll smear some suet onto the bark of trees so that the chickadees and woodpeckers can still enjoy it during the daytime hours.

For more information on dealing with raccoons that have become a nuisance, see here.

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How to Attract Wildlife to Your Yard

Even in winter,  it’s not unusual for me to see several species of wildlife in my yard.  Yesterday alone I saw three ring-necked pheasants, a ruffed grouse, a snowshoe hare, several chickadees, a downy woodpecker and a raccoon.  I live on just over an acre, half an hour’s drive from the city of Halifax.   How do I do this? 

For one thing, I don’t have an outdoor cat or dog. 

There is plenty of ground cover in my yard:  places where a variety of wildlife can hunker down during a storm or hide during the day.

 

Much of this cover does double duty as a source of natural food.  Chickadees whose diet is 50% insect, even in winter, are able to find tasty meals in the standing dead wood.  Hares can often be seen nibbling on the lower balsam fir branches.  In the photo above, a hare in its winter coat is doing just that, while a pheasant crouches beneath a spruce.  Both animals are well camouflaged by their surroundings.  It’s also helpful to encourage biodiversity by allowing a variety of natural plants to grow in the yard.   Each animal has its favorite plants to use for food and cover.

In past winters I’ve put seed out regularly for birds and squirrels but this year I’ve only been putting out about a cup of black oil sunflower seeds once a week.  A couple of weeks ago I put out some suet in a mesh bag, hanging it from a tree.  It’s essentially just bacon fat I’ve saved in the freezer in a plastic container for months.  It attracts chickadees and woodpeckers but also seems to have been eaten by a raccoon by the look of the scratch marks on both the suet and the birch tree.   

If you try any of the above suggestions, I’m sure you’ll be able to attract your share of wildlife. Be patient. It’s worth the wait.

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Don’t Clear Your Woodlands!

City or suburb dwellers frequently decide to build their dream home in the country.  They find a nice spot brimming with wildlife and trees.  They look forward to waking up to the sound of birds in the morning and seeing hares and pheasants in the yard. 

But before you can say ‘Where’s my chainsaw?’  they’ve cleared out most of the trees and levelled the land.  Within a few years, their driveway’s paved and their lawn looks almost as neat and tidy as the one they left behind in the city.  (For my role in this, see Confessions of a Woods Cleaner).  They may plant some non-native ornamental trees and bushes and regularly weed their new flower beds.  Unfortunately, the hares and frogs have hopped out of the neighborhood as has much of the other wildlife.   

Does it have to be this way?  No, it doesn’t.

Wildlife and woods go together.  It’s almost impossible to have one without the other.  But woods are messy in their natural state, and most humans like to keep their environment looking neat.  However, the diversity of native plant and animal life shrinks astoundingly when land is cleared to make way for clean-cut lawns and pristine flower beds.

For example, many wild birds, such as woodpeckers, thrive in old growth forests.  When old trees are cut down, it’s no surprise that the woodpeckers leave the neighborhood.  They depend on these old trees for nests and the insect life within them for food.

Vernal pools created by toppled trees and an uneven forest floor collect rainwater and provide a habitat for amphibians and a greater variety of plants.  (For more information on attracting amphibians back to your yard, see my post on Why Every Princess Needs a Toad in her Garden).

The United Nations has designated 2010 as the Year of Biodiversity.  You can read more about why biodiversity matters here.  If you own land, you might consider leaving some of it in its natural state.  One simple solution is to allow wild spaces to thrive on the edge of your property.  Allowing the growth of wild hedgerows between properties provides privacy and a wind barrier between neighbors while sustaining native species of both plants and animals.  

By allowing a wild space to thrive in your yard, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the diversity of life that it will begin to attract.

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Winter Blues

Snow covers the landscape, coating everything with blue in the early morning light.  Blue can be beautiful, but it also can also make a frigid day seem even cooler.  

With the warm, rich colours of fall a distant memory and spring still many long weeks away, it’s at this time of year that many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). 

Less sunlight and exercise cause many to feel the winter blues.  Tiredness and lethargy make some wish they would have gone into hibernation back in the fall.  Others get downright depressed.  Children become restless too and it becomes more difficult for both young and old to focus on the task at hand. 

For people of all ages, perhaps the simplest solution to the winter blues is to go outdoors in the open air and get some exercise.  Whether you go for a short walk to the end of the driveway or a stroll around the neighborhood, breathing in the fresh air and feeling outdoor light on your face is a step in the right direction. If there are trees nearby, you’ll also benefit from the extra oxygen they expell.

If you really want to lighten your spirits, and especially those of children, you could try a winter picnic.  You don’t need to pack much.  A couple of sandwiches, cookies and something warm to drink in a thermos will do.  Bring along some seeds for any chickadees you might see flittering in the trees.

You need not stay out in the cold for long.  Being out in the natural light surrounded by trees is sure to put you in a different frame of mind.  The warmth of the indoors will seem even more enjoyable afterwards.

Now I see the secret to making the best person:  it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
~ Walt Whitman

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The Seventh Wave

They come in a series of seven.
And the seventh wave is big enough…
…to take us both out
beyond the point of return.
~ Papillon   (Henri Charrière)

Walking along the seashore, it’s obvious that not all waves possess the same strength.  Some trickle onto the shore while others crash and extend a farther reach onto the sand.  Many have wondered if there’s some kind of pattern to the frequency of the stronger waves.  

Wave height and strength are determined by a number of factors:

• the force of the wind (the stronger the wind, the larger the wave)
• the distance over which the water is affected by the wind (the longer the distance, the larger the wave)
• tidal action (incoming high tides into a small inlet from a larger expanse of water can cause especially large waves)
• seismic activity beneath the ocean floor (these can sometimes cause huge waves to occur)
• the depth of the water (waves cannot sustain their height once they reach shallow water)

The magic of the seventh wave continues to elude shoreline visitors across cultures.  Surfers are especially keen wave watchers, always on the look-out for the perfect wave to catch.  Some may have been able to find small patterns in the course of a single day on a specific beach but this usually involves a series of fewer or more than seven waves.  Though experts say there’s no way to predict the frequency of stronger waves, the French story of an island prisoner in Papillon details a swim to freedom enabled by the seventh wave.  

The waves have pounded the earth’s shorelines for millenia and will continue to do so long after we’re gone.  Wave patterns are altered from hour to hour, day to day and year to year.  Despite ongoing changes, the mystery and power of the seventh wave will likely endure.

Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see
There is a deeper wave than this
                      . . .
I say love is the seventh wave.
~ Sting

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Red Sky in Morning

Red sky at night, sailors’ delight;
Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.

When there’s so much in the world that can’t be predicted, it’s comforting to witness a natural phenomenon that actually delivers on its promise. Not being a sailor, I didn’t realize it at the time, but Monday morning’s red sky warned of bad weather ahead.  And so it was. First there were ice pellets and later rain, and then on Tuesday morning, more rain and high winds. 

Supposedly, a red sunrise reflects the dust particles of a system that has just passed from the west. This indicates that a storm system may be moving to the east. If the morning sky is a deep fiery red, it means a high water content in the atmosphere. So, rain is on its way. [From Everyday Mysteries at The Library of Congress]

When I took these photographs, I was only thinking of how beautiful the blushing sky appeared behind the silhouettes of the trees.  It didn’t dawn on me that a storm was on its way.  I wonder what other ’signs of the times’ are as potentially revealing to us as red dawns.  What else are we missing while distracted by what we are seeing on the surface of things?

…When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye know how to discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.
~ Jesus     Matt. 16:2-3

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Impressions of White

What does white bring to mind?  If you live in Nova Scotia, and it happens to be January, it will most likely be snow.  We watch it fall, shovel it, plow it, use it to make snowballs, snow forts and snowmen.  It’s pretty versatile.  Impressions in the snow are also useful in allowing us to track the movement of elusive creatures in our surroundings.

This past week, Scott at Views Infinitum asked his readers to use *white* as a starting point for a photography post.  My images of white all show tracks in snow that I was able to find in my yard:  Snowshoe Hare tracks at top; Bobcat tracks above; and below, some as yet unidentified five-toed tracks.

This last image is the most beautiful impression I was able to find.  It looked especially glorious as it sparkled in the sunshine.   

If it wasn’t for the tracks they leave in the snow, how else would we know that Seraphim had visited?

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
~ George Eliot

If you’re interested in accepting Scott’s invitation to post on the subject of white, you have until February 3rd to do so.  All are welcome to participate.

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The Forest Clothed

There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.
~ William Sharp

With each snowfall, the forest acquires a new wardrobe.  Each branch of tree and blade of grass is covered with a new garment of white.  These evergreen branches seem to have fingers that are now gloved in snow. 

The air is cool and the snow is sparkling clean. Who would have thought that January’s white clad woods could be as refreshing to the spirit as June’s green ones? 

The positive effect isn’t just a visual one.  Snowfalls actually help clear the air of pollution.  This is especially helpful for people suffering from airborne allergens. 

Fresh fallen snow also traps sound waves between its snowflakes.  Even a light layer of snow on the landscape will absorb some of the ambient noise.  It’s no wonder that a newly snow-dressed forest seems so peaceful and quiet.

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

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Bobcats in the Backyard

Yesterday afternoon, two Bobcats came to prowl in my backyard.  It was the grey shadow cast by the first cat that caught my eye.  

Though my sons saw a Bobcat earlier this summer near the Salt Marsh Trail, I’d never seen one before.   Like all wildcats, they do tend to be elusive creatures.

Just on the edge of the woods near the house, their large form with bobbed tail and ear tufts made them easy to identify not just by me, but also by my son and my friend Sybil who was visiting at the time.  

Although I wasn’t quick enough to capture an image of the cats, I did manage to get some photos of their tracks.

Bobcats are supposed to be nocturnal but are known to hunt during the day in the winter.  They are likely here to prey on the Snowshoe Hares that live in my yard among the Balsam Firs.  I wonder if they’ll be back…

The drawing of the Bobcat, at top, was completed January 24th.  Various stages of the drawing can be viewed at http://drawingconclusions.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/bobcat/  

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Watch the Roots

The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots.
~ William Blake

Challenged by Lake Superior Spirit to find six new and interesting views of things you have noticed or photographed before, I decided to get to the root of the matter.  Under the root to be more exact.  Since I’m so accustomed to photographing the part of trees that grows above ground, or looking at upturned trees from the outside, I thought I’d crouch under a very large Balsam Fir root and see what a small mammal might see if it was hiding there.

The first thing I noticed was how dark and quiet it was under the root.    

Balsam Firs tend to be shallow rooted and so are easily blown over during high winds. 

After falling to the ground, the roots of large trees remain intact, with some strands dangling to the ground.  Many provide hut-like enclosures that offer shelter for small animals.

Often, new trees start growing in the dirt left clinging to the upturned roots.  Over time, these roots eventually form mounds in the forest which help to speed up the rate of new growth.

Water often gathers under overturned roots.  Though presently frozen, these vernal pools provide places for amphibians to lay eggs or small mammals and birds to get a drink of water during warmer months.  The variety of life found around the roots of these overturned trees contributes greatly to the biodiversity of the forest.

For more information and photos of overturned trees taken from a vantage point out from under the roots see Pits and Mounds.

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