Foliage Brightens and Birds Fade

The Goldfinch still stay but their feathers have taken on more subtler colors.


In the meantime the woods burst with varied hues.

The Dark-eyed Juncos, Junco hyemalis, have returned for their winter stay but so far there are only three, instead of the usual dozen or so.

The Staghorn Sumac has gone crimson.

And the other day, I looked over at the neighbor's yard and there was a grand sized group of , as they are called here, "Toadstools".

Many three to four inches in diameter.

CHEWIE RETURNS

An email arrived from Karen Anne Kolling who has been watching a Chipmunk at her feeding area out east--Chewie II As I have been watching one at mine in Wisconsin--Chewie I

Neither of us had seen our respective Chipmunks for some time so we had tentatively surmised they might be burrowed in for the winter.

Donna,

Chewie II was just out there eating. Might he be making periodic appearances thru the winter?Karen

And my response--

Guess what? Wisconsin Chewie appeared at the feeding area for a little while the day before yesterday as well.

As to periodic visits through the winter, I’ve not seen the Chipmunks in WI once there is snow on the ground.

Chipmunk hibernation is slightly different from the kind we usually think of when we hear the word. Chips get up and eat inside their burrows during the winter and then snuggle in for more rest.

According to the research, hibernation in chipmunks is triggered by a hormone that is secreted by the endocrine system into their blood stream triggering the response. And the rate of secretion is determined by their circannual rthymn, a sort of body clock. So it's possible that the retirement to burrows may be a gradual process with longer and longer disappearances from feeding areas until they disappear underground and don't come out until Spring.

Ever wondered what was inside a squirrel's drey? I have and so had R. of Illinois so she found this website complete with photos to satisfy our curiosity.

http://www.squirrel-rehab.org/pictures/squirrelnest.html

Photos of the inside of a drey (and the baby chamber inside it)...

Very cool. No day is wasted or lost if I have learned something new!

R. of Illinois

Indeed!!

D.B.

And You Thought Crows Were Smart Before-- Or Mr.and Mrs. Crow Make Dinner Togerther.

All times Central--All Photos D.B.
4:28:45pm
When I look outside, there are two Crows. One standing on the bath and the other delving into a crack on the top of the stump with his beak. A squirrel keeps coming toward Stump Crow's stump at which point he jumps into the air and flaps, then comes down on the stump again. The squirrel does it again, and Stump Crow leaps up into the air and startles him again. Startled squirrel runs off a few yards, recovers, and heads back toward the stump. I try to take several photos of Stump Crow, but as I'm having to use the timer, I keep missing him. Suddenly after a delve with his beak into the stump he flies over to the bath, stands on the edge, bends toward the water, then flies back to the stump. I've turned the camera onto the bath but miss the two crows as I have to focus the scope. Then Bath Crow moves so I have to focus again. Better sharp than not right? Besides it's dim, and she's moving so they're going to be blurred so I need to do what I can. While I'm focusing, Mrs. Crow aka Bath Crow has taken a wad of leaves out of the water with her beak by sliding them up the side of the bath and pushing them onto the ground. Then she goes back to watching something in the bowl.


4:28:58pm Another leaf seems to have come into beak reach, she retrieves it, slides it up the side, over the top, and it drops to the ground.

4:29:30pm She then walks over to the left side of the bowl and dips her beak into the water. She raises a wad of several leaves, along with a stiff white something. Is it spaghetti! Is it petrified spaghetti! What happened to the leaves? Did she drop them back in the water? Her beak goes down into the bowl and moves towards the right like she is nudging something. When she raises her beak it is empty. What is going on here?

4:29:41pm She watches right.

4:29:50pm Then she starts walking toward the right edge again.

4:30:04pm She sees me and looks startled. Stump Crow flies off.


4:30:16pm Bath Crow watches him go but doesn't leave herself. Then without really thinking about why I'm doing it, or if it's a good time, or anything else. I just go to the refrigerator, grab a beef bone I've been saving for the wildlife, and grab a baggie with cooked spaghetti which I think is chicken. I go to the patio door, she's still on the bath. I open it a crack and immediately start squeezing and rustling the baggies together. Mrs. Crow who's been looking west, immediately looks at me with interest.

Aha! She does know the sound of baggies, ie. human with food. As I step out I try not to look directly at her. I turn to slide the door shut, and as I'm turning back again, I see her fly into the Maple that's a few feet away. The NEVER happens. Every other time if I look through the door and they catch me at it the Crows fly to the other side of the park. So it isn't easy but I don't look at her because I don't want to screw it up. I go to the stump and empty the baggies on it. That's when I discover I've brought cold spaghetti not chicken scraps, which perhaps was a subconscious act after all in the end. And I march directly back into the house. In the meantime, looking at the reflection on the glass door, I realize that the angle of the light reflects the back yard in the door at this time of day and that's why they hadn't seen me initially.

I don't look, I don't look, I don't look.

4:33:56 Back in the house I grab the camera and am surprised that she is sitting in a spot completely unobscured. Thank goodness for that reflection. I get two photos and she must hear the click because she goes a few limbs higher out of my sightline from inside the house.

She's sticking; she wants the food. Or maybe, just maybe, after how many years of my watching the Crows, and the Crows watching me, that she recognizes me as harmless. And not only am I harmless but I'm the one who puts snacks on the stump. Which I suspect now, she has watched me do before--out of baggies!

Then I remember that the Crows always, always have more patience than I do when it comes to waiting for the other to leave. She's up in the tree just waiting for me to get impatient and go do something else. But how do they know that I've left?

Then I remember the white stiff item that was in the bath. The possible spaghetti. Why am I thinking that it might be possible spaghetti? It was probably just a leaf stem.

Then the light bulb goes off in my head.

Last week I'd had some leftover cooked unembellished getting stale pasta in the fridge. When I was clearing things out, I wondered if since pasta is made from grain, whether the grainivore birds would like it. I went out and put it on the stump. Where it sat.

I kept an eye on it and it looked like it might have been stirred and eaten a bit but eventually after several days it became hard and petrified. Therefore I grabbed the bulk of it and threw it out. Brushed off the stump, where some of the dried pasta bits fell down in the crevices, and forgot about it.

Could they possibly have been pulling the dried pasta out of the stump, putting it into the birdbath and waiting for it to absorb enough water to be enjoyable and tasty?

It's been a half hour. I can't wait any longer. I have to go out and see if there is pasta in the birdbath! I head out the door.

5:03:08pm This is NOT a worm. That is a piece of spaghetti! She was. And there isn't a leaf in the bowl! And there always are lately as it is Autumn and the bowl is under trees.

Mrs. Crow has put pasta in the bowl, removed all the debris, and is waiting for it to soften. Unbelievable!

AND she had a total method for separating the leaves from the pasta. She separated them from each other. Then nudged the leaves to the right. Then she went to the right side of the bowl, waited for the leaves to get there, propelled by her previous nudge, plucked them out and disposed of them. Absolutely amazing!

In a way, Mrs. Crow was "cooking" dinner. She was actually watching the pasta closely while it went through the process of softening. Removing the leaves that might obscure the view? She was actually waiting for it to be "ready". Come to think of it if she left it too long she'd be unable to get it out because it would have turned to goo.

Think of how many steps they went through to get to the goal. They? Because two crows were initially working communally. The male procured it out of the stump and she "cooked" it. All for the goal of properly Crow eatable pasta.

And now she's waiting to come down and get the food from the stump or from the bath? How do I know.

Wow.


5:43:10pm A flock of geese take to the sky from behind the park pavilion. They must have been foraging on the sports fields. It's been over an hour and Mrs. Crow still hasn't come down yet to the stump.

I need to go to the store. ( Yeah, I know, the Crows win again.)

When I get back it's completely dark but I immediately head for the stump.

The beef bone is gone as is some of the pasta.

I forgot to check the birdbath. Where's the flashlight?

Donegal Browne

Rainy Day Micellany: Red-tails, Crows, Cock Sparrow, a Kettle of Gulls, and Squirrels. Eight of them as a matter of fact.

It's been raining and it is chilly so this Red-tail, who's territory includes Thresherman's Park, has his feather's fluffed and looks like he's got one foot up keeping it warm.


I drive past him and then double back So far so good. I look at him through a handy hole in the bushes.
But not good enough he turns his head, sees me, and heads toward the far tree line between fields.


Not only that, but now he heads across the road, skims the top of the trees, dips, and disappears. Drat!

Fine. I wait for him to reappear. But now on this side of the road, dark clouds have come in with rays of sun breaking through. I turn and look for the Red-tail. Is that him?

He's incredibly far away but yes, he's come out of where ever he'd been hiding and is back on a high perch to hunt again.

He peers over.

He hunches. Then dives out of sight.

I start to hear chirping and twittering. Suddenly a mixed flock of birds, Mourning Doves, Sparrows, Finches, even a Bluebird or two, come fleeing from the hawks direction. I don't know what he was after, typically here a rodent of some kind, but he's certainly scared the begesus out of birds.

Red-tail doesn't reappear and so I head back to town.

I drive into Milton and when I look up, there, doing lazy circles in the sky, is Whistle, the Krider's Red-tail. She's the train racing Red-tail.

There's Crow sitting in a tree outside Dollar General.

After getting home, and looking out into the back yard, I realize that a cock House Sparrow is attempting to hassle a hen into copulating with him. It seems like an odd time of year for nesting. House Sparrows are prolific but still this seems odd. Hen Sparrow is not going for it.

Is this the male sparrow that was commandeering the nesting boxes? Perhaps he did want them for nesting, though so far he doesn't seem to have a partner willing to take him up on the proposition.

The Crows are gathering in the the neighbor's yard vocalizing and I hear squirrels whining. Are they after a hawk? I go out and follow the sound.

I don't find a hawk but a kettle of gulls is forming. They circle higher and higher to catch the wind. Then they must hit the right place because, suddenly in a rush with wings spread, they head to the southwest at speed. On the way back to my yard, searching trees out of habit, I see a dark lump against the sky. Is that the hawk the Crows were after?

Nope, not a hawk. As I get closer I see it's a new squirrel drey. In fact, looking around the yard, a second and a third in the yard I'd not seen before. I suppose it makes sense as winter is coming the squirrels are getting serious about shelter. These trees are loosing their leaves.

But in other spots, there are new explosions of color-pinks, rusts, lavenders, purples and orange tinged yellows.

The maples are going from palest orange to burgundy.

Male Red-belly Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus pauses long enough for me to sneak a photograph. He hears the click and picks up speed to a spot beyond view.

Have I mentioned that the squirrel count is now up to eight? Yes, I realize that there are only five in the picture but getting all eight in frame is very tough. Six is over at the neighbor's raiding her birdfeeder. As for seven and eight...

Blackwell has just jumped on White-belly. She gets herself upright again and takes a few steps.

But Blackwell isn't daunted.

White-belly flips onto her back again. Then they freeze, giving me a look.

Blackwell decides that scampering off isn't necessary and goes for White-belly again.

White-belly being too rambunctious, Blackwell stands on her.

White-belly's genitals do not look as if she is in heat. Is this practice for later? A form of masturbation?

Time will tell.

White-belly trots to the feeding area and some sunflower seeds. Were she in heat her enlarged vulva would be visibly swollen and bright red.

Blackwell heads over for a drink. Replacing lost fluids?

Donegal Browne