Tis Autumn and Seasonal Hyperphagia Is in Full Swing

And here we have one of the resident Eastern Chipmunks, Tamias striatus, stuffing his cheek pouches to the bursting point as the seasonal hyperphagia has him eating as much as possible, and storing as much as possible in his burrow.  Chipmunks are actually small squirrels and this species is the only surviving member of the chipmunk subgenus (or genus, depending on who is classifying them) Tamias. 

Chipmunk wasn't the only hyperphagia "victim" of the day.

His feeding floor partner the Eastern Grey (or Gray) Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, has been working on her winter fat storage for some time.  Note the rolls of fat around her neck.  And she's managed them with a baffle on the pole of the sunflower seed feeder.

 

A Grey Squirrel factoid:  These squirrels were introduced to the UK.  They have displaced the indigenous Red Squirrel in many parts of Britain and are now working on Ireland.

 

Humans really should be more careful.

 

 

Donegal Browne   

Bird Seed Isn't Just For Birds Any More!

The other night I saw Pyewacket the cat moving in a particularly stealthy way behind the curtain that covers the patio doors.  I peered out and there was a possum under one of the feeders and the possum wasn't Fluffy. 

 Fluffy ordinarily appears after there have been a few good snowfalls.

This Opossum has much darker feet than Fluffy, so was immediately dubbed Black Sox.  And while Fluffy drags her tail, Black Sox keeps her nearly naked particularly meaty appendage curled up in the air.  

And a refresher, remember the big difference between the front feet of a possum and the back feet?  If not, take another look above.

This was the only semi-decent photo I got of Black Sox and most were just bad in the usual way.  If I didn't use flash the night animal appears amazingly fuzzy in the shot as it continues to "vacuum eat" through the exposure or I do use flash and get a tremendous reflection off the patio door obscuring the animal altogether. 

But this particular night, I ended up with,  well, I guess you could call it The Radioactive Possum.

You'd think Black Sox was covered in mirror ball  hair.

Then last night Cardiac the kitten was behind the patio door curtain doing what I perceived as her/his version of THERE'S AN OPOSSUM OUT THERE.

I flicked off the kitchen light and flicked on the outside light. Possums don't react to sudden light change.  Then whipped the curtain around myself,  crouched down to help obscure my shape and Cardiac shot back into the kitchen as obviously a new game was beginning.  

I looked up and saw....

 S K U N K!  

And skunk was only a few feet from the back door.  But skunk appeared to be as unfazed by sudden light as Fluffy and Black Sox appear to be. 

 Note there was no rise in skunk's tail.  Thank goodness.

Of course I was on the other side of the glass door, and wouldn't get any skunk juice in my eyes, but the back step wouldn't likely be the same for a good while if Skunk took a shot at me.

I was mulling the situation, took a picture, then leaned the camera extremely close to the glass  for the next  one and just then Cardiac the Kitten who was on the other side of the curtain undoubtedly watching a vertical curtain version of the Thingie Under the Bed Covers that cats are so fond of.  She  leapt at it.  She got the curtain and me as well.  I jerked.  The camera thumped the glass door.  Skunk did a little lightening hop placing her dangerous end towards us and her tail shot up.

I froze.  

Cardiac did not.

Cardiac continued to climb my hunched back and then swing on the curtain from the other side.

I waited.  And waited some more. 


Skunk's tail went to half mast. 

 I crept out from under the curtain.

Nabbed the kitten.

Turned off the light.

And Cardiac went to bed.

Once again I read the incorrect information that only Great Horned Owls eat skunk.

Not true.  They may be one of the few animals that kill skunks.  That I can't say.

But I have seen a fox and a Red-tailed Hawk duel over a roadkilled skunk.

And I've seen video of a Red-tail bringing a skunk to the nest to feed eyasses. 

Another factoid concerning skunks--There were two species of skunks in Wisconsin.  The Striped Skunk as was tonight's visitor and the smaller shyer Spotted Skunk.

I've always longed to see a Spotted Skunk as they are the little fellows who sometimes stand on their front paws, back paws and tail to the sky, to spray interlopers.  

Unfortunately according to the latest research,  the Spotted Skunk has been extirpated from the state and are deeply threatened in the few other small areas in other states in which they are known.   

How very sad. 

 Donegal Browne   

Cardiac the Stray Kitten and Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot

This is Cardiac the stray kitten.

This is Quicksilver the African Grey deciding to go over on the bed near Cardiac the Stray Kitten.  Note the feathers standing up.  Note Cardiac's focus.

Cardiac made a slight jerk forward.  Quicksilver made an almost simultaneous slight jerk forward in response.  Cardiac desisted and to prove who was boss, Silver strutted behind her with his feathers puffed out looking LARGE.

Silver gambols back and they stare at each other.  As you see, Cardiac is smaller than Silver, which won't be the case for long.  Currently he could take her nose off, if she jumped him.  She only has milk teeth and her nails though needle like wouldn't do much damage but  as they could be coated with the bacteria from her mouth which can cause deadly infections in avian species, we want to develop a kind of no touching mutual respect between the two.

Interestingly Silver did not resort to his usual trick which he uses to  cow grown cats.  He walks up to them (flying would set off their hunting reflex) and makes a long drawn out angry meow an inch from their faces. The cats look both horrified and completely confused.  They retreat to go think about it.  Works every time.

Having given Cardiac the first lesson in parrot/kitten detente manners, Silver looks at me and says calmly, "Want up."
I put him on top of his cage where he helps himself to some Nutri-berries.

Being a kitten, Cardiac hasn't much of  an attention span for nothing happening.  She therefore rolls over and waggles her paws at me.  Which as she's exposed her genitals, we'll talk about the conflicting sexing of this kitten.  Given two kittens of opposite sexes, I can sex them.  When faced with a single kitten I don't feel completely competent.  Therefore I asked a former farm girl who said that she was female.  I then asked a former Humane Society worker who pronounced her male--  then a former farm boy, who said female.  I myself am leaning toward female.  She goes to the vet for her first visit tomorrow for the final proclamation.

 In the meantime, here is a overexposed and enlarged picture of the area in question.  Any kitten sexing mavins out there?

Why is kitten named Cardiac?  

At times the white spot on her chest can look rather like a heart.  And naming her Cupid just seemed completely vapid.  

Of course the spot can also look like a fancy chicken- beak left, or alternately a running sheepdog who has just bitten through an electrical cord.

I'm still somewhat open to suggestions.

Back to our inter-species situation--I'd left the room to go eat some lunch and was just picking up my plate to take it to the sink when I heard something fall to the floor in the bedroom.  I rushed in,  plate and all.

Silver was standing on the dresser having just shoved a bottle of hand lotion off the edge.  Cardiac was no where to be seen. My hope was Silver hadn't beaned her with the bottle. (Some of you will remember him sliding a drinking glass off the kitchen counter as an aerial bombardment aimed at Chekhov the Cat.)  I sat the plate down on the bed and started looking.  Under the bed, no.  In the bathroom, no...back to the bedroom...

What should I  find but Cardiac and Silver in a stand-off over the remnants of  my lunch.  Note Silver's expression. 

 Silver is now giving the cat one of his specie's "slitty eyed looks" which usually mean he's about to get aggressive.  He's bullied many a person out of their kornkurls at lunch with that look.  It is not working on kitten, though she is keeping an eye on him.

Horrified he watches Cardiac's tongue progress across the plate.

Silver walks over with purpose, crowds the camera, and says,"Mine!"  We have a small discussion about shoving things off of furniture.  

He isn't impressed and goes for a roll of paper towels on the other side of the bed and begins to tear them up with his beak.  An episode of misplaced aggression.  

Silver really would like to bite the kitten (or me) but he's been told she's a baby and in his favor when she cries, he does repeat in a very sweet voice, "It's okay.  It's okay."  

But that was before she appropriated the lunch plate.

Then it happens!

 The activity has attracted the cat away from the plate.

Silver walks up close to me again.

Silver then walks away and the kitten has begun to play.

 And Silver walks back over to me and says, "Want up".

What actually went on here?
  Donegal Browne