Trying to Understand Our Wild Neighbors

Posted on November 30, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

~William Hazlitt

And in some cases, we see nature with our trail cameras…

This season seems to have fewer large buck deer than I have seen the past few years, but recently, a beautiful 8-pointer kindly walked in front of one of our cameras. A week before, the same buck was caught on camera (those videos are not included here) trailing a doe that had been filmed running on the same route two minutes before the buck appeared. And just yesterday, while I was changing out the camera cards, this same buck was closely following a doe through the forest. The rut continues and some of the ladies just don’t seem all that interested

–A nice buck strolls through the field of view of one of our trail cameras

The other hot spot for activity in recent weeks has been the ‘possum hole at the base of a fallen tree. I’ve had a camera on this spot for a year now and have seen all sorts of animals coming and going including several different opossums, raccoons, deer, gray and flying squirrels, chipmunks, and a few species of birds. Once again, an opossum has been gathering leaves in its tail and carrying them into the hole. The camera recorded this activity 4 times in the past month. Below is one of those scenes…

–The opossum is getting ready for the cold weather by gathering leaves and carrying them into the hole using its tail as a tote bag

A few days later, the camera recorded a raccoon stopping by the hole and peeking inside. Two hours after that, the camera saw a coyote at the entrance to the opossum den. When the coyote walks away, you can see that the hole entrance has been dug out a bit. I’m assuming this coyote did that, but it had to have been a very quick dig to not capture it on the video (there is a slight delay of just a second or two between the time the camera is triggered by motion and when it starts recording).

–I assume this coyote did a quick dig at the entrance to the opossum den

Five days later, a coyote visits the area 4 more times over a span of several minutes (here is the longest visit). The opossum has not been seen at the hole since the first coyote visit.

–A coyote checks out the opossum den again a few days after the entrance was dug

Cameras caught coyotes several more times in the past week (on one recording, two different coyotes pass by the camera in quick succession). Two nights ago, as we were lying in bed, we heard a cacophony of coyote yips very close to the back fence. So, yesterday, I changed out the camera cards again and was rewarded with three separate coyote videos, all at the same camera. The first was just of one trotting away from the camera at 7:11 a.m. At 7:45 a.m, the coyote below comes toward the camera carrying something.

–A coyote carrying a mystery object as it trots by the camera

We can’t quite tell what it has in its mouth even after cropping and slowing it down in the next video. Could it be part of a deer carcass? Let me know if you have any thoughts.

–A slow motion clip showing the mystery object…still tough to tell

Unfortunately, the time of day that this occurred is the toughest time for the camera’s resolution. Near dawn and sunset, the cameras I have tend to struggle a bit with clarity compared to scenes in full daylight or darkness.

Nine minutes after the coyote trots by carrying what presumably is a hefty chunk of food, a second coyote wanders by the same camera, stops, and whimpers. Not sure what to make of that unless it is just feeling left out of a meal. I guess we can all relate when someone else at the table gets the last cookie.

–This coyote seems a bit bummed it may miss out on dessert

Looking forward to seeing what the cameras capture in the coming days.

Opossum “Tales”

Posted on August 9, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

Making your bed is a simple way to start your day off on the right foot.

~Martha Stewart

Ever since my friend Jerry posted some videos about the ‘possums in his back woods, I have been fascinated by the goings-on of our local marsupials. Because of Jerry’s fascinating footage of his critters, I bought a trail camera, then another, and…I now have seven of them scattered about in the woods hoping to capture anything interesting that my wild neighbors might be doing. But, I must admit, the neighborhood opossums are high on my list of subjects to spy on. We seem to have quite a good population, in spite of the coyotes and bobcats that occasionally show up on cameras. When I discovered a well-worn trail last year at the root ball of a large hickory that had blown over in a storm, I set up cameras to see who was passing by. It turned out to be a lot of critters use the trail, from raccoons to squirrels, but the resident mammals were a group of Virginia Opossums. And I finally got some brief footage of a momma ‘possum with a joey on her back and some young opossums near the den back in May.

I had hoped to get a lot more footage of the young opossums around the den, but they disappeared after only a few days and the adults seemed to have left the den about that same time, although one did occasionally walk by or stop to sniff the area. I decided to leave one of the cameras focused on the den (which is in a hole in the root ball of the downed tree). And it has paid off as the den seems to be active again. A little over a week ago, an adult opossum started some home renovations by gathering leaves to make up a new bed. The process seems a lot less complicated than our recent home remodel efforts – just grab a mouthful of leaves and pass them under your belly to your tail, then repeat. Finally, when you have enough, carry them into the house and make your bed! No plans, no budgets, no contractors, no inspections.

Here are a few clips of the Virginia Opossum gathering leaves for a sprucing up of the old homestead.

–An opossum gathers leaves near the den by grabbing them in its mouth and passing them under its belly to its prehensile tail.

–In slow motion you can see how the opossum uses its feet to pass the leaves to its tail

–When the tail has enough leaves, you just waddle into the den and arrange your new bedroom

The camera captured the opossum repeating this procedure four times. Apparently, that’s enough for a nice new Possumpedic mattress.

One thing that troubled me back in May was the sudden disappearance of the young joeys. I figured they had fallen prey to one of the many predators that roam our woods. But this last week, the cameras caught a young opossum going into that same den twice, both very quick clips. It seems more than one opossum can use the same hole, or at least visit for a spell. I also documented a couple of young opossums crossing a log a few hundred feet from the old den site. Below is a clip showing two Virginia Opossums crossing the same log – note the size comparison between a young opossum and an adult.

–A young opossum crossing (moving right to left) compared to an adult (moving left to right) on the same log. I don’t know for sure if this is one of the joeys from the May den footage, but the size is about right for that time frame.

Looking forward to seeing what the Chatham ‘Possum Network has to offer in the future. Thanks, Jerry, for the inspiration.

The Youth of Summer

Posted on July 14, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Things have been relatively quiet on the trail cameras the past month. No coyote sightings in several weeks, and even the squirrels seem to be taking a vacation in our woods (though not the ones learning to get to our hanging bird feeder). But one thing has been showing up – young animals. June and July are the months when many young critters start to get out and follow their moms around to learn the ways of the woods. At our place that means White-tailed Deer fawns and Raccoon kits.

Here are a few clips of forest cuteness from our property…

–This mama Raccoon and her two young kits appeared on several cameras recently, but this one has the best audio (turn sound up).

The most common baby animal footage was of deer fawns. The well-known spots on baby deer help them blend into the sun-dappled forest floor. This is especially important when their mom leaves them in one place as she goes off to feed. Lying on the ground motionless, and virtually scentless, they are difficult for predators to find. Fawns typically lose their spots after 3 to 4 months. One online resource said the average number of spots on a fawn’s coat ranges from 272-342. And each spot is between about 1/4 to 1/2 inches in diameter…now you know.

–A fawn hanging out near the Raccoon den tree while mom browses in the distance

–The fawn tries to nurse but mom seems like she has things to do or places to go

–Some clips showed a doe with one fawn, typical of young mothers. Others had a doe with twins which is not unusual for older deer.

–A couple of clips showed two adult deer waking together, one with twins and one with one fawn. Then this clip had one doe with three fawns. At first, I assumed the other doe was somewhere near and these three fawns were just hanging out together. But I have seen two other clips with a single doe and three fawns. Research shows that somewhere around 10% of female deer will have triplets under favorable environmental conditions. And last year was a mast year for the oaks in our woods, so maybe these are indeed triplets.

In addition to the mammal babies, there are lots of insect and spider youngsters in our wildflower beds and the bluebirds have just laid another set of eggs. You gotta love the abundance of summer!

-This is the third bluebird nest this season in the box in our yard

Springtime in the Woods

Posted on May 17, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.

~Edwin Way Teale

The trail cameras have been sort of slow lately, mainly capturing the usual suspects of deer, squirrels, and raccoons. They have also seen a few birds including an Ovenbird and a Wood Thrush gathering nesting material. There have been two Coyote captures including a rather rare daytime one (videos best viewed full screen).

-The cameras rarely capture Coyotes during the daytime on our property

But the stars of the trail cameras recently have been the Virginia Opossums. I put a couple of cameras at the base of a large tree that blew down in a storm a couple of years ago because it looked like something was using a hole under the root ball (a favorite type of burrow for an opossum). Indeed, I got some very quick clips of opossums coming and going (at least two different individuals), Raccoons also stopped by occasionally and sniffed around and there is a mouse and a chipmunk going in and out of some of the holes.

Another camera nearby on the now dry creek bed caught something I was hoping for – an opossum with a very large pouch, obviously carrying some babies.

-The large belly means there must be baby opossums in her pouch

I decided to move the camera at the root ball to a better location and after viewing the next two clips, I added one on the giant log on the other side of the root ball. The tree was on a slope and when it fell, it created an angled bridge about 5 feet off the ground at its highest point. These new camera positions paid off.

-This was what I was hoping for – a video clip of a mother opossum carrying a young one on her back

If you watched closely on that clip, you saw another young opossum make a brief appearance at the hole. The next day this happened…

-Two young opossums are trying to kill or are playing with a small animal – I think it is a toad

And a third young opossum makes an appearance above the two that are so engrossed with their find. I’m surprised there was not any additional footage of this encounter, but they may have wandered just out of the field of view of the camera.

After setting up a camera on the log on the other side of the steep root ball, I was rewarded with several clips of an adult opossum and some young opossums walking across. There was also a lot of footage of a very active mouse on the log. And one instance where a young opossum encountered the mouse.

-Great interaction between a mouse and a young opossum

Notice the mouse just comes up behind the opossum and moves on its way. Opossums remain in their mother’s pouch for about two months. They stay with her for another couple of months, often riding on her back. The number of babies (called joeys, by the way) an opossum has varies, but 8-10 in a litter is typical. I’m hoping the camera will capture more images of multiple young ones out and about before they disperse and are on their own.

Squirrely Behavior

Posted on March 27, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

…for all the motions of a squirrel, even in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators…

~Henry David Thoreau

Yesterday I posted about deer communication through scent at a community scrape. Are the other animals in our woods communicating to one another with scent? Do they have their own “social media sites”? I placed a trail camera on a very rotten log along one of the forest game trails on our property as it looked like something was actively digging or rubbing in the log debris and enhancing its conversion to fine sawdust. The camera revealed that Eastern Gray Squirrels frequently stop by this log and dig and roll around.

— A squirrel rubbing in the fine debris of a very rotten log

It appears that more than one squirrel is using this log. Is it for a dust bath (they are known to roll in dirt or sand to help rid their fur of parasites)? Is it communication through scent-marking (squirrels do leave scent marks, especially by rubbing their faces on objects and depositing scent from their oral glands)? Or could it be a combination?

— One squirrel displaces another from the rotten log

I have seen similar behavior caught on a trail camera in one other location about a year ago. A squirrel (or multiple squirrels, not sure) was frequently rubbing on a patch of bare ground down by the creek. As in some of these videos, there was a lot of face rubbing, pawing, rolling around, and occasionally pausing to chew or scratch. Though ridding parasites is certainly possible, there is often some erratic behavior much like our goofy deer video from a few posts ago, with random jumping and twisting and turning. A good friend that saw the deer videos told me he also has a squirrel(s) that “goes to a spot where a gutter drainage comes out of the ground, sniffs, and then does all that leaping about in a haphazard way.” This kind of behavior may relate more to chemical cues and some sort of communication it seems.

— A squirrel acting a bit goofy after rubbing/smelling the debris at the community rotten log

I haven’t stuck my nose in the sawdust to see if I notice anything (squirrels also apparently urinate as a means of communication), but I am betting there is a lot of information exchanged between our squirrels at this site. More mysteries to try to solve or simply ponder and appreciate about our wild neighbors.

Woodland Social Media

Posted on March 26, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

Every act of communication is a miracle of translation.

~Ken Liu

I recognize a buck scrape in our woods when I see one. It is a bare patch of earth with lots of hoof scrapes and deer tracks under an overhanging low limb (usually an evergreen). One or more twigs are often broken from the buck thrashing about. This behavior and the commonly seen bark rubs on tree saplings are two important ways that bucks communicate with one another. It is like a bulletin board in a storefront, one loaded with local business cards. The bucks leave their calling card through various glands on the head and through marking and urinating on the now bare ground beneath the overhanging branch. While any deer passing the area may stop to check it out, most buck scrapes appear to be created and used primarily by male deer, and mainly in the time leading up to and during the rut.

– Bare ground under a low overhanging American Holly branch is a sure sign of a buck scrape (click photos to enlarge)

– The only scrape on our property not under a holly branch. This large patch of bare ground is under an American Beech branch and comes with a bark rub on a nearby sapling.

But now I have found something that may qualify as a so-called community scrape. This is a location that has significance to all the deer in an area and is a major communication sign post – a social media bulletin board for the deer. My first connection with this site was last year when I placed a trail camera on it. It is a part of our creek that is just upstream of a huge log jam created when a large hickory fell and took a few other trees with it. I recorded what I thought was an odd phenomenon of a doe pulling on holly leaves on a low branch. During the couple of weeks the camera was there it caught a few deer doing this same thing. I was puzzled because I didn’t think anything would eat those spiny leaves.

Last month, I put another camera in that same location and started seeing both bucks and does stopping and interacting with the same holly branch. But this time, I could tell they were mainly just rubbing their heads and faces on the branch, not trying to eat the leaves. Below are a few of the videos.

— A large buck rubs his scent on the overhanging holly branch

— Another buck checking in on holly media

It is hard to tell in these videos, but a behavior that is described in research is deer using the “licking branch”. They chew or lick a particular branch as part of the ritual. I certainly have seen a broken twig or two at these various scrapes and have seen photos of bucks using their tongue to touch branches at a scrape, but I can’t tell for sure if there is any of that going on here.

— Two bucks interact with the holly

— More checking in at the holly station

There were a couple of times that deer interacted with one another at the holly station. Here’s a quick clip of one.

— This is what happens when you send a mean tweet on deer social media

You may remember the crazy deer from an earlier post that ran around, jumping, twisting, and pawing in the creek. I think this last clip is that same deer. One reason I didn’t notice the significance of this holly branch is that it is over the creek, so there is not the usual sign of bare ground underneath (when the creek dries up it is just the dry ground line anywhere else along that stretch of stream bed). Here is that deer interacting with the holly several times and acting a bit goofy again. I wonder if part of the reason for its antics is the chemical messages at this site?

— Our exuberant deer spends a lot of time on social media. The camera has recorded other individuals standing up at the holly branch (perhaps to to get better reception?)

I stuck my nose into this branch to see if I can detect any odors, but it seems that I just don’t have the right receptors. It stands to reason that if I don’t understand some of my species’ social media messages, I wouldn’t understand those of our neighborhood deer. But I’ll keep watching and trying to figure out what they are saying.

More Bang for the Buck(s)

Posted on March 19, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

The life of the wood, meadow, and lake go on without us. Flowers bloom, set seed and die back; squirrels hide nuts in the fall and scold all year long; bobcats track the snowy lake in winter; deer browse the willow shoots in spring. Humans are but intruders who have presumed the right to be observers, and who, out of observation, find understanding.

~Ann Zwinger

I am familiar with the behavior of male White-tailed deer (bucks) during the breeding season (the rut) – they don’t eat much, they are challenging (often with antler to antler struggles) other bucks in the area for dominance and the opportunity to mate with the females that come into estrus, they chase females, and they tend to lose much of their wariness. All this generally occurs in the Fall, usually peaking in early November in our woods. There is a phenomenon called the second rut that can happen when some females that did not mate successfully come into estrus 30 days or so after the first rut is complete, usually in January.

But my trail cameras picked up a spate of antler testing behavior running through the month of February. I’m not sure what is happening, but maybe it is just “boys being boys”. They have formed some bachelor groups that hang out together through much of the day and night and it seems that after dark they like to test their strength by pushing and shoving a bit. The more evenly matched they are, the better the show, but I do admire one buck that just has nubs for antlers that tries to enter the fray to show his toughness.

I have not seen any of this activity during daylight hours (though the cameras do pick up buck hanging out together) and there seems to be a preference for performing these feats of buck showmanship at the cameras located on the creek. Here are some highlights of bucks doing their thing (volume up)…

— When the largest local buck is involved, it is usually a fairly short display of buck fever

— Two bucks pushing each other in the creek

— Two bucks really going at it

— A third buck with barely any antlers wants to join the fray, but the other two bucks seem a bit tangled up

— Three nice bucks strutting their stuff

They seem to have tired of this showmanship with the onset of March. Perhaps it is related to the fact that the first week of March caught the first image of a buck that has dropped an antler.

— Antler shedding has started. New growth will start soon.

The cameras picked up this behavior on several nights, with these bouts often lasting many minutes. There was lots of maneuvering, some pawing of the ground, and plenty of head fakes and false starts to go along with the energetic pushing and clacking of antlers. There is so much happening in our woods after dark. As of this week, the largest bucks are still holding onto their complete antler set, but it won’t be for long. Now, if only I can find some antler sheds.

Deer Play

Posted on March 5, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

White-tailed deer were observed throughout 1,711 hours on the Welder Wildlife Refuge, Texas. Only 11 events considered to be forms of play were witnessed, seven by fawns and four by adults. It is concluded that white-tailed deer are not typically playful animals.

~Edwin D. Michael, 1968 publication

I did some research online after looking at some recent trail camera footage to try to explain what I was seeing. The quote above is the abstract from a paper published in 1968 in The American Midland Naturalist. Maybe Texas deer are more serious than ours, or maybe the deer you about to see has been eating some funny mushrooms…you be the judge (turn volume up and view full screen).

— This young buck seemed to enjoy having water in our wet weather creek last month. He also seems to like an audience based on his reaction when the other deer enters the picture

— The buck continued this behavior for several minutes.

I first thought that the pool of water was the big attraction since most of the creek is very shallow and narrow. But a few days later when the creek bed dried up again, the buck was back (I think it is the same deer anyway). Note the attention paid to the overhanging American Holly branch from time to time (you can also see this to a lesser degree in the other videos). My next post will have some more clues to this mystery.

— The deer acts goofy even in a dry creek bed

Maybe deer are more playful than we think, but only act up when we aren’t around. The lesson here may be to live life to the fullest and splash in every puddle, and keep on playing even when things dry up.

Opossum Afterlife

Posted on February 19, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

~Lao Tzu

One day earlier this month I discovered a recently deceased Virginia Opossum out by one of the wood piles. No idea what might have happened to it though it was not long after some severely cold weather. I decided to take it down into our woods and place it in front of one of the trail cameras to see what might come along. I waited several days before checking the camera and discovered a lot of the woodland creatures had stopped by to investigate, dine, or perhaps pay their respects. Here are some of the highlights (best viewed full screen with volume up)::

The first animal caught by the camera coming to the opossum scene was another opossum. Wonder if they had met? I am guessing they had.

— Another Virginia Opossum comes to the scene the first night after I placed the dead opossum near the camera. This camera has seen this live opossum before so this may be a regular evening route.

First on the scene on the day after I put out the carcass was a Turkey Vulture (not surprising, really). Turkey Vultures have an excellent sense of smell and can locate carrion from great distances and heights (unlike Black Vultures, which rely mostly on vision). Turkey Vultures have an extremely large olfactory bulb (the area of the brain responsible for processing odors). Recent research has shown that they also have more mitral cells than any other bird that has been studied. Mitral cells, found in all animals, help transmit information about smell to the brain.

— The carcass is on a slope, so I aimed the camera slightly downhill of it, figuring it might move down slope if an animal fed on it. Naturally, this first vulture eventually pulled the carcass uphill and out of sight of the camera!

Thirty minutes after the first vulture arrived, another one landed and some threat displays ensued. The second bird took off shorty afterward. It reappeared off camera a couple of hours later in the afternoon. Soon there was a scuffle…

— Two Turkey Vultures arguing over who goes first in the possum buffet line

Turkey Vultures appeared on camera for 3 days from February 5-8, although the carcass had been pulled slightly out of view on the other two days. Other visitors in those first couple of days seemed mainly driven by curiosity rather than hunger and included a Raccoon and three deer.

— A rare daytime appearance at the carcass by one of the local Raccoons

— The largest of the White-tailed Deer to check on the dead opossum

All three deer that have stopped at the carcass have gingerly sniffed the area near the dead opossum and then walked away.

This next clip is a very short one – a screech owl flying off with something from a couple of feet away from the carcass. Was it a piece of meat from the dead animal, or did it catch something like a mouse that was investigating the site?

— The owl flew off so quickly that I cannot tell what it has picked up

Nine days after I placed the dead opossum on the hillside, a Red-tailed Hawk shows up and picks at it. Raptors are frequent visitors at carrion, though few are as efficient in our region as the Turkey Vulture.

— This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk picked at the carcass and drug it a little ways before flying off after just a few minutes of activity

If you looked and listened closely, some of the video clips had flies buzzing through near the carcass, probably one of the first things to arrive at any dead animal when temperatures are much above freezing. Nothing is wasted in the forest, death brings life, and other animals either take advantage of the new food source or seem curious or at least interested in the passing of a fellow woodland creature. It will be interesting to see what else visits the opossum as the days go on.

The Forest Unseen

Posted on February 1, 2023 by roadsendnaturalist

Forests will always hold your secrets, for that’s what forests are for.

~Victoria Erickson

We’ve been gone for a couple of weeks (more on that adventure in the next post) and the trail cameras were busy keeping up with the goings-on back home while we were away. Lots of the same sort of behaviors we have seen before, but some heavy rains filled our ephemeral stream and that area became more attractive to many of our woodland neighbors. Here are a few highlights from the last couple of weeks that we would have not known about save for the eyes of the trail cameras.