Odd Shed Deer Antler

by | Apr 3, 2025 | Mammals

An odd shed deer antler caught our eyes during a woodsy March walk. We’ve enjoyed shed hunting for years and have found plenty, but this one was unusual.

What is a Shed?

Deer, elk, moose, and caribou all shed their antlers a couple of months after the breeding season. Usually in January and February the antlers loosen from the bucks’ heads and fall off. We’ve learned to seek sheds in places where a deer jumps over a fence or crosses a stream in a deep valley. The jar caused by the jump or climb sometimes dislodges the antlers. Sometimes just one drops and the other at some other place.  Other times, one can find a matching pair of sheds. Gold!

Oddity

Deer shed antler partially chewed through.

Odd find.

The antler we found recently wasn’t especially large, but its location was weird. It was four feet off the ground in the branches of a tall shrub. We guess that the buck was walking through thick shrubbery when his nearly ready to fall off antler caught in the branches and came off. That’s unusual but there was one other strange thing about it.

Location and Condition

We walk that trail often but never noticed the antler on earlier walks. It was well-weathered and bleached white. A squirrel had chewed a big notch out of the antler, almost cutting it in two. So, it must have come off the deer about a year before we found it. Why we hadn’t spotted it sooner is a mystery.

Why Shed Hunt?

Antler hunting is a fun outdoor activity. They can be found any month, but the best season for searching is in late winter, just after the deer have shed them, the show has melted, and before spring vegetation grows to hide them.

Matter of Luck

We’ve noticed another odd thing about shed hunting. At least for us. When we go out deliberately seeking them, we sometimes, but rarely, find one.  At other times when we’re absent-mindedly rambling through the woods we’ll step on one!

In An Improbable Place

Matching pair with cell phone and a hand for scale.

Golden! A pair.

The deer that caught his antler in the shrub likely lived to shed a new set of antlers this year. Maybe our neighbor found it. She was astonished to find two shed antlers on the lawn behind her house, only about 500 yards from where we found the seasoned and chewed one. The new finds were much bigger, but bucks generally grow a larger antler every year.

Keep your eyes open for these fun finds.

Stillness and Dark Discoveries

by | Feb 6, 2025 | Nature

On a cold December afternoon Rich bundled up, drove to a friend’s farm, and lugged a lawn chair and hunting gear into the woods. He settled into the chair and sat motionless for nearly two hours. His reward of stillness and dark discoveries was quiet interactions with nature.

Wildlife Carried On

No deer came by but he was thrilled to watch two brown creepers climb up the rough bark of a hickory tree only six feet away. “They didn’t know I was there and I could clearly see them use their tweezer-like bills to dig tiny insects from deep in the bark’s furrows, ” he said.

Minutes later a bluebird perched on a branch around 20 feet away and a gray squirrel scampered within inches of his boots. Chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers went about their business as Rich sat motionless.

He came home without a deer but declared it an outstanding afternoon and a successful “hunt.”

What Stillness Does

Man sitting by water.

Still

Sitting quietly is one of the best ways to enjoy nature. We do it often, but usually, it’s not in the woods. We sit very still on our back deck, especially during pleasant weather.  More often our sitting is at our kitchen table, where we watch our resident wild turkeys and deer prance around the yard, and songbirds snatch seeds from our feeders. Once we watched a squirrel approach with a walnut in its mouth. Just outside our window, it buried the nut.

Animal Senses

The senses of wild animals vary.  For example, the turkeys who visit our yard have superb eyesight and hearing but a poor sense of smell and taste. In contrast, deer have relatively poor eyesight but outstanding senses of smell and hearing.

Even animals with poor eyesight notice and react to movement. A deer might stare at an immobile person for some time trying to catch a scent, but at the slightest movement, the animal will bolt.

Stillness

To see the most wildlife, rule out fidgeting. Sit still. To observe the widest range of species, sit very still downwind so any scent wafts from the animal toward the person rather than vice versa.

Rich can sit nearly entirely motionless for long periods. Here are his tricks for being still:

Tips for Stillness and Dark Discoveries

  • Have a comfortable seat. He finds sling chairs easy to carry into the woods and comfortable to sit in. Sometimes he just brings a foam rubber pad that’s even easier to carry and insulates his posterior from cold and wet ground.
  • Dress extra warmly. Movement causes muscles to work and generate heat. Sitting requires warmer clothing than walking on an equally cold day. In the winter Rich wears these items:
  1. Layers starting with a base layer. We once called them Long Johns. Over them goes a pair of pants and over them goes insulated bib overalls. For his upper body, Rich wears a t-shirt, base layer long-sleeve shirt, light fleece jacket, and, finally, a winter coat.
  2. Warm footwear. Feet get cold quickly but winter footwear helps keep them toasty. Rich wears a pair of wicking socks under wool socks that fit loosely within his “Pac boots”. These high-top boots have removable felt liners.
  3. A thick wool stocking cap keeps the noggin warm and a pair of thick mittens does the same for the fingers. When it’s super cold Rich sometimes wears light wool gloves and then slips his hands into mittens, creating a double layer.

Other Comforts for Stillness and
Dark Discoveries

Another useful comfort help is the many types of hand warmers on the market. Some are rechargeable electric devices while others are pouches of material inside a plastic container. Rip open and shake the container. Oxygen reaches chemicals in the pouch, creating heat. Some are made to slip in boots. Others fit inside gloves and some large ones are perfect to stick under clothing to keep a sitting person’s back warm.

Sitting inside and watching wildlife out the window eliminates the need for warm clothes but usually lacks the intimacy that sitting within a prairie or woods provides.

Other Aids

Man sits at tree base with binoculars.

waiting

A pair of binoculars helps view wildlife, but the movement to raise them to the eyes sometimes scares away animals. Rich often wears his hearing aids to accentuate sounds that add to the experience.

Remember the Wonders of Darkness

At Winding Pathways, we sometimes sit outside after dark. As soon as our eyes adjust to low light, we occasionally spot deer, opossums, and raccoons prowling in the yard.  The best wildlife viewing is when the moon casts some light. However, the best star viewing is during the moon’s dark phase. That comes with a bonus. Since the stars aren’t spooked by our movement we can make all the noise and motion we want and they stay majestically above us.

So, here’s our suggestion:   Go outside and embrace the stillness and dark.

Eatin’ Weeds

by | Aug 29, 2024 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Foraging

Eatin’ Weeds

We don’t just pull weeds.  We eat them!

Every summer gardeners spend hours pulling, digging, and spraying weeds that pop up overnight and grow like – Weeds!  Marion’s family, especially grew up eatin’ weeds. Raised on a small, hardscrabble New Hampshire farm where the biggest crop was rocks, her family of seven supplemented produce with wild foods. Her dad, of the Depression era, knew the wild plants. So, she grew up eatin’ weeds and picking wild berries.

At the nature center in Kansas Rich was always looking for unique programs to present and wild edibles were a hit. Using the Euell Gibbons and Adrienne Crowhurst wild food guides, we learned which foods have the highest returns: easy to gather and process, moderately difficult yet rewarding, and survival-only foods.

We also realized that many are as tasty and nutritious as intentionally planted crops.

Dozens of weed species are edible, but we especially enjoy eating lambs quarter, purslane, and Asian dayflower that we haven’t planted but harvest from our garden. All were introduced from faraway continents and have gone wild. Each is easy to identify.

Lambs quarter

Lamb's Quarters grow along the edges of gardens.

Lamb’s Quarters readily grow in disturbed soil.

This Eurasian native plant has many names. It’s sometimes called lamb’s quarters, goosefoot, or pigweed and has the scientific name Chenopodium album.  Lambs quarter is a fast-growing annual weed that we first notice in early spring. We pick and eat it about the same time in April that we plant spinach and lettuce. We keep picking and eating the new shoots as the season advances.

Identification and Preparing

Lambs quarter is easy to identify. One characteristic we like is the leaf’s ability to shed water. Dunk a leaf in water and it looks silvery. Like most wild and garden greens, Lambs quarter is best when picked young and tender. We wash and steam it for a few minutes, much like we cook Swiss chard. Topped with melted butter, it’s delicious. Very young leaves can be rinsed and eaten raw in salad.

Asiatic Dayflower

Blue flower of Asiatic dayflower

Likes partial shade.

Since lambs quarter is wind pollinated its flowers aren’t showy. That’s not the case with Asiatic dayflower. Its sky-blue blooms last only a single day but add color to our garden. It prefers living in partial shade and thrives under our rain barrels and alongside raised beds in the garden. Botanists call it Commelina communis. 

 

Like lambs quarter, the young leaves and stems are delicious in a salad or can be lightly steamed.

Purslane

Succulent leaves of purslane

Cultivated world wide

Although Americans constantly pull weedy purslane from their gardens, it is actually a planted crop in India and the US Southwest. Native to the Mediterranean region, it was introduced around the world centuries ago. Purslane is a fleshy plant with the scientific name of Portulaca oleracea.

Purslane grows like crazy and loves hot soil and full sun. It’s somewhat mucilaginous and tends to be gritty. Well-washed young stems and leaves can be eaten raw or steamed. The plant is high in oxalates, so people with kidney problems may want to avoid eating it.

Foraging and Safety

In this era of high food prices families seek ways to trim the grocery bill. Gardening helps and a small flock of backyard chickens adds delicious eggs, but foraging wild foods is becoming increasingly popular.

There are cautions. Many plants have lookalikes that could be inedible or even toxic.

Fortunately, the Internet is loaded with reliable information that helps a novice identify edible plants and learn how to harvest and prepare them for the table. Plenty of printed books are available, but the very best way to learn is to find a skilled forager and tag along on a collecting spree.

Cardinal Rule and Cautions

A cardinal foraging rule is to identify any new plant by at least three sources before attempting to eat it. Don’t take our word for it. If you want to try the plants we mention above, double check identification and edibility on at least two websites, books, or with an expert person. 

Cautions. Most people may be able to enjoy eating a certain plant but you may be allergic to it. So, for the first meal or two eat a new food sparingly to make sure no unpleasant symptoms arise. Also, avoid picking plants that may have been sprayed or are alongside a road or near a factory where they might be contaminated by emissions. If you want to go on private property, always have landowner permission before collecting. In public parks make sure picking or gathering is permitted before picking.

Resources

Books:
Euell Gibbon’s classic Stalking the Wild Asparagus got us started on foraging decades ago.

A comprehensive modern book is Nicole Apelian’s Foragers Guide to Wild Foods.

Adrienne Crowhurst’s classics, The Weed Cookbook and The Flower Cookbook were staples in Marion’s family.

App:  An app that helps identify edible and nonedible plants is SEEK by iNaturalist.

Websites:  There are many. Often a good way to use a website is to first identify a plant and then GOOGLE it. Usually, that will lead to sites that further help identify the plant, give its history, and tell whether it is edible or toxic.

Cottontail Rabbit Capers

by | Aug 1, 2024 | Garden/Yard, Mammals, Pests

Two young cottontail rabbits eating.

Young rabbits “play” to gain skills and show dominance.

Have you noticed the abundance of the cottontail rabbit this summer? While they can create mischief as in eating desired plants, they also are fun to watch.

Winding Pathway’s resident cottontail rabbits give us delightful evening entertainment. Shortly after sunset, a few appear like magic from out of our labyrinth’s tall prairie. As we sit on our porch they scamper about, chase each other, and nibble on the white clover poking out of our lawn.

 

Many people dislike cottontails for their habit of feasting on favored garden plants and gnawing on tree bark in the winter. Because we enjoy both rabbits and Swiss Chard, we keep them away from our vegetables and, thus, appreciate their antics.

Several cottontail species range across most of the United States, southern Canada, and South America. They’re well adapted to thrive in diverse environments. Ours is the Eastern Cottontail rabbit. This year they are especially abundant.

There are Rabbits and Then There are Rabbits

Wild Bunny and domestic bunny play side by side

Side by side

Cottontails and common domestic pet rabbits may look similar but they are vastly different.

Pet Bunnies

Pet bunnies trace their ancestry to Europe and were domesticated thousands of years ago. They make fascinating and loveable pets and thrive in a safe roomy hutch eating commercial pellets. These are the rabbits that were released in Australia and caused enormous agricultural and ecological damage. They readily breed, are social, and join others to dig a series of burrows called warrens. Some readers may remember the award-winning novel, Watership Down, and the Netflix series about precocious rabbits.

Cottontail Rabbits

Cottontails, in contrast, are wild animals that rarely, if ever, become tame or make good pets. Like European rabbits they are social and like the company of other bunnies but not people. Cottontails don’t make burrows but sometimes enjoy ducking down an abandoned woodchuck hole. Cottontails live under dense vegetation, in culverts, and under outbuildings. They eat a wide range of wild plants but love snacking on vegetables. In winter they sometimes eat the bark off young trees. So, be sure to protect your young trees with wire mesh around the base.

Enjoying Both Cottontails and Vegetables

Years ago, we learned a trick that lets us enjoy our resident cottontails and abundance from the garden. European rabbits are high jumpers, but not cottontails. Instead, native bunnies are long jumpers who can’t jump high. Just a wimpy two-foot-tall chicken wire fence around the garden or a young tree keeps them away as long as they can’t get under it.

Why So Many Cottontails This Year

For the past few years, Iowa has been in drought. It limited the new tender growth of clovers and other delectable plants that bunnies love. Sparse rain thinned thickets where they hide. This year’s been wet. Vegetation is tender and abundant yet we’ve not had big early thunderstorms.  Why’s that important to a cottontail?

Before giving birth, a cottontail digs a shallow hole in the ground, often near the edge of a lawn. She lines it with fur and soon deposits three to eight tiny blind helpless babies. Mom mostly stays away but nurses them in the morning or evening by sitting over the burrow and letting her babies nurse. They grow amazingly fast and are out on their own when only about three weeks old.  Mom soon gets ready for another litter.

Who Doesn’t Love a Cottontail Rabbit?

Predators love rabbits. They’re a favorite meal for dogs, cats, raptors, snakes, foxes, and coyotes. There are always rabbits because their survival strategy is to have many babies, even though only a small percent reach adulthood and reproduce.

Getting Rid of Cottontails

Well, why do it?  They are inquisitive and beautiful animals that share yards with people.

An easy solution is to run chicken wire around desirable plants to keep them away. So, people can have their plants and rabbits, too.

Hooray for bunnies! They brighten our evenings as they scamper about our yard.

 

Kendal’s Appeal as a Senior Residence

by | Jul 18, 2024 | Garden/Yard

This blog was first published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, on June 30, 2024

As Dad and Mom entered their 90s they increasingly struggled maintaining the safety and cleanliness of the home they’d lived in for 60 years. Despite our urging they resisted moving to a senior residence.  Although emotionally and physically draining we eventually had to move them to a senior residence.  Mom died a year later and Dad enjoyed six pleasant years until his death last year.

Sterile yard.

This yard offers little to wildlife.

Dad quickly made friends at the facility.  The food was excellent, and the staff and fellow residents were helpful and caring.  Although it met his basic needs Dad often expressed frustration that the senior residence lacked things he valued. The grounds were immaculately tended. Nary a blade of grass was out of place. It was a wildlife and native plant desert that frustrated a man who loved animals and natural diversity. Sidewalks bordered the manicured lawns but none traversed natural vegetation. Recycling was minimal and abundant waste was dumpstered.  As a career teacher, Dad loved interacting with children. They were absent at his new home.

We turn 75 this year.  As much as we love our home and yard we recognize that calendar pages advance and someday we may need to live where life is easier and, hopefully, pleasant. So, we’re researching.

Sterile Environments Lack Interest

Flyers advertising Corridor senior residences come to our mailbox, television, and computer.  We’ve driven by some and toured a few.  All seem well managed and fill basic needs, but few address important values Dad found lacking at his last home. And that we value.

The grounds of most senior residences are manicured and manipulated. Pristine. Even occasional ponds are lined with white rocks that communicate sterility.  Where are the cattails?  We crave grounds alive with wildlife and native plants, all accessible by rails winding past thickets and ponds.

Seeing photos of older people playing cornhole at their senior residence communicates boredom to us.  Like Dad, we don’t just desire, but require, access to natural beauty. We know interacting with nature adds enjoyment and meaning to life…..as does recycling, composting, and gardening.  We’ve yet to find a place in the Corridor that offers us a lifestyle we find attractive.

Catching Our Eye

An ad in SMITHSONIAN Magazine caught our eye.  It featured lifestyles offered by facilities managed by the nonprofit Kendal, including one in Oberlin, Ohio.   A June trip brought us nearby, so we stopped in.

As we entered the grounds and drove to their office we felt “at home.”  Clover lawns proved they shun herbicides. Eight ponds sustained lilies and cattails as birds zoomed in front of our car, and trails penetrated natural areas. It was like a senior residence set in a nature center.

Kendal at Oberlin, Ohio

Marketing Manager, Terry Kovach, confirmed that Kendal prioritizes recycling, composting, energy efficiency, and children.  “Our in-house daycare and preschool help us recruit staff who have young children. And, these amenities also enable older residents to interact with kids. It helps everyone,” said Kovach. “Residents swim with their grand friends and help them learn to cook through the cooking club. Volunteering to help kids would have brought joy to Mom and Dad but was impossible where they lived.

Additionally, wide trails lead to the cozy town of Oberlin, Ohio, with quaint stores, eateries, and coffee shops. Oberlin College and Conservatory is well-known for music and diverse studies. Residents at Kendal take in their programs.  The College is also taking strides to convert to geothermal and reduce its carbon footprint. We toured town, enjoyed a coffee shop and browsed some stores before leaving.

After only an hour at Kendal, we felt comfortable. The nonprofit company has similar senior residences in several eastern states and is building two in California. Perhaps they’ll come to Iowa. Or, maybe there is a similar existing senior residence in the Corridor we’ve yet to discover.

Lots to Consider

We’re not yet ready to send a deposit to any senior residence, but when we do it will be a place where we feel at home in a place that shares our values.