Possum’s Presence

by | Jan 23, 2025 | Nature

In late autumn 2024, we had only light snow. The thin coverings of snow each revealed a procession of night visitors the next morning in tracks.  We got especially excited by one set of tracks. Our possum’s presence! It is our favorite opossum. We hadn’t seen him (or her) for several months and feared that the animal may have been hit by a car or suffered some other death.

The sparse snow cover made excellent tracking conditions. We were delighted to follow our possum’s tracks as they wandered past our bird feeder to our compost bin.

Opossum tracks are distinctive. The animal’s toes are almost semicircular with widely spaced toes. Raccoon toes, in contrast, are more like human toes and are arranged almost in parallel.

The possum wasn’t alone. We also discovered that a coyote had passed through our yard, deer had lingered a while and checked out the bird feeder, and a house cat visited, probably seeking a tasty mouse for dinner. We found mouse tracks but no evidence that one of these tiny rodents became the cat’s dinner. Sometimes a fox trots by.

Although we have written about tracking before, we find that tracking is fascinating and a good way to enjoy winter outdoors. A light snow creates perfect conditions. The Old Farmer’s Almanac posts a useful guide on how to identify animal tracks. We are happy to re-discover our possum’s presence.

Ice Storms

by | Dec 19, 2024 | Geology/Weather, Nature

Ice covered window.

Frosted glass!

The world around Winding Pathways changed overnight.  On December 14, 2024, we awoke to an ice-glazed world. We know that hurricanes, tornadoes, and derechos cause widespread havoc. Ice storms present their own perils to trees, people, and wild and domestic animals.

After lighting our woodstove, we pulled traction devices on our boots, grabbed trekking poles, and ventured outside just long enough to check for damage, gather eggs, and fill bird feeders.

Checking for Damage

Ice crystals sparkled and ice sheets reflected morning’s light in unusual ways as we carefully picked our way around the yard. Fortunately, we found no downed tree limbs and our chickens were tucked safely inside their coop. Wild birds had no choice.   We filled all our feeders, sprinkled seeds on the ground, and scattered sand. Some we tossed on walkways to provide traction for us and a few scoops went amid the birdseed under our feeder. Birds need grit for digestion and it’s hard to find when the world is icy.

Helping the Birds

Many winter birds feed on frozen insects and spiders tucked into the crevices of tree bark. Others scratch through leaves to find seeds and bugs. With trees and the ground sheeted in ice, pickings were slim for animals that must eat an enormous amount of food daily to maintain a body heat of around 106 degrees.

It’s no wonder that cardinals, juncos, nuthatches, blue jays, chickadees, and the five species of woodpeckers in Iowa crowded our feeder and the ground underneath it on that icy morning. Starlings and house (English) sparrows soon showed up.

The overnight ice storm was not so thick that the tiny birds got trapped under the flap of bark where they often rest in storms. They were able to break out and get to the feeder before other birds arrived.

Turkeys Arrive

Gobbler with ice hanging off after ice storm.

Wind ruffling back feathers.

We wondered when the gang of turkeys would show up and whether they weathered the night in the tops of the swaying and ice-encrusted trees. Late morning “Louie the Lonely Turkey” carefully picked his way across the frozen grass.  What a surprise when he hopped up on the top of the sheet of ice on the platform feeder!  He shot off the other end and, doing a pirouette like Sam Gribley in My Side of the Mountain, thumped down quite flummoxed when he stepped onto the ice after an ice storm. Louie gingerly climbed back up onto the platform feeder. And, we had our answer as to where he had slept.  One side of his feathers and beard were crusted with ice.  He had endured a cold night swaying in the tops of the tree as usual. The others haven’t shown up yet, so Louie feasted on the corn and sunflower seeds.

Deer Stayed Put

One backyard animal was initially absent. Often deer visit at night or early each morning but the icy glaze covers their food and makes walking treacherous. Unlike birds, deer put in a thick layer of fat each fall. During storms, they find a sheltered spot and “hole up”. They can sit still for several days without feeding to ride out a storm. A few did finally show up, realized the table goodies were again covered with ice from the day’s rain turned to ice, and left discouraged.

Squirrels Tried to Forage

Squirrels didn’t fare too well foraging and seemed to hole up in their tree holes or nests made of clumps of leaves in the tree tops.  The previous night must have been quite the ride for them as well as the turkeys with the trees swaying and ice cracking on limbs.

Prairie Grasses Haven for Small Animals In Ice Storms

The prairie grasses on the knoll bent over with ice formed small enclosures where our resident cottontail took refuge. Deer tracks crossed the Harmony Phoenix Labyrinth as they wandered in the night.

Robert Frost had it right in his poem, Birches, “When I see birches bend to left and right, Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.  But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay. As ice storms do.”

The ice will melt as temperatures rise. Until it does, we’ll walk cautiously to reduce the odds of falling and keep our feeders well-stocked with seeds and grit.

Flying Squirrels – Phantoms of Darkness

by | Nov 21, 2024 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Mammals, Nature

Flying squirrels are phantoms of the darkness. Are they nearly invisible waifs, ghosts, or fascinating and beautiful mammals?  Fortunately, they are real, moderately common in good habitats, but hardly ever seen by people.

Marion recalls her Uncle Bill taking her outside one evening in Florida.  Quietly they waited at dusk and suddenly, a petit squirrel launched from a tree and glided past. A thrilling sighting for a seven-year-old and a fond memory all these years later.

For many years a colony of southern flying squirrels lived in a massive hollow elm at the Indian Creek Nature Center. Although their tree was next to a busy trail, daytime hikers never saw the animals. Many times, I’d lead people to the tree as darkness gathered.  We’d sit quietly. Just as it became almost, but not quite, so dark that vision was impossible squirrels would appear from a hole in the tree. We couldn’t really see them glide but could hear a rustle of leaves as one landed nearby. Flying squirrels are delightful.

Two Species

Many people live close to them and don’t realize it because they are so nocturnal. Two species live in North America. The northern flying squirrel lives mostly in Canada, and the southern one lives from about the Canadian line south to the Gulf of Mexico, so most people live in their range.

Can They Really Fly?

Flying squirrels are tiny but can’t fly. They are gliders and probably should be called gliding squirrels. A special adaptation, called a patagium, allows them to extend loose skin along their sides to form a sort of wing. This allows them to glide from up in a tall tree to the ground or the lower section of a tree trunk.

They live in woodsy areas with big nut trees, especially oaks and hickories with plenty of fallen trees on the ground. They live in hollow trees. Come late evening they scurry about seeking seeds, mushrooms, bird eggs, and insects to eat. They are omnivores. Their greatest enemy is the Great Horned Owl, also nocturnal.

Conflicting Schedules

It’s ironic that just as people head indoors as darkness descends, flying squirrels emerge so they are rarely seen.  Here’s a trick to help people spot the elusive animals.

Flying squirrels love birdseed. They’ll visit a feeder after dark. So will raccoons, opossums, deer, bears, and mice. A feeder can be as busy at midnight as noon.

How You Can Enjoy Sightings of Flying Squirrels

To enjoy flying squirrels and other nocturnal visitors shine a flashlight on the feeder every once in a while, after sunset.  With luck, there will be flying squirrels snacking on seeds.

Although many people let bird feeders be empty overnight, we do the opposite and scatter seed on a platform feeder and the ground. It’s a surefire way to attract the night shift.

Photos Are Hard To Come By

We don’t have a photo of flying squirrels because we’re never near the feeder ready to take pictures in the darkness when the squirrels visit. The National Wildlife Federation offers excellent information about flying squirrels. And YouTube has some fun videos to watch on them.

We also enjoy diurnal squirrels that frequent Iowa yards and forests. 

Turkeys In The Yard and On The Table

by | Nov 14, 2024 | Birds, Nature

Turkeys foraging in yard.

Turkeys sweep up all available seeds.

While feasting on a recent turkey dinner we glanced outside to see enthusiastic hungry wild turkeys trotting towards us. Hunters consider the gigantic birds wary and elusive. Ours aren’t. Whenever we scatter birdseed, they dash from the woods and sometimes even follow us when they see us carrying the can that holds seed.

Turkeys are fun to watch and delicious to eat. Beef, pork, lamb, and chicken all originated in the Old World and were brought to North America during early settlement days. The turkey is the only major American native food animal that’s today eaten around the glove. It took a double route to the dinner table.

Turkeys Crossing the Ocean…

Early European explorers discovered wild turkeys in the vast forests of eastern North America and watched their domesticated cousins scratching around Native American villages, especially in Mexico and Central America. By the 1500s sailing ships bearing live domestic turkeys were heading for Europe, where they soon became an esteemed food. Today, European farmers produce about 13 million tons of the tasty birds.

…and Back Again

A century or so after being introduced to Europe, the Pilgrims brought domestic turkeys with them when they crossed the Atlantic westward. For the turkey species, it was their second ocean crossing. During the next 250 years, Americans ate both wild and domesticated turkeys.

Too Much of a Good Thing

They overdid it. Overhunting, combined with massive habitat destruction, reduced wild turkey numbers to around 30,000 by the early Twentieth Century. Although millions of domestic turkeys lived on farms, wild ones survived only in remote forests and swamps. They seemed on the verge of extinction.

Help for Endangered Turkeys

That quickly changed. Thanks to the efforts of the National Wild Turkey Federation and state wildlife agencies, turkeys made a remarkable comeback. Flocks were captured, moved to places that seemed suitable for them, and released. They quickly multiplied and began expanding.

When we moved to Iowa in 1978 biologists believed the husky birds could only survive in large forests. Iowa only has a few big woods where wild turkeys were released. Soon the birds proved the experts wrong. They began expanding and even moved into cities and towns. Wild turkeys are so common today that efforts to catch and move them to new habitats aren’t needed.

Turkey Sub-Species

The National Wild Turkey Federation’s website includes much about the history and habits of this remarkable bird. According to them, turkeys live almost coast to coast from Canada to Mexico in five subspecies.

The Eastern wild turkey lives across about half of the eastern portion of the United States. It has chestnut brown tips on its tail feathers. Gobblers can reach 30 pounds and sport a long beard. Hens are much smaller and sleeker.

The Osceola wild turkey makes its home in Florida. Its tail feathers are tipped in brown on a bird that’s smaller than the Eastern.

The Rio Grande’s tail feathers are tipped in tan. It’s also a smallish subspecies with only a medium length beard.

The Miriam’s sports white-tipped tail feathers. It lives in the mountain west. Although it has a short beard it can be as large as the eastern subspecies.

Finally, there’s the Gould’s wild turkey that only lives in Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Mexico. It is the rarest subspecies.

There is also a totally separate wild turkey species. It’s the Ocellated. This gorgeous beardless bird lives only in southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala.

Turkey Behavior Entertains

Turkeys strutting

Showing off.

We never tire of hearing wild turkeys’ springtime gobbling, watching them strut, and sometimes spotting them fly up into tall trees in the late evening. How they keep warm enough to sleep in their treetop perches during blizzards astounds us. Turkeys are also fun to watch at our feeder, although they gobble up so many seeds there’s little left for smaller songbirds.

 

Birds Need Grit

by | Nov 7, 2024 | Birds, Chickens, Garden/Yard, Nature

Cardinals and other birds visiting wintery backyard feeders need grit. They’ll appreciate finding some near the sunflower seeds and millet.

The old saying that something’s as scarce as a hen’s teeth is as true for the chickadees, cardinals, and goldfinches that visit backyards as it is for the hens in our coop. Birds have no teeth. Before they can digest coarse corn and wild seeds it must be thoroughly chewed. How do they do it?

What Is Grit?

Seeing birds along wintery roads solves the mystery. They’re picking up and swallowing tiny pieces of rock that will descend into their gizzard. A gizzard is a powerful muscular pouch that grinds tough seeds against grit, resulting in a seed slurry that then moves through the bird’s digestive system. Grit is a bird’s teeth.

When Is A Good Time to Spread Grit?

Birds on snow

Birds flock to the seeds.

During warm months birds have no trouble finding tiny stones in bare patches of earth, but when the world is blanketed in snow or ice, they can’t find grit. Winter is when they appreciate swallowing a few tiny stones near bird feeders.

What Types of Grit Are Best?

As we fill our feeders at Winding Pathways, we sprinkle grit in with seeds and dribble some on the ground. We use two kinds of grit. When we have it on hand, we prefer baby chick grit that we buy at a farm store. It is tiny pieces of sharp quartzite that’s especially effective in grinding seeds in a gizzard. It’s sized for tiny baby chickens, so it’s just right for backyard feeder birds. When we don’t have it on hand we use regular sand. Traction and kid’s sandbox sand both work well and can be purchased at most home supply stores.

How Much Grit?

Birds must have grit, but they don’t need much. A handful in and around feeders once or twice a week is plenty.

Other Uses

Grit’s useful around the house. When walkways are snow-slicked humans are mostly likely to slip and fall. Tossing grit on slippery walkways creates traction for people and may prevent a painful fall. Birds spot it there and occasionally pick up a few pieces. We keep about 50 pounds on hand and use most of it for traction and just a tiny fraction for our birds.

This winter when filling bird feeders scatter a bit of grit. Cardinals and other birds will appreciate it.

Nebraska’s National Forest

by | Oct 31, 2024 | Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Trees

A  national forest amid Nebraska’s grassy Sand Hills! Yup. Several units of the Nebraska National Forest are scattered about the central and northwestern part of the state.

In the 1990s we drove through miles of grassland with nary a tree in sight and then camped in a sprawling forest of Ponderosa pines and red cedars in the Forest’s Bessey Unit almost dead center in the Cornhusker State. How can there be a forest on land that nature intends to be a prairie?

History

In 1902 University of Nebraska botanist Charlesy Bessey encouraged Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt to plant trees and create a forest in the grassy Sand Hills. The nation was facing a lumber shortage and most Americans valued forests over prairies and deserts, so they agreed.

Efforts

Millions of trees were planted close together over the 90,000-acre Bessey Unit. Many grew well; when we visited 30 years ago, they were mature and gorgeous.

Nebraska grasslands and dead trees

Rolling hills along the Loup River.

A fire tower was also built and staffed to watch for fires. Sure enough, fires broke out and killed many of the trees. Fire is an efficient sorter. Grass is highly fire-resistant. Many trees are not.

 

 

Return to Nebraska’s National Forest

Decades later we camped there again in September 2024 and were amazed at the change. Although the Forest Service Campground remains in trees, much of the former forest has quickly returned to grassland, due to several fires.

We saw thousands of dead trees with stacks of trunks piled along the road.

Lesson

Attempting to create a forest in a grassland was an ecological disaster. Over time nature is reclaiming land that should have been managed for what it is – healthy grass sprinkled with millions of wildflowers.

Continued Activity

Nebraska National Forest nursery trees.

Trees grow in the nursery

The Bessey Unit includes a modern nursery where the Forest Service grows trees for replanting on land in the western United States. The surrounding land is a fascinating place to see first-hand the result of past management based on a misunderstanding of the environment.

 

 

 

The campground’s trees were spared fire and remain a shady place to camp for anyone driving across vast Nebraska. Great opportunities exist here for education and enjoyment of the trails. But, it needs maintenance. So does the now abandoned fire tower. For information check usda.gov/nebraska.