More porcupine

This October, we had a porcupine in the neighborhood.  The first time I saw her, she was in the grass under the big apple tree eating apples.  When she saw us (and the dogs) heading towards her, she climbed unhurriedly up the tree.  Apparently unflappable, she settled on a branch, plucked another apple, and sat there munching it.

A few nights later, I was out in the dark with the puppy.  We suddenly heard a loud crunching noise coming from the Kousa dogwood.  I put the pup inside, then went back out with a flashlight.  There in the shrub, perched at eye level, was the porcupine again.  Although I approached within a foot from her, she was unafraid. She had a red dogwood fruit in her handlike paws, and was busily munching it down.  The noise came from her noisy chewing of the large seeds in the fruits.  For many days after, we found chewed bits of dogwood berries beneath the bush.

The porcupine became a fixture in the neighborhood for several weeks.  Our neighbor, whom she visited for more apples, named her Phyllis.  Our porcupine was very beautiful.  Her quills were a rich umber, shaded to beige on her head.  She had large, liquid brown eyes and a sweet expression on her face.  Toward the end of this time, she somehow injured a leg...possibly from being hit by a car (I twice saw her trundling down the road on unspecified porcupine errands).  The local wildlife expert came by to look at her, and picked her up and handled her with leather gloves; we were informed that the leg had probably been broken, but that porcupines heal from injuries unusually quickly and she would likely recover completely.  A week or so later, she disappeared.  Our neighbor made a search and found five porcupine dens (what does a porcupine den look like?), but Phyllis didn't turn up.  We trust she has found a cozy winter lair, and ventures out from time to time to contentedly strip the bark from the trees in our woods.

Butterfly Season

Yesterday I was walking up at the top of the pasture; it was hot and sunny.  All around me, rising from the grass and fluttering in all directions, were butterflies.  Wood nymphs, monarchs, coppers, yellow butterflies and white butterflies.  The air was filled with butterflies, magical and amazing.

Porcupine

A few weeks ago, I was walking in the woods with Zula.  She found a porcupine under a tree!  It was curled up into a ball about the size of a soccer ball.  It bristled with brown and white speckled quills.   Zula barked at it and bounded around it, but luckily was wary enough not to try to bite it.  It was the first porcupine I have ever seen in the woods.

Bumblebees

Today I was thinking about bumblebees, and the way they steal nectar from blueberry flowers.  Instead of trying to crawl into the flowers -- likely impossible, given relative size of flower versus bee -- they poke a hole near the base of the corolla, then suck up the nectar through the hole with their long tongues. 

One day back when I worked at Gray Herbarium, I wondered if I'd see this on old herbarium specimens.  So, I browsed thru some cabinets & pulled out a bunch of specimens, some over 100 years old.  Sure enough, at the base of almost every flower was that little hole.  Cool ol' bumblebees, stealing nectar for a hundred years.

A picture of bumblebee mouthparts:

In the autumn, you can pet bumblebees.  In the early morning of autumn days, you can often find male bumblebees hanging out on flowers.  They sleep there overnight, waiting for a chance to mate with later-arriving females.  Because they're still cold from the night, the bees are rather torpid.  Reach out a finger and stroke the fuzzy back of a bee!

Moley

This day last year, we were up to our ears in snow.  The house was buried by huge piles dumped off the metal roof, and we couldn't see out most of the downstairs windows. Open the front door:  a wall of snow!

Anyway, that morning, I was heading down the front walk to go feed the chickens.  The walk was really more a canyon, a snow canyon, me at the bottom.  Suddenly I saw something scurrying down the icy path.  A mole!  All gray velvet and scrabbling feet and pink wiggly nose.  What was it doing there?  Foraging for springtails??  I caught it in the chicken bucket, and put it safely under the mudroom.

'Round Midnight

Yesterday, it snowed lightly all day.  We already had 27" on the ground from the Monday/Tuesday storm.  Lots of shoveling going on, but I don't mind...I love winter, love snow, love the dark, star-studded nights.  What is so fine as the light, cold touch of snowflakes on upturned face?


That particular night, at almost midnight, I was about to get in bed when I realized that it was a perfect night for snowshoeing. Though it was clouded over and still snowing, it was very bright outside from a near-full moon behind the clouds.  So, out I went.  It was indescribably lovely. All the trees were completely covered in snow, and the air was full of a white haze of moonlit falling snow.  The trees across the road and pasture were almost lost in it.  Everything glowed.  The house and barn were small under the deep blanket of snow.  It was so quiet!  I trudged up to the top of the pasture, and over the wall to my sitting spot.  There I sat a while and just looked.  Then I went on into the woods a ways. It was mysterious and magical among the trees...in the snow...so beautiful, it seemed unreal. Or surreal.  Alone in a glowing world that was silent and gray and white and black.  It is wonderful to see such things.


Finally, it clouded over more and got dark, so I went home and to bed. 

Into the Woods

Yesterday I took Joseph & Alice up into the woods for a walk. This was the first time Joseph had left the pasture to go up the woods trail.  He was delighted!  He and Alice ran along the trail ahead of me, scouting for interesting smells.  Joseph stayed right with us, and came to me whenever I called.  I can't wait to take him in the spring, when the snow is gone and there is so much more to investigate.
When we finally returned to the pasture, he raced back & forth across the fields.  He has a graceful, seemingly effortless bound, reminiscent of a deer's leap.  He seems to have boundless energy.  It's fun to have a young dog again.

Ghosts

In the early hours of the morning, I was awakened by my dog Alice.  As she often spots animals in the night from her floor-level window, I went to her and looked out.  The snowy pasture was brightly lit by a big moon just past full.  At first I saw nothing, but I heard the echoing yips and howls of coyotes.  Moving to another window, I suddenly saw them.  Six or more dark forms ran back and forth, silhouetted against the whiteness of the snow.  Two were digging for voles.  Another lay down in the snow for a minute, then suddenly leaped up and danced about with another.  I watched them for several surreal, moonlit minutes.  Then gradually they dispersed, and finally all trailed off into the darkness.  Ghosts in the night.  It was a wild and beautiful sight.

January: the Wolf Moon.