Pumpkin-spice massacre

Halloween was last week, but when I came home yesterday I found a gruesome sight on my front steps.  It looked like the scene of horror film, with guts strewn everywhere and a pair of hollowed out corpses flanking the steps.

The victims of the massacre?  Pumpkins.

The perpetrators?  Squirrels.

Every year we put pumpkins on our porch as a fall decoration and every year the squirrels chew on them.  This year the squirrels have gotten much more industrious and have completely hollowed out two of the four pumpkins (so far).  The squirrels are not eating the flesh of the pumpkins at all - it is all about the seeds. 

I expect that when I get home tonight I will find that the other two pumpkins have also been hollowed out and all of the seeds nibbled upon.

Our squirrels are industrious and will take advantage of any food available to them.  I intend to plant several hundred tulip bulbs in our flower gardens this weekend and I expect the squirrels to take their toll on those as well.  

I just wish that they would have left the pumpkins alone until after Thanksgiving...

Trail camera pictures (December 2017)

I went this morning and removed my two trail cameras from Mission Creek Park.  Animal activity has decreased greatly in the past month.  During November the two cameras recorded over 1,600 pictures combined.  The same two cameras in December recorded less than 600 images.  Part of the difference was the primary deer rut (mating season) occurred in November; by December bucks had largely stopped chasing does so there was less deer movement overall.  A second factor affecting movement was increased activity at the park - Snow means crowds of people sledding!  Finally, snow and cold weather hinders the movement of many of the smaller animals that I typically capture on camera such as opossums, raccoons, and squirrels.

Here are a few of the images captured since December 1st. 

A buck chasing a pair of young does on 02 December

A small buck on 04 December

Snow fell on 09 December - it's still easy for squirrels to dig through at this point

A herd of does and fawns in deeper snow on 18 December

Deeper snow makes it more difficult for squirrels to search for hidden caches of nuts

With mating season mostly over bucks have started to form small groups - there was a group of three small bucks that appeared on camera several times over the past three weeks.

Another one of the three young bucks

 

The squirrels seemed to be spending as little time on the ground as possible

Late October afternoon (27 October 2017)

Yesterday, late in the day, I headed out to retrieve the memory cards from my trail cameras.  I had planned to leave them out until after November 1st, but given the opportunity I decided to retrieve them a few days early. 

This also gave me the opportunity to get a few pictures of the fall leaves.  Mid-Michigan is well past prime color.  Most of the trees have already changed color and dropped their leaves, but there are still opportunities to be found.

It was rather a dreary day, with overcast skies and flat light; not the best conditions for photography.  Add in the fact that by the time I got into the woods the sun was already getting low in the West.  Lower light levels meant longer exposure times.  I wasn't using a tripod so there was the good change that many of my pictures would end up being blurry.  Despite these challenges I was happy with my results.

Looking down into the swamp.

A black-phase grey squirrel.  These are becoming more and more common.

Sugar Maple leaves in the swamp.

A deer trail cuts through this edge of the swamp.

Ferns change color in the fall too.

A pop of red sticks out amid the many shades of brown.

Maidenhair ferns can be found along edges of the swamp

The park is surrounded on three side by private land.

Sugar maple leaves floating in a puddle.

Some maples are still hanging on to their leaves.

High-bush Cranberry adds its two shades of red to the swamp.

These berries will probably persist into the winter - birds eat them but only when other foods are gone.

Lichen adds its own shades of color to the swamp

Sugar Maples flank an Eastern Hemlock

Paper Birch bark and Sugar Maple leaves

The canopy around this large Sugar Maple is definitely thinned out.

Most leaves are now on the forest floor.

In the Fall Woods (01 October 2017)

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. 

It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?"

The above lines come from the classic novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery.  I must confess that I have never read this book, but this quote perfectly sums up how I feel about the month of October.

Long shadows are cast by the morning sun

Sunlight filters into the woods at Mission Creek Woodland Park

Joe-pye Weed stalks tower over the dying grasses and sedges

Backlit grasses, Joe-pye Weed, and tree trunks seen through a very light fog

A few asters are still blooming in the swamp

The sun shines through a Joe-pye Weed seed head

A deer trail through the dew-covered swamp

A backlit Red Maple leaf

Bottlebrush Grass (Elymus hystrix) covered with spider webs

From the canopy down - Swamp White Oak, Red Maple, American Hornbeam

The old flower stalk and seedhead of a Wild Leek - all that remains above ground of the plant until next spring.

A pair of Eastern Hemlock trees leans gracefully together without touching

This black-phase Grey Squirrel was busy feeding on the seeds of American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)

Seed-containing bracts of American Hornbeam

Another view of the American Hornbeam bracts

Rough-leaved Goldenrod blooms can still be found here-and-there in the swamp

Large swaths of ash trees in this swamp are dead - the victims of an Emerald Ash Borer infestation

Sensitive Ferns add their own color to the landscape

Red Maple leaves are currently turning (surprise!) red and falling to the ground

Bur Oak and other leaves on the forest floor

If you would like to read Anne of Green Gables or to download it as an audiobook, it can be found here.

Trail Camera Pictures (29 May - 14 June 2017)

Yesterday I retrieved memory cards from my trail cameras.  Here are pictures from one of the two cameras.

As always, there were dozens of pictures of squirrels on this camera.

Black phase Grey Squirrel

Fox Squirrel

There were also many White-tailed Deer of all ages and sizes.

One morning a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) showed up.  Frustratingly, it was too close to the camera so only its ears and the top of its head showed up in the picture!

Red Fox (just the ears are visible at the bottom of the picture)

A pair of fawns showed up on camera several times, both with their mother and on their own.  I assume the mother was just off camera when the fawns appeared on their own.

White-tailed doe and fawns

White-tailed fawns with no doe in sight

In addition to fawns, bucks showed up on a couple of occasions.  At this point their antlers are just developing.  One of the bucks (last year's fawn) had just little buttons, but the second buck (shown below) has antlers that are already beginning to fork.

White-tailed buck licking its hoof

The lighting in some of these photos is pretty incredible, especially in the early morning and evening when it slants in at a fairly low angle, lighting up the more open background and leaving much of the middle-ground and foreground in shade.  This combination of light and shadow adding depth to an image is know as chiaroscuro.  In Italian chiaro means "light" and scuro means "dark". 

Portrait of a Fox Squirrel - this image demonstrates the principle of chiaroscuro.

I did have one new species appear on the camera during this time period - a Woodchuck (Marmota monax) showed up on two consecutive days.

A Woodchuck crosses from right to left

A woodchuck perched on a log at the center of the frame

My favorite photos this time are this series of six pictures of one a fawn (one of a pair).  I really like the chiaroscuro effect of these pictures - it adds a feeling of drama as the fawn advances from the dark toward the light.