More Wildlife

Our trail cams have been busy catching interesting nocturnal visitors.

We have some of the best-fed rabbits around -- they love any landscaping I provide. (Although this year I found out that basil is not a preferred food -- I hope to use it this year to protect my asparagus.)

Raccoons are also regular visitors.

Deer are common, but this is the only time we've seen three in the photo at one time.

Foxes come by regularly, but they are usually moving too fast to get a good picture.

If only this one had stepped just a bit further into the frame! (He did, but was going too fast to get a good photo.)

Coyotes are seen (and heard) almost every night. They know how to pose for the camera.

A pair of coyotes in snow.

A bear ambles through the woods about once a month. Usually attracted to our neighbor's garbage which is about 100 yards behind the camera. (We have bear-resistant trash cans, which have never been opened, but have been scratched by claws and pierced by teeth.)

It's not all wildlife. One of the cameras isn't functioning as it should be, so we had it set to take a picture every 10 minutes. On several nights it caught Venus rising in the east.

Owl Boxes and More

We never got around to mounting the owl box we got last Christmas (thanks, Josh!), and for Christmas this year we got a second owl box (thanks, Pat!). So with our two sons visiting between Christmas and New Year's, it was time to get them mounted.

One of the most difficult things was to find suitable trees. An owl box should face east, to be sheltered from the prevailing winds, and have some branches for owlets to grip as they fledge (learn to fly). It's also a challenge to get these rather large structures 20 feet off the ground.

The first owl house is sized for a small owl, such as a screech owl. We occasionally hear screech owls, and far more rarely saw-whet owls, so we hope someone will call this box home this spring.

We placed it about 15 feet up in a small-ish white oak.

The second owl box is significantly bigger and is sized for barn owls (or barred owls or great horned owls). We hear barred owls frequently, and also an occasional great horned owl. Again, we hope for residents this spring. Plans for this owl box can be found on the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society's web site.

This box is located about 20 feet high in a large white pine along a sheltered creek.

It wasn't all owls. Here are two more pictures from the week.

Lon moved some firewood off the concrete slab below our deck. It was filled with thousands of Asian multicolored lady beetles looking for winter shelter.

Amos and Maria investigate a low-lying small bird nest.

Wildlife

While we were away, our wildlife cameras kept on recording (and recording and recording). Here are some highlights.

We know we have bobcats in the area, but our cameras rarely catch one. The past two weeks have seen a bobcat regularly pass the cameras -- caught on "film" eight times.

I have the cameras set to take three quick consecutive shots. Mostly they catch the animal walking towards or away from the camera, but here a coyote decides to sit down and take a scratch. (There's also a sequence of a coyote taking a dump, but I passed on that one!)

Coyotes seem to be aware of the camera, they frequently turn and stare straight into the IR beam.

A rare daytime shot of a coyote.

Bird photos can get pretty strange at times, but this one nicely caught a northern flicker (the yellow-shafted variant) on a fly-by.

Manatee Springs State Park

Waves, Swamps, & Bayous: Southeastern Waters - Part 13

Sunday, 18 November 2018

After snorkeling at Crystal River, we camped for the night at Manatee Springs State Park. This park lies along the Suwannee River, about 20 river-miles inland from the Gulf. As the name states, it has a large spring, one of the largest in Florida, and in the winter manatees come into the spring for warmth. Right now the manatees were in the river and had not yet come into the springs.

The namesake spring, Manatee Springs, is a first-magnitude spring (by definition, greater than 100 ft³/s) that outflows about 100 million gallons per day. The water temperature is 72°F (22°C) all year long. Manatees cannot tolerate water colder than 68°F (20°C), so they come into the springs in the winter.

The area is prone to major floods.

Sue and cypress knees.

Where the creek from the spring meets the Suwannee River.

Hundreds (thousands?) of turkey vultures roost along the banks of the Suwannee.

While filling an essential ecological niche, vultures are ugly birds!

A sleeping manatee briefly surfaces to breathe, ...

... then immediately slips underwater and drifts with the slow river current.

DeSoto Caverns

Waves, Swamps, & Bayous (& Drips): Southeastern Waters - Part 15

Friday, 23 November 2018

The day after Thanksgiving. The non-shoppers decided to take a tour of the local DeSoto Caverns in Childersburg, Alabama. We’ve been there once before, but the kids did not remember it, so it was time to take another look.

Enjoying the main room of the cave.

The main room of the cave is impressive: 120 ft high and 300 ft long. It was a sacred site for the local native Americans, but was abused by generations of white Americans.

A flowstone formation in the main room.

A flowstone stalagmite growing the on the floor of the main room.

Drapes in the back chamber.

More drapes in the back chamber.

DeSoto Caverns is very definitely a commercial cave. The tour concludes with a music and laser show that really adds little to the cave experience, but does change each month to bring back repeat visitors.

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

Waves, Swamps, & Bayous: Southeastern Waters - Part 14

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

We visited the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge hoping to see the sandhill cranes. We did, from a distance -- there were four cranes in a large pen getting adjusted to their new home before being released to survive on their own in the wild. (The released birds have a 90% survival rate.) Instead, we discovered that the Refuge is filled with insectivorous (“carnivorous”) plants.

We walked the C.L. Dees Nature Trail along the bayou.

Another section of the bayou.

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) has an interesting life history. As a seedling (left), it grows very slowly for 5 to 7 years, developing a deep tap root and surviving low-intensity forest fires. Then in one or two years it shoots up to 6 to 8 feet tall (right) and is tall enough to survive low-intensity fires and eventually can grow into a mature tree, which is quite fire-resistant.

There are ten species of carnivorous plants in the Refuge. The tall trumpet-style pitcher plants (Sarracenia spp.) were plentiful.

A closer look at a trumpet pitcher plant.

The parrot beak pitcher plant (Sarracenia psittacina) has leaves that lie horizontal.

There were two types of sundews -- plants that catch insects on their sticky leaves. This is the dwarf sundew (Drosera brevifolia).

Tracy's sundew (Drosera tracyi) doesn’t look like a sundew at first glance until you get up close on the leaves (right).

In addition to pitcher plants and sundews, the Refuge also has butterworts and bladderworts. That’s quite a collection of insectivorous plants!

Swimming with Manatees

Waves, Swamps, & Bayous: Southeastern Waters - Part 12

Sunday, 18 November 2018

I was a bit uneasy at the thought of snorkeling around marine mammals that weigh in at well over 1000 pounds, but that proved to be a baseless worry. Manatees eat, sleep, and, occasionally, reproduce. I thought they look like large rocks, but our guide called them extremely large potatoes that have to come up to breathe every few minutes.

We were on a tour with Bird’s Underwater Dive Shop in Crystal River, Florida. It’s weird snorkeling through canals with houses on both sides -- the homes were here before the manatees were protected.

We also snorkeled in the Three Sisters Spring. When around manatees, you just float on the surface, and use your arms to swim around. If you kick with your legs you may make too much noise and disturbance, which annoys the manatees. We were not allowed to have fins on our feet.

Lon comes up to a manatee. Manatees can sprint if necessary, but mostly they swim slowly, if at all.

The white pipe marks the limit for snorkeling (“Area closed Manatee resting area” is written on the pipe.) 

It’s okay if a manatee approaches you, but you cannot initiate contact.

Manatees have absurdly small front flippers.

Our guide managed to get photos of everyone on our tour.

Bird’s Underwater Dive Shop was an excellent choice for our manatee tour. I took the fourth and fifth photos above; all the others were taken by our guide, Rob.

While returning from our snorkeling, we saw a number of birds:

Osprey

Brown pelican

Double-crested cormorant