A Season of Bounty - The Sequel

Virtually all of the acorns have fallen now and, since there was not a super abundance, most have been eaten or buried for future use. As long as acorns were available, wildlife preferred them to apples – acorns contain a lot of fats and proteins compared to apples. By late October apples are once again the most abundant and easily obtained source of energy wherever there are apple trees.

For several weeks, as the acorns were dropping, most of the apple drops were left untouched except by the ants and yellowjackets that readily fed on the fruit. The ground was covered with fallen apples, only a few of which were in various stages of decay.

The camera traps didn't capture photos of any wildlife seeking apples. Then, over the course of only two or three days all the fallen apples disappeared. They disappeared into the white-tailed deer that had returned to feed on apples once again –

Now any fallen apples were vanishing each night as deer –

And gray fox came to eat –

An opossum also fed on fallen apples–

It was joined by another the next night –

Not to be outdone, a black bear also took part in the apple feast – fortunately it didn’t climb the tree and tear off limbs to get at more of the apples as bears frequently do –

Apparently this was not the bear that visited during the summer, that one had a tag in its right ear as can be seen in this post. But it may well have been the large male, with scars on his face, that the camera trap caught in the spring and whose photo can be seen here.

One night there were two gray foxes feeding on apples at the same time –

Now there are only a handful of apples on the tree; they will soon be gone and the season of bounty will be over.