At the Cave

For several years one of my camera traps was under a rock outcrop where it produced good photos of bobcats and black bear (the photos were posted here and here). Then, this spring the camera was discovered by several people who moved it, perhaps in an attempt to take it. When I saw those photos (here) I removed the camera and vowed to never put it back in that spot.

Eventually I found another spot that might be as good a location, a small “cave” between six and eight feet deep in a rock outcrop on a steep sidehill –

At the first check of the camera there were photos of a young porcupine, an opossum and, on two different days, a bobcat. Unfortunately a drooping dead branch detracted from the bobcat photos –

The camera trap was mounted on a steel concrete stake pounded into the rocky soil. As I approached the spot for the second check of the camera it was obvious that it was tilted far over.

As anyone who operates camera traps in bear country knows, bears play havoc with the units - which turned out to be the situation here. The photographs tell the story: first a black bear took a close look at the camera trap, tipped it somewhat and then spent a minute and a half near the cave entrance –

Eighteen days later a bear reappeared, moved the camera again and in the process provided but one photo: of its lips and some teeth –

From then until I got back to the spot weeks later the only photos the camera, now pointed toward the ground, took were of an eastern chipmunk, a white-footed mouse and the tail end of a raccoon –

All of my camera traps are in steel bear-boxes and secured to an immobile object with a cable lock; there wasn’t any damage to the camera trap, just missed photos. But that was the end of having this camera trap mounted on a stake, now it’s mounted on a nearby oak tree with the cable lock securing it to the tree.

A Day of Yellows

It’s close to mid-summer the time of almost constant sunshine interrupted by a few rainy days. On one of those many sunny days I walked through overgrown fields that were occasionally broken by wooded areas of various acreages and a small stream.

On that sunny day there was an abundance of yellows: yellow flowers and yellow creatures. Along an old road black-eyed susans bloomed in abundance –

And there were butterflies, mostly common sulfurs –

There were many other yellow flowers too: common mullein –

Yellow sweet clover –

And wild parsnip –

As well as that escaped agricultural plant, birdfoot trefoil –

A yellow bird of open country is the American goldfinch, here a male –

The stream had been dammed by beavers; the pond had large patches of emergent yellow flowers –

that proved to be those of greater bladderwort –

That pond was also the origin of two dragonflies with yellow abdominal spots that resembled each other but were actually females of two different species: holloween pennant –

And calico pennant –

The painted turtle that was near the pond might have been black on top, but its plastron was yellow –

The day’s final yellow was the center of the abundant flowers of daisy fleabane –

Unfortunately, the sunset that day wasn't yellow, just gray.

Chick in a Tree

During the first week of June 2015 I was following the boundary line between two properties; the boundary was easy to follow since there was a line of large old trees that had once constituted a fencerow between the tracts. Now the fields on either side of the line have reverted to forest –

From Penn Pilot

From Google Earth

A large bird flying low from one of those trees caught my attention; it quickly became apparent that this was a turkey vulture. Although turkey vultures do feed in dense woodland, it’s very difficult for them to fly between closely spaced trees.

Out of curiosity I walked toward the area where the vulture had taken flight – and there was a large tree containing several big holes. One of the openings was at waist level and provided a good view inside of what proved to be a totally hollow tree.

Turkey vultures are known to nest in hollow trees as well as rock crevasses and sure enough there was a turkey vulture nestling inside the hollow tree –

In 2016 I didn’t get back to the area, but in mid-June of this year I was nearby again and decided to take a look in the tree. A hiss greeted my peek into the hole in the tree trunk – a hiss from a nestling in the tree. This was another young turkey vulture, obviously older than the one I’d seen in 2015 –

There was a camera trap in the car, I decided to set it to capture photos of the adult coming to feed the young one and so mounted it on a nearby tree. When I retrieved the camera trap a couple of weeks later there were photos of the adult on the tree -

And entering the cavity-

And of the adult feeding the nestling (its white down can be seen in the hole) -

At this point the nestling had a face only a mother could love -

It was rapidly becoming fully feathered and would probably leave the nest before I had a chance to return, so I removed the camera trap -

A vulture nest I found in 1980 was also along a boundary line; that nest was in a small cave in a rock outcrop. The young birds were far back in the cave, small tufts of white fluff –

There's a real disincentive to entering a cave containing nestling vultures since their only defense is to regurgitate their most recent meal - ugh!

No, turkey vultures don't only nest along boundary lines; it’s just that walking boundary lines takes a person to places they might never visit otherwise.

Fern Fan

A fern fan I am. Ferns, those survivors from a time before humans, or even mammalian human ancestors walked the earth, are ignored by many people. Most of today’s ferns are small woodland plants that never flower. 

The ancestors of today’s ferns predate the evolution of flowering plants and get along quite nicely without flowers or seeds. Instead they reproduce by vegetative means or through spores; the spores are microscopic and winds easily carry them long distances – and thus begins a complicated reproductive process. Spores that land in a suitable location develop into a gametophyte where the male and female parts develop and fertilization takes place. The new plant then develops roots, a small stem and the first leaves.

Ferns and fern allies were the dominant plants during the Carboniferous period when they created the coal deposits modern civilization is utilizing and thus helping to cause a disastrous change in the earth’s climate. Here's a photograph of the fossilized stem of a large Carboniferous fern -

With the evolution of flowering plants ferns diminished until they are now small plants; most species subsist on the low light beneath the forests of flowering plants.

A plant that is often mistaken for a fern is the mis-named sweet-fern which is actually a shrub related to rhododendron and mountain laurel - 

A sampling of northeastern ferns reveals a great variety of shapes and sizes growing in diverse habitats, some don’t even fit the mental image of a fern –

Bracken grows on dry infertile sites, often in the sun, and is frequently more than two feet tall –  

Christmas fern is an evergreen fern of cool, moist forests. The pinnae (“leaflets”) have a lobe that some think resembles the toe of a Christmas stocking –

Cinnamon fern’s fertile fronds resemble cinnamon sticks, hence the name. This fern is usually found near springs or near the edge of wetlands – 

Ebony spleenwort, a small, although it may occasionally grow to be about a foot tall, fern with a very dark brown, not black, stem –

Hay-scented fern is the only fern of which I’m no fan. It forms widespread colonies as it rapidly spreads by way of horizontal underground rhizomes. These colonies are so large and dense that they (combined with deer browsing) have eliminated tree seedlings and wildflowers from extensive areas –

Interrupted fern was named because its fertile pinnae are found midway along the fronds –

Leathery grape fern is a plant of acidic soils low in nutrients; it often grows in disturbed habitats –

New York fern is one of the most common ferns in the northeast, not just in New York; its fronds typically taper at both ends –

Northern maidenhair fern is one of our most beautiful ferns; it grows on moist fertile soils –

Ostrich fern supplies the fiddleheads for spring meals. The fiddleheads are frequently picked and sold commercially –

Rattlesnake fern at first glance doesn’t look like a fern; its name derives from the spore bearing portion resembling a snake’s rattles –

Rock polypody forms dense caps on rocks, draping the rock with its evergreen fronds. It’s occasionally found growing on the limbs of very old trees.

Royal fern is another of our beautiful ferns and is found worldwide. Growing in wet areas it is also one of the largest ferns found in the northeast –

Sensitive fern turns brown and wilts at the first frost. It is thought that this species has existed in its present form for at least 60 million years –

Walking fern doesn’t get up and go, it “walks” when the tip of its very unfernlike fronds touch the ground, root and form new plants –

Yup, I’m a fan of these beautiful, complicated and ancient plants.